NHL clinching scenarios 2024: How does New York Islanders' road to playoffs look like?

“We’ve kind of gotten kicked in the nuts a few times this year,” Kyle Palmieri said. “So I think for us, we’re gonna fight and claw our way.The New York Islanders are in a fight for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders are coming off a 2-0 win over the Nashville Predators and have improved to 35-27-15, amassing 85 points. The win over Predators marked a four-game winning streak for the team.

Kyle Palmieri talked about the win over the Predators, via nypost.com:

“We’ve kind of gotten kicked in the nuts a few times this year. So I think for us, we’re gonna fight and claw our way.”

With 85 points, the Islanders are one point above Detroit Red Wings (84), and two points clear of Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins. All four teams have played 77 games each.

New York Islanders' playoff chances

The New York Islanders are aiming to solidify the final playoff spot in the Metropolian Division with the Rangers and Hurricanes already having clinched their spots from the Division.

MoneyPuck gives the Islanders a 59.2% chance of making the playoffs. Their playoff odds are now higher than the Detroit Red Wings (51.6%), Capitals (25.8%) and Penguins (38.3%).

The Islanders have five more games left in the regular season. With matchups against the Rangers (twice), Canadiens, Devils and Penguins, the Isles will look to lock-in their playoff spot over the next couple games.

New York Islanders' win over Preds gave their playoff chances a big boost

Semyon Varlamov's 41-save shutout helped the Isles get the 2-0 win over Predators. Head coach Patrick Roy credited his netminder and said -

“Our goalie gave us a chance to win this game tonight. He won the game for us tonight."

Varlamov spoke about his 41-save night and said -

“Couple times I thought I got lucky. They missed, I feel like, a [bunch of] chances, opportunities. Luck was definitely on my side today, which is good. I’ll take that any day.”

Veteran Kyle Palmieri talked about the young Islanders team and said -

“As much as people think the locker room can get stale, we have some fresh blood in here. I think for people, we care a lot about each other and what we do away from the ice for each other. I think that’s qualities of a good team. We enjoy coming to the rink and competing with each other every day.”