Pressure on Isles, playoff contenders

Islanders captain Doug Weight says this is when the pressure starts to build.

Twenty-eight games from the finish line. Teams bunched up in the East, a point or two separating them, all close to playoff position.

"It can be fun, too," Weight said today. "But what we all want is to be in the top eight at the end, because anything can happen then, and we have to know every point is precious."

Except for the Canes. They're more or less out of the playoff chase now, playing the part of spoilers. In their last three wins, they've helped Weight and the Islanders with victories over Atlanta, Boston and the New York Rangers. Tonight, they want to spoil it for the Isles.

The Canes have won three of four and could have won the fourth. Eric Staal has elevated his game and Cam Ward, who will start tonight against the Isles, has been at his best in goal. But could a part of the Canes' recent run of good play be that the pressure now is off?

"I don't sense that," coach Paul Maurice said. "I think the players' performance gets a little better and they get a little confidence and feel better about themselves.

"A big part of that is our goaltender. Cam's been very, very good. And you win some games and you've come through a stretch where it hasn't been a lot of fun and there hasn't been a lot of excitement in the building, so you win a few games and you start to feel better."

Still, the Canes can be loose. The Islanders, in contrast, go into tonight's game believing they can and should win, that they need the points and the Canes still are the last-place team in the East.

The Islanders have beaten the Canes twice this season, although coach Scott Gordon noted in the second game -- a 4-3 overtime win Nov. 13 at the RBC Center -- both Staal and Ward were out with injuries.

While saying the pressure is not completely off the Canes, Maurice said you can sense some tightness in the other guys, in the teams fighting for playoff position.

"We've seen a bunch of teams in that 55-point range, that every game is life and death," Maurice said. "There is a change in pressure for those teams.

"They come out very tight at times or they come our hard early in the games and ready to play and things don't go their way and they start to feel it a little bit. I think there is something to that."

Maurice said defenseman Joe Corvo would not play tonight. Maurice hoped to get Corvo back in the lineup this week but said it may now be on next week's four-game road trip, when the Canes play at Edmonton and Calgary, then back East against Buffalo and the Isles.