The Carolina Hurricanes have taken one important step, but they clearly want to accomplish more in the final weeks of the regular season.
They’ll have a chance to do that when the New York Islanders visit for Saturday night’s game in Raleigh, N.C.
The Hurricanes (48-21-6, 102 points) will play their first game since clinching a playoff spot with Thursday night’s 5-1 home victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“There hasn’t been that many downs, to be quite honest,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve played pretty consistently throughout this year, and I think that shows.”
This is the eighth consecutive season that the Hurricanes have qualified for the postseason.
“You have to be good for six months,” Brind’Amour said of the achievement of withstanding the physical and mental grind. “We’ve got to finish out the year hard and get across the finish line (of the regular season) the best that we can.”
The Islanders (42-30-5, 89 points) are teetering on the Eastern Conference playoff line, and they’ll take a three-game losing streak into Saturday’s game. They lost 4-1 at home to the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night.
Islanders coach Patrick Roy said the team needs to take care of its own business without being distracted by results of other games.
“Everybody is watching every game. Everybody is watching the standings,” Roy said. “At the end of the day, it’s about what you do. … If you start thinking about what’s happening around you, this is where problems start.”
During their current skid, they’ve been outscored 16-7.
The Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes still are in a battle for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, so there’s more to accomplish.
“There’s always room to improve, and hopefully we can keep it going and be even better coming down the stretch,” Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said.
Carolina allowed only 10 shots on goal by Columbus, matching the fewest allowed in franchise history.
The Hurricanes, who’ve won three of their last four games, have received regular contributions from captain Jordan Staal, who played in his 1,400th career game Thursday.
“He’s the leader of all that,” Brind’Amour said.
The Hurricanes insist they don’t want to let up, particularly with the chance to secure the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
“This year is a unique opportunity again,” Aho said.
For the Islanders, Saturday marks the third set of games on back-to-back days in a two-week period. Goalie Ilya Sorokin has handled both ends of those in both previous cases, going 1-1 in the back ends of those assignments. He has played in 10 consecutive games, though Roy was non-committal on the team’s goalie plan for Saturday.
Roy said New York likely will be without defenseman Tony DeAngelo, a former Hurricane dealing with a lower-body injury, for the Carolina trip.
The Hurricanes topped the Islanders 6-2 on Oct. 30. Despite the gap in the schedule, there might not be any surprises Saturday night.
“There are no secrets,” Brind’Amour said. “Everybody knows what everybody is doing. You got to go talk about execution. You’ve got to go do it.”
The Islanders and Hurricanes also will meet in the regular-season finale April 14.
