The New York Islanders spent the last two weeks far away from home confirming their status as a fading playoff contender.
The Buffalo Sabres barely had to leave the Eastern time zone to continue one of the most surprising in-season comebacks in memory.
The Islanders will finally return home Saturday afternoon, when they host the red-hot Sabres in a battle of teams occupying Eastern Conference playoff spots.
The Islanders last played Wednesday, when they concluded a seven-game road trip by falling to the Seattle Kraken 4-1. The Sabres continued a five-game trek Thursday by beating the Montreal Canadiens 4-2.
The Islanders finished 3-3-1 on a Western Conference road trip that began with a 2-1 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators on Jan. 8 and ended with New York splitting four games against four of the NHL’s western-most teams — the Kraken as well as the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks.
While the Islanders slipped from second place to third in the Metropolitan Division, they were four points clear of the fourth-place Philadelphia Flyers heading into play Friday.
New York missed the playoffs by nine points last season, when it finished 12th in the East.
“I thought we had a chance tonight to win a hockey game and go home with a pretty decent trip,” Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “Losing tonight, I think (the trip) was just OK.”
The Islanders’ mood will be improved by the sight of Bo Horvat taking the ice Saturday after he missed the previous nine games with a lower body injury. Horvat also was sidelined for five games last month due to a separate lower body injury that occurred against the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 11.
Despite the absences, Horvat still leads the Islanders with 21 goals — seven more than Emil Heineman.
“It’s nice to have him back,” Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said of Horvat following practice Friday. “The guys did a really good job while he wasn’t playing.”
Nobody has done a better job of playing over the last six weeks than the Sabres, who have gone 17-3-1 since Dec. 9 to vault from last place in the East into the top wild card spot as they sat four points ahead of the ninth-place Toronto Maple Leafs as of Friday.
The Sabres, whose 14-season playoff drought is the longest in NHL history, have further improved their positioning by going 6-2-1 since Jan. 8, when they were in ninth place in the East and one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins in the race for the second wild card.
With Thursday’s wire-to-wire win, the Sabres inched within two points of the Canadiens for third place in the Atlantic Division. Buffalo has a game in hand.
“We know how much the game meant to us. Montreal knows how much the game means to them,” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. “You can win a game, you can have the run we have and you’re sitting two points inside a playoff race. It’s good training for high-intensity games.”
The schedule will remain travel-friendly for the Sabres, whose trip to Nashville for a 5-3 win over the Predators on Jan. 20 marks their last time out of the Eastern time zone until Mar. 17, when Buffalo begins a four-game Pacific Division swing by visiting the Vegas Golden Knights.
