Islanders hoping and needing to get on a roll with losing streak behind them

To hear Bo Horvat, the tangible reward for the Islanders earning two points is important. The intangible reward for having their work validated was significant

Now it is paramount that they develop some positive traction.

"We just got to keep it going now,” Horvat said following a 50-minute practice Tuesday at Northwell Health Ice Center. “It can’t be a one-off. Just got to keep those good games rolling.”

Entering Wednesday night’s home game against the Flyers, the Islanders (6-6-5,17 points) are in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division, but are coming off a 5-4 shootout win Saturday night which snapped a seven-game losing streak.

“It’s important, obviously, for a number of different reasons,” Lane Lambert said, when asked if he had a sense of what the win meant for his group’s collective psyche. “We’ve been playing good hockey and not really getting rewarded . . .  It was nice to see. Nice for the guys. They deserve it."

To a man, the Islanders felt that they should have left Vancouver and Seattle — both 4-3 overtime losses — with wins. And Lambert reiterated that their play at five-on-five and on the power play was strong.

The statistical evidence backs up the coach and his players. The Islanders scored one goal on 27 even-strength shots against the Canucks, as well as going 2-for-2 on the power play. Against the Kraken, the Islanders were 2-for-6 on the power play and scored one five-on-five goal on 17 shots.

However the problem all season has been the penalty kill. The Islanders surrendered six goals on 10 power plays in the two games.

“Our penalty kill let us down a couple times,” Scott Mayfield said. The Islanders’ 69.5% success rate is second-worst in the NHL, ahead of only Minnesota (65.5%).

“That’s on me and the guys [on the penalty-killing units],” Mayfield said. “It’s tough when something like that is letting you down, it’s hard to say you deserve more points. But it is something that you fix [and] there are a couple more points.”

The positives are that the Islanders do have time to fix what ails them and that they have navigated difficult stretches recently with positive results. Despite dropping 11 of 15 this past January, the Islanders were able to rally and qualified for a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Can that experience inspire this season's Islanders?

“A little bit different,” Brock Nelson said  about commonalities between last January’s slide and what the Islanders are going through now. “The results, I don’t know if they are comparable or not but it’s just a tough stretch. Call it what it is. There’s no real good time to go through a tough stretch, but there’s still a lot of hockey left to be played.

“In a couple games [on the road trip] everybody felt like they had better fates or better outcomes right there but didn’t get them. So for us, we continue to build and [if] we get on a roll another way to offset it, I think we can get right back in the mix.”

Notes & quotes: Matt Martin (upper-body injury) did not practice, but did skate on his own. Lambert said, “To be determined,” when asked if Martin could play against the Flyers. Martin has missed the last two games.