If there was a way to rank the New York Islanders regular season on a craziness scale from 1-10 (10 being the craziest) I do not think there would be anyone who doesn’t give it a perfect 10 for the most chaotic season of all time. The best part you may ask. It isn’t done just yet.

After going on a 6-game winning streak around the time of the trade deadline, the Islanders responded with a 6-game losing streak right after. When all hope seemed to be lost on a second straight postseason appearance, Thursday night happened. Going into Thursday night’s matchup against the Florida Panthers, the Islanders were 6 points behind the Washington Capitals for the final wildcard spot with the Detroit Red Wings also being 4 points ahead of them and all three teams playing on Thursday. The Islanders prevailed to a very impressive 3-2 win over the 7th best team in the league with the Capitals and Red Wings getting absolutely dominated in their matchups. This pulled the Islanders 4 points behind the Capitals and 2 points behind the Red Wings.

The win was highlighted by a stellar goaltending performance from backup Semyon Varlamov. Star goaltender Ilya Sorokin who has not been himself this year posting a 3.08 GAA and a .907 SV% was given the night off due to poor performance and possibly giving the Islanders a “new life” with starting their backup. This plan certainly succeeded, and the team was feeling it after the game. According to beat writer Stefan Rosner, after the game the Islanders played the song “Revival” by Zach Bryan hinting that this could be the start of reviving their playoff hopes.

The road trip in the sunshine state is not done yet because on Saturday night they will make their way to Amalie Arena to face off against the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning in another must win game for the group. There will certainly be speculation on whether head coach Patrick Roy will go back to Varlamov to start the game to possibly keep the “revival” going. As the regular season is coming to an end, it will be interesting to see whether the Islanders can make it back to the playoffs.