Second-place Islanders can start dreaming big - New York Post

The Islanders took a circuitous route to the NHL’s Christmas break, but they’ve ended up in about as good a destination as they could have hoped.

Sole possession of second place, with their playoff chances looking pretty good even in a tight Metropolitan Division, is an excellent place to be for a team that spent all of last season fighting for a wild-card berth and was projected to do the same this time around.

With a 16-8-9 record, the Islanders have lost more games than they have won.

But they’ve found the best version of themselves recently, collecting points in 17 of their last 19 games and putting together an excellent few weeks heading into the holidays.

There is still a lot of time left, but the Islanders can start dreaming of home-ice advantage in the first round, and maybe even beating the rival Rangers — currently ahead of them by six points — to the Metropolitan Division crown.

The Post recaps the pre-holiday portion of the schedule.

Best win: 3-2 over the Kings on Dec. 9

Just four nights removed from blowing a late lead in spectacular fashion, and throwing into doubt the progress they appeared to make over the prior couple weeks, the Islanders fought back in the third period to beat one of the best teams in the league.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau came up with the overtime winner after Anders Lee’s pair of goals tied it in the third period, and the Islanders ended up getting their second of four straight wins at home.

Worst loss: 5-4 against the Sharks on Dec. 5

The way the Islanders recovered from this loss blunts its impact a bit.

But allowing three straight goals in the third period at home to blow a 4-1 lead against a team with the worst points percentage in the league is hard to beat.

The Islanders have lost a lot of games in spectacular fashion, but none have been worse than this one, with William Eklund’s overtime winner providing the death blow.

Surprise impactful player: Simon Holmstrom

Already in 32 games, Holmstrom has easily surpassed his scoring output in 50 games last season.

As a rookie, he struggled to make an impact in the offensive zone, with the selling point of his game being responsible two-way play.

This year, Holmstrom has shown off high-end shooting ability — his shooting percentage of 30.3 leads the league — and developed a penchant for shorthanded goals, with five already.

He’s quickly become a key part of the everyday lineup for the Islanders, as well as their future.

MVP: Noah Dobson

There’s no argument here.

Dobson is eating minutes to the tune of 25:46 a night, dealing with the toughest matchups and averaging over a point per game.

The Islanders simply would not have survived their spate of injuries on the back end — Adam Pelech, Scott Mayfield, Ryan Pulock and Sebastian Aho have all spent time on IR, with the first three all out right now — without Dobson.

On his current pace, Dobson isn’t just contending for the Norris, but putting together the best season for an Islanders’ defenseman since Denis Potvin.

Developing story: Zach Parise’s return

Parise has been skating on his own in Minneapolis for some time now and recently ramped up his training.

It’s not clear when he plans to make a decision on whether to return to the NHL, but expectation is starting to coalesce around a return.

If that is indeed the direction he goes — and if, as expected, he comes back to the Islanders — it would be a great story with real fallout for an Islanders team that already has to make tough decisions on who to play every night.

It would also probably help them, given that Parise scored 21 goals last season at age 38.

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