ELMONT, NY — In what might have been their worst game of the season, the Islanders’ skid continued on Thursday night at UBS Arena in a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken
New York has lost eight of its last 10 games, dropping to 9-11-7 (25 points) on the season and into last place in the eight-team Metropolitan Division.
Their night was done effectively after 33 minutes, as they stared down a 4-0 deficit with 6:55 to go in the second period.
“Just a little flat,” winger Kyle Palmieri said. “It wasn’t a good start. Got behind the eight ball.”
Tye Kartye deflected a Vince Dunn shot just 2:48 into the game to put the Islanders in an immediate hole. Oliver Bjorkstrand extended his point streak to seven games when he deflected a Dunn shot on the power play with 3:02 left in the opening frame.
“Yeah, sure [it’s concerning],” Palmieri said. “Any time you go down 4-0 at home, it’s concerning. I think for us, we just got to find a way to regroup.”
Dunn got his goal 3:55 into the second when he sniped a wrist shot past Sorokin following an extended Seattle stay in New York’s zone. The Kraken improved to 2-for-2 on the power play 9:10 later when Shane Wright cashed in.
The Islanders’ penalty kill was a paltry 5-for-its-last-10 at that point, while the power play is 3-for-its-last-32, which included the squandering of a Brandon Montour double-minor between the second and third periods.
“Our power play and our penalty-killing need to be better,” head coach Patrick Roy said. “Normally, you get buried in the standings. We just play so well five-on-five. We didn’t give them that many chances, but we gave them a lot of puck possession because they were fast.”
Noah Dobson and Maxim Tsyplakov nabbed a pair of Islanders goals 3:40 apart late in the third period to momentarily make it a game, but Jaden Schwartz outmuscled Dobson with 2:40 to go to nab an empty-netter and put the game to rest.
The late goals provided little consolation for a team that has struggled to stay afloat after first-line wingers Mathew Barzal and Anthony Duclair, along with defensemen Mike Reilly and Adam Pelech, went down with injuries.
There is the slimmest of silver linings in knowing that the Metropolitan Division is so tightly packed that just two points separate them from the fourth-place Rangers. But the concerning effort from a listless loss indicates that there is considerable work to be done to get the Islanders off of this snide.
“I hope there’s no frustration out there,” Roy said. “There are no moral victories in this game, so we have to come back against Carolina on Saturday and be ready for that game. That’s all. That’s all I care about. Tonight, we can’t be happy about our game, and no one in this dressing room is happy about the game, but I mean, we got to be ready. Now, what can we do better in the next game to win that game? That’s all that matters.”
