Islanders coach Lane Lambert, on Monday, ran probably the most intense practices of the season. On Tuesday morning, he said every game remaining this season can be a must-win for the Islanders, such is their position within the standings.
So, although the Islanders took home a degree Tuesday night for a second straight game, the actual fact they lost one other winnable match is alarming.
This team is removed from officially out of it, and with two of their next three games against the Penguins, the Islanders have a golden probability to leap the team they’ve been chasing within the standings. But after Drake Batherson scored the game-winner in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Senators, the Islanders’ third straight defeat and third straight blown lead (all against teams well out of playoff contention), it is tough to be anything aside from discouraged about their playoff possibilities.
All of the positivity from Bo Horvat’s arrival is long gone, and until the third period, so was the offensive urgency that he helped bring during his first few games on Long Island.
The Islanders allowed Kevin Mandolese, a goaltender making his NHL debut after giving up six goals to the AHL Cleveland Monsters on Friday, to settle in early. He ended up making 46 saves. On the opposite end, the Islanders gave up breakouts and odd-man rushes too easily as their defensive structure was picked apart.
In extra time, it was déjà vu from their loss Saturday at Montreal. The Islanders again did not convert at four-on-three, this time following an Ottawa bench minor, they usually dominated the whole thing of the additional period without scoring. Then, within the shootout, got here familiar disappointment.
After Tim Stutzle tied the rating with a frozen rope of a wrist shot off the push at 17:32 of the second period, the Islanders lost the lead on a Brady Tkachuk power-play goal 3:41 into the third. Tkachuk got his persist with Stutzle’s shot at the web and redirected it past Ilya Sorokin, who made 32 saves.
Much of Lambert’s harping during that high-intensity practice Monday needed to do with boxing out — which the Islanders did not do on Tkachuk. It was also on account of a sloppy play that the Senators were on the facility play to start with. Kyle Palmieri was called for interference while the Islanders were on an influence play of their very own.
Brock Nelson tied it at two for the Islanders on the facility play with a one-timer at 7:13 of the third period. In extra time, nevertheless the Senators fought right back to take the lead, the sport and any morale that was left within the Islanders’ fan base.
Ryan Pulock had put the Islanders ahead with a wrist shot that beat Mandolese clean from the low slot 5:41 into the second period, and it looked as if Sorokin’s brilliance might help carry them to the finish line.
But again, an excellent performance from their goaltender went to waste because the offense went dry.
The saving grace of this season has been that the Islanders are still playing for something despite having struggled for a bit of greater than two months straight. Their record, truth be told, just isn’t that a lot better than it was last season at the moment — the difference is that the Eastern Conference is way worse, with the Penguins and Capitals each looking exceedingly vulnerable.
Again and again, those teams have all but begged the Islanders to not only leap them within the standings, but additionally to construct separation. And every time, the Islanders have did not do it.
At once, the play of the teams ahead of them (the Capitals lost to the Hurricanes on Tuesday night) is keeping the Islanders within the race excess of their actual play.
So it’s on to the subsequent must-win game, by which the Islanders desperately need more urgency than that they had on this one.
