The gap between the New York Islanders and the playoffs is growing.
A 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon extended their deficit to seven points behind those very same opponents for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
For a team that has now lost five of its last six, their play simply hasn’t been consistent enough. They were out-attempted 25-9 in the first period while falling behind 2-0 — yielding those goals in a 1:22 span — and held to just six shots. They had just nine in the second, although they held Tampa to just six.
Things didn’t click until midway through the third period when they were already trailing 3-0; a power play prompted head coach Patrick Roy — who already shuffled his units to bench the fourth line for the majority of 20 minutes between the second and third periods — to pull goalie Ilya Sorokin to create a 6-on-4 advantage.
Anders Lee scored four seconds after the man advantage expired, but it finally lit a fire under New York’s rear end, though the decision required fortitude from the front, at least according to Roy.
“It was an important game. I wanted to win that game so as a coach, sometimes you need to make decisions,” Roy said. “I made that decision. Sometimes you have to — sorry for the expression — put your balls on the table and do it and that’s what we did.”
The spark they continued to show when Brock Nelson made it a one-goal game with 2:35 to go is exactly what the team needs to exhibit over 60 minutes rather than doing so in sporadic spurts.
Some call it urgency, some call it desperation. The Islanders need both of those to make the playoffs, but that’s not what appears to be stymieing their recent results, which featured a demoralizing collapse in the Stadium Series against the New York Rangers and a 4-0 loss to the Blues in St. Louis.
“You look at the last few games and you don’t get the results, you can say that, but the guys are going out there every single night and leaving it out there,” defenseman Noah Dobson said. “We just have to find ways to execute, not have those lapses and games where we give up a bunch of chances or give up a couple goals. We played well in each areas of the rink, we just have to put it all together for a full 60.”
That fourth line of Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, and Casey Cizikas received the brunt of seemingly not doing that. Martin’s second-period penalty opened the door for Brayden Point to make it a 3-0 game five minutes into the second period.
Just seconds into his first shift of the third period at the 8:23 mark, he committed his second penalty of the night to delay the New York comeback further. He recorded just 4:30 of ice time while Clutterbuck accrued 6:36.
“You can grip your stick tight and run your heads through the boards, but it’s not going to win you hockey games,” forward Kyle Palmieri said. “We have to be smart and we have to work hard and we have to do it together. It can’t just be one line or four or five guys. We all have to pull on the rope in the same direction and we have to continue to get better at it. It’s not always about running around like a chicken with his head cut off.”
“It’s about being poised, making plays when they’re there, winning our battles, and competing. I think you could always be better at that. We’ll continue to try to strive for a better version of ourselves.”
Twenty-five games are remaining in the regular season and the Islanders’ efforts to fully assimilate into Roy’s system haven’t been the easiest. They’ve won just four of his first 12 games in charge since being appointed head coach in late January — seemingly stuck in limbo at times between being a new-look, aggressive side and the conservative, defensive-first unit whose habits have been difficult to break.
“The wins are absent at this moment but I believe that every day we take a step forward and it’s a step forward to success,” Roy said. “I know it’s tougher to show it to our guys, but I think they feel it. I think they feel like defensively, we’re playing better. I think that we’re cutting down on turnovers. I think they feel that we’re better on our breakouts. Offensively, we have some puck possession.”
