The Islanders went about the past couple weeks wanting to prove to management that it was worth sticking with their core.

Mission accomplished.

Now it’s about showing general manager Lou Lamoriello that doing nothing at the trade deadline and committing to the current roster, handing extensions to Cal Clutterbuck and Zach Parise, was indeed the right move.

“We believe in this group,” Scott Mayfield said Tuesday ahead of the Islanders’ contest against the Senators. “It’s nice to see that vote of confidence from management as well.”

It’s easy to view Lamoriello’s roll of the dice with raised eyebrows. The Islanders came into this year with age being one of their biggest questions, and that will be the case next year as well. He said on Monday the team looked to improve via “hockey trades” at the deadline and none materialized, but one imagines that they’ll try to do the same over the summer.

Nonetheless, it’s hard to see much about this roster changing before October — the team’s salary-cap situation and available assets make it hard to do much beyond the margins.

Heading into Tuesday’s match, the Islanders were a game over NHL-.500 at 26-25-9, and though they’ve avoided making excuses publicly, the team’s lack of moves at the deadline make it clear it views that as a product of the external issues that plagued the team for much of the season more so than a recurring problem.

A 13-game road trip over five weeks to start the season, with a COVID-19 outbreak immediately following, was far from ideal. It took until mid-January for the Islanders to get anything like a normal NHL schedule with a healthy roster. Regardless of how the roster is built, that’s something they almost certainly will not have to deal with in 2022-23.

“I think there’s a lot of pride in this group,” Brock Nelson said. “Just look at it for what it is, accept where we are and use it as motivation. Realize that we’ve had success in the past and we can get back to that.”

For the next five weeks, though the playoff‘s are a distant possibility, the goal is proving that this group can do just that.

“The goal is to win as many games as we can, number one,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “And number two, just be consistent in our game.”

Lately, the Islanders have been doing both of those for the first time all year. Despite Sunday’s loss to the Flyers in the team’s fifth game in eight days, the Islanders have played their best hockey in the month of March.

Headed into Tuesday, they were 6-4-1 in the month, with two of the losses being against the Stanley Cup-favorite Avalanche. If the Islanders keep it up over the next five weeks, they will at least go into next season feeling good about themselves.

“I think we understand all of the things that have happened,” Trotz said. “It’s one of those years that, you couldn’t make up half the stuff that was happening at times. And you just roll your eyes and sorta keep going. … Obviously we felt pretty strong that the core still has the ability to do some damage for sure.”

It is on the players to prove it.

“I think we’ve seen it a little bit more in recent games, but we have an identity,” Mayfield said. “We believe in this group.”Lack of deadline moves shows Isles confident with core, for now