Islanders bring new status into latest showdown with Rangers

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Players can’t be too focused on the big picture of a season, and forget them seeing a picture that includes about a decade of the same storyline.

But it seems that, at least through the first half of this season, the roles between the big-brother Rangers and the little-brother Islanders have been somewhat reversed.

Again, it’s only been half a season, but going into this home-and-home that starts Thursday night at the Garden and then goes to what could be the final game between these two at Barclays Center on Saturday, the Islanders are the ones in playoff contention while the Rangers are just trying to keep their season relevant through the winter.

Like that will really matter when the puck actually drops.

“I think there have been years when one team is out of it, but you still get up for these games,” Islanders forward Josh Bailey said after his team’s practice on Wednesday. “They’re still exciting. It means a lot to both fan bases. There is a certain energy around the game. It definitely gets you amped up, no matter what the situation.”

The situation is that the Rangers are coming off a three-game western trip that saw them lose all three, extending their losing streak to four games by an aggregate goal total of 22-5. They were brutal in consecutive 6-1 and 5-0 losses in Denver and Arizona, respectively, and then finally pulled together a semblance of pride in a 4-2 loss in Vegas on Tuesday night.

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“We obviously don’t feel good in here,” defenseman Brady Skjei said after the game, his team getting Wednesday off to recuperate. “But [Tuesday] night’s game was a step in the right direction.”

The Islanders, meanwhile, just had their good roll come to an end. A 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes at the Coliseum on Tuesday night ended a six-game winning streak. They had won nine of the previous 10, but coach Barry Trotz expected more from his team than consecutive sloppy performances, going back to a 4-3 win in St. Louis on Saturday that was gifted to them by the emerging No. 1 goalie, Robin Lehner.

“We just have to clean up,” Trotz said after he ran his team through some battle drills on Wednesday and made his players do push-ups on the ice. “We had a little meeting on our decision-making process, and worked on a couple things we need to get better at.”

Trotz came in this summer soon after Lou Lamoriello was named team president, and the two have helped turn around the franchise. Without much turnover in personnel, they went from dead last in the league in goals-against per game to fourth best. They play with a defined structure that was missing for years under Jack Capuano and Doug Weight. Maybe most important, the young core of players is buying into the new culture — even if Trotz admitted they’re not exactly on the verge of being Stanley Cup contenders.

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“Now it’s to get ourselves to the final level, there in the playoffs, year in and year out. And grow to hopefully be a contender down the road,” Trotz said. “But we still have lots of work, and probably a year or two away. But I think this year, the guys are believing they’re a team that should be in the mix, and we will be in the mix.”

The Rangers also have a new coach in David Quinn, but his résumé is quite different. Where Trotz was coming off a Stanley Cup victory with the veteran Capitals, Quinn came in from Boston University with the direct intent to help drive this rebuilding process that began in earnest around this time last year.

The Blueshirts still will look to add young assets before the Feb. 25 trade deadline, but they will just as surely go into this two-game set knowing that a couple of points could be a much-needed boost in morale.

Boy, that’s what the Islanders always used to say, wasn’t it?

“It’s Game 42 for us, but it’s as close to a playoff-type atmosphere you’re going to get at this point in the season,” said Islanders forward Matt Martin. “We want to put them behind us, keep climbing the standings. Not that we want to worry about the teams behind us, but we don’t want to give them any life.”