Islanders coach Lane Lambert, on Monday, ran one of the most intense practices of the season. On Tuesday morning, he said every game remaining this season will be a must-win for the Islanders, such is their position in the standings.
So, although the Islanders took home a point Tuesday night for a second straight game, the fact they lost another winnable match is alarming.
This team is far from officially out of it, and with two of their next three games against the Penguins, the Islanders have a golden chance to jump the team they’ve been chasing in 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 hard to be anything other than discouraged about their playoff chances.
All 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 other end, the Islanders gave up breakouts and odd-man rushes too easily as their defensive structure was picked apart.
In overtime, it was déjà vu from their loss Saturday at Montreal. The Islanders again failed to convert at four-on-three, this time following an Ottawa bench minor, and they dominated the entirety of the extra period without scoring. Then, in the shootout, came familiar disappointment.
After Tim Stutzle tied the score with a frozen rope of a wrist shot off the rush 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 stick to Stutzle’s shot at the net and redirected it past Ilya Sorokin, who made 32 saves.
Much of Lambert’s harping during that high-intensity practice Monday had to do with boxing out — which the Islanders failed to do on Tkachuk. It was also due to a sloppy play that the Senators were on the power play to begin with. Kyle Palmieri was called for interference while the Islanders were on a power play of their own.
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Brock Nelson tied it at two for the Islanders on the power play with a one-timer at 7:13 of the third period. In overtime, however the Senators fought right back to take the lead, the game and any morale that was left in 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 though Sorokin’s brilliance might help carry them to the finish line.
But again, a great performance from their goaltender went to waste as 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 little more than two months straight. Their record, truth be told, is not that much better than it was last season at this time — the difference is that the Eastern Conference is much worse, with the Penguins and Capitals both looking exceedingly vulnerable.
Time and again, those teams have all but begged the Islanders to not only leap them in the standings, but also to build separation. And each time, the Islanders have failed to do it.
Right now, the play of the teams ahead of them (the Capitals lost to the Hurricanes on Tuesday night) is keeping the Islanders in the race far more than their actual play.
So it is on to the next must-win game, in which the Islanders desperately need more urgency than they had in this one.
