Plenty of options for the spot in the Islanders’ season when things looked their bleakest.
There was the overtime loss in Chicago on Jan. 19, after which Lane Lambert was fired and replaced by Patrick Roy with the team at 19-15-11.
There was the Stadium Series collapse against the Rangers in mid-February, the most emotionally gutting defeat in a season full of them.
There was the six-game losing streak in March that immediately followed a six-game winning streak, after which the Islanders’ playoff hopes appeared to be circling the drain.
But there is no arguing the moment when things looked their brightest.
Right now.
The Islanders partied like it was 2007 on Monday night as they clinched a playoff berth and third place in the Metropolitan Division by defeating the Devils, 4-1, at Prudential Center, culminating a chase that had rocked back and forth enough to induce seasickness in unsuspecting fans by giving them something to celebrate.
Some triumphalism on the part of Roy and general manager Lou Lamoriello would be well-earned, with the head coach helping engineer a turnaround that has seen the Islanders recover their ability to grind out victories in the nick of time.
For all the hand-wringing about keeping the core together and the lack of personnel moves both over the summer and at the trade deadline, Lamoriello’s Islanders are in the playoffs for a fifth time in the six years that he has been the general manager.
And the way they are playing right now, with a 7-0-1 record over their last eight games, nobody should view them as an easy out.
Shift by shift, this was not the greatest game the Islanders have played.
But this has been an eight-game run during which the whole has outweighed the sum of the parts, and so too was Monday night.
On the ice from Long Island
Sign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.
Thank you
Despite never putting together much offense or extended zone time, this game never looked out of control for the visiting Islanders, who played with all the poise necessary to beat a Devils side whose season had long gone haywire.
Unlike 2007, there was no poke check necessary to secure a playoff berth at The Rock.
The closest the Devils got was on Timo Meier’s goal 3:25 into the second that made it 2-1, but Brock Nelson extended the lead back to two by corralling a loose puck in the slot and whipping it in at the 11:48 mark.
The penalty kill, often at the center of the Islanders’ problems, particularly in three losses to the Devils this year, put an exclamation mark on a perfect night in the third, with Kyle Palmieri contributing a kick save in the only hairy moment across all three kills.
Shortly afterward, Kyle MacLean — who was a question mark until game time with illness — cut out the suspense by finishing Anders Lee’s feed off the rush.
This wasn’t the prettiest 4-1 lead.
But it may have been the sweetest.
It had taken the Islanders 12:22 into the night to muster their first shot on net, but it just so happened to be a goal, with Jean-Gabriel Pageau putting away Pierre Engvall’s feed on a two-on-one break.
A little more than four minutes later, Palmieri broke a power-play drought that had been hanging over the Isles by tipping in Mike Reilly’s shot from the blue line, taking some needed weight off the unit’s shoulders.
With Noah Dobson not traveling to Newark on Monday and his status a question mark for Wednesday and beyond, proving that they can be functional at five-on-four without him was a must.
The Islanders checked that box, alongside a much bigger one.