Isles- Caps tonight

If it seems like it has been a long time since the Isles played, it has been -- they just finished three straight days without a game for the first time (other than the mandated Christmas break) since November 24th-26th.

Of course, other teams did play and rack up points so the Isles find themselves in 14th place in the East; they are 9 points out of 10th-13th (four teams tied) and 12 points out of a playoff spot.

Despite all of the time off, only Philadelphia, New Jersey and Toronto have played as many games (57) as the Isles in the Eastern Conference and nobody has played more.

Right now it looks like you may need about 92 points to get into the playoffs (the bottom playoff teams are six points over NHL -.500 with 1/3 of a season to play) so the Isles will likely need something similar to a 21-4 run to get them there.

Howie and Butch have the night off (again) -- NBCSN has the Isles for the third time in the last six games.  Dave Strader and Brian Engblom will have the call from coast to coast in both the US and (on TSN2) in Canada.  Face-off should be right about 7:40pm.

In the sad but true category -- the Isles played 111 games in 54 weeks ending on Friday (105 regular season games + 6 playoffs); they will play as few as 25 (regular season) games in the next 35 weeks.

 
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick