PHILADELPHIA — Monday night’s game against the Flyers carried dramatic implications for the Islanders’ playoff chances and, by extension, the future of the core that has made up this era of the team’s history.
Matt Martin, whose contract expires following this season, might be a part of that change regardless, depending whether he decides to return for another bite at the apple.
But the 34-year-old’s focus is on making sure this chance at a playoff run is still a good one.
Unlike Zach Parise a year ago, who spoke freely about how hard it would be to decide whether to keep playing, Martin and his forever linemate Cal Clutterbuck are content to keep private their thoughts about their respective futures.
“Honestly, it’s not something that I’m struggling to sleep at night over,” Martin told The Post before the 4-3 overtime win in which he scored the opener for the Islanders. “You focus on the task at hand and keep your mind where it needs to be. Zach, myself, Cal, we’ve all been in this league for a long time. You’ve trained yourself, essentially, to focus on the present. That’s what you do.
“When you talk about Zach, you saw it when the season ended last year where that emotion came out of him. But I was never sitting across the room from him feeling like there was a lot on his mind. I think he and everyone else in here is well-trained to focus on the present and what needs to happen today.”
Should the Islanders fail to make the playoffs, it would be even harder to see Martin returning.
The expiration of his deal would feel like a natural breaking point for a player who has meant the world to the franchise but whose game has started to slow.
He would not be the only one in that category.
Even in the event of a playoff berth, the Islanders will need to start to mold their roster to fit coach Patrick Roy’s system as opposed to the remnants of what Barry Trotz preached.
There was a fair argument for running it back last season.
Doing so again would feel like willing submission to inertia, unless there is a miracle playoff run around the corner.
“We’ve been through coaching changes, multiple of them. It’s always been on the players to be honest with you. Now, it’s definitely on the players next,” Martin said. “We know that. We understand how the business works. Management, Lou, the ownership, the Islanders as a franchise, want to win. If there’s changes that are gonna be made that are gonna help the team win, they are gonna be made. It’s our job to go out there.
“A lot can be forgotten if we find our way to the playoffs, right? It’s been a down year, obviously. It’s just looking for that opportunity to get to the dance and go from there.”
It is really only by virtue of other teams struggling through a mess of a wild-card race that the Islanders still have a shot.
But it is true that their regular-season record would not matter if they got in.
It is true that another chance at a run would mean everything to a group that still feels it has something to prove.
And it is true that the Islanders, as ever, believe in their own capabilities, whatever refutation the standings offer.
Whether that counts for anything in reality is a matter of debate.
But stranger things have happened.
No outcomes here are inevitable.
“We’ve been fortunate that no one has pulled away,” Martin said. “And we have a chance to right some wrongs and get into the playoffs. Start fresh from there and try to make some noise, which we’ve been capable of doing, obviously, in the past. That’s where the mindset is as a group.”
After a first period in which coach Patrick Roy kept his configuration the same as how the Islanders finished their loss in Tampa on Saturday, he reunited Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat, with Casey Cizikas completing the trio on the left wing.
Almost immediately, it resulted in a goal, with Barzal feeding Horvat off the rush 12:21 into the second period.
“I felt like it was time to do it,” Roy said. “And when they scored that first one I think we needed a bit of a spark and was hoping that would do it for us. … We needed to create something and I thought having Bo and Barzy back together was probably the best thing to do.”
Horvat’s goal was his 30th of the season and the 500th point of his career.
