Islanders put in the work to earn nice bounce-back win

There are just over three weeks until the trade deadline, meaning a lot can happen between now and the end of the season.

But the Islanders are on their first-place perch without pretense, without the feeling they have fallen backward into this position. There is a realistic pragmatism to them that seems to follow team president Lou Lamoriello around, so maybe they know they’re not the best, but they also know they deserve to be where they are.

“I’ll tell you this — if you don’t show up to work in this business, you’re not going to have success,” coach Barry Trotz said after his team’s 4-2 win over the Kings at the Coliseum on Saturday night. “Luck really doesn’t follow you in this league a whole lot. It might follow you for a game or two, but it’s not going to follow you for a season. You have to work in this league.”

And so the Islanders (30-15-6) keep on working, showing up every day with a blue-collar mentality that supplements a smattering of high-end skill. When the Kings (20-27-4) went up 3-2 on a goal off the skate of Ilya Kovalchuk with 6:45 remaining in regulation, the Isles answered with a Mathew Barzal tally just 31 seconds later to tie it.

It set up the game-winner on an artful deflection off the leg of Michael Dal Colle with 2:23 remaining, finished with an empty-netter by Brock Nelson.

“Instead of getting discouraged, we got determined,” Trotz said. “To me, that’s a sign of growth for us.”

Barzal’s line generally struggled, and it was far from a flawless performance in their own end. But goalie Robin Lehner followed up his honor as the league’s second star of January with a 34-save performance. By hanging in, they gave themselves a chance. No surprise for how things are going right now, they took advantage.

“We have a foundation, we have a plan,” forward Cal Clutterbuck said. “If we just go out and execute it — which we’ve been pretty diligent in doing — we just give ourselves a chance to win. Sometimes you have to win it in the last two minutes, and sometimes you can get out to an early lead and do it that way. But we’re always in it. We always have a chance.”

The Isles came out of the 10-day break with a terrific game against the first-overall Lightning on Friday night, eventually ending in a 1-0 shootout loss. On the second leg of a back-to-back, they came out relatively steady, trading first-period goals from Casey Cizikas and Anze Kopitar, eventually going into the third tied 1-1.

But they knew what they needed to do to have success, and that meant work hard. It’s exactly what they’ve been doing since Dec. 15, from which a record of 16-3-2 has vaulted them into this lofty position.

“With how skilled the league is, and how fast it is, and how many players are high-skill in the league, the bottom line is it’s still a workman’s league,” Trotz said. “The teams that are willing to work, and use their skill sets, then you can win. If you get away from that, just the pure work ethic and accountability and detail, you’re not going to have success in this league. You might win some games, but you won’t really make any damage when it all matters.”

That last part — “when it really matters” — is something Trotz knows well. He did win a Stanley Cup this past season with the Capitals. This Islanders team would just like to get to the playoffs first, then see what happens.

It’s still a long way off, but if they get there, the recipe for success won’t change.

“Everyone has their own opinion. Everyone values and ranks teams a different way. That’s out of our control,” Clutterbuck said. “All I know is that we’re pretty confident with our abilities in here. That’s the only thing that’s really important.”