After the Islanders snatched a somewhat improbable victory over the Rangers Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, they pulled another surprise Thursday, recalling goalie Jaroslav Halak from AHL Bridgeport.
With the Isles heading into a pair of critical games on consecutive nights — in Pittsburgh on Friday and versus Boston in Brooklyn on Saturday — Halak figures to play in the next few days.
The goalie was sent down on Dec. 31 because of subpar play amid a logjam of three goalies on the Isles roster.
Since then, interim coach Doug Weight has ridden starting goalie Thomas Greiss hard out of necessity as Jean-Francois Berube has struggled in a limited role. Berube has started just once since Feb. 19, a disastrous 8-4 loss to Carolina on March 13 in which he surrendered four goals on 13 shots.
With the Isles scrambling to get to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, they’ve decided they can’t play Greiss every game, nor can they trust Berube. So here’s Halak.
“This is playoff hockey for us,” Anders Lee said after Wednesday’s win at MSG. “There’s no looking back. We can’t take any game for granted and we have to get two points almost every night. You look around the league, the teams in front of us are winning as well, and that’s what makes a game like [this] so important.”
They could say that a lot over the next few days. Following the back-to-back against Pittsburgh and Boston, the Isles host Nashville on Monday.
Greiss helped keep the Isles’ playoff hopes alive with his performance Wednesday, and the Isles would like to see similar results from Halak, who was 6-8-5 with a 3.23 GAA and a .904 save percentage before his demotion. The 31-year-old performed better in the minors, going 17-7-3 with a 2.15 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
“Your goalie at this time of year has to be your best player,” said Andrew Ladd, who scored Wednesday’s game-winner. “And we have the confidence in [Greiss] that when we have a breakdown, he can come up with a big save and bail us out.’’