I beg the community's pardon in advance for a fanpost which will be a bit light on the content side, though perhaps that is appropriate given a schedule light on games and how that is going to color perceptions of the Isles outside of the island.

The thought which occurs to me is that the shortened season is going to color popular perception of the Islanders' performance no matter how well they do. You can picture two scenarios:

1. "Of course they did badly, they never even win this many games in a full season!"
2. "Of course they did well, they didn't have enough time to screw up!"

Now, maybe it's not worth getting upset over, but occasionally one needs to rail against their fellow fan/the hockey media. It makes the loss of a large portion of what could have been a good "progress" season all the more galling when you realize the Islanders probably won't even get the benefit of "oh hey, they're becoming legit now, aren't they?"