ELMONT, NY — After an uninspiring 2-0 loss two nights earlier to the Ottawa Senators where head Patrick Roy implored his team to show more hunger and urgency, the New York Islanders could not find it consistently enough in Thursday night’s 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Undone by a second-period lapse that saw three goals conceded in an 8:26 span, a third-period comeback featured a goal 30 seconds in by Mathew Barzal and a power-play conversion by Anders Lee with 2:44 to go wasn’t enough as the Flyers answered each time to keep a two-goal lead intact til the final horn.
“No [I did not see the urgency enough],” Roy said following the game. “But what I saw at the start of the third period, we saw some urgency that we were looking for… I felt like we kept pushing at the end and scored on that power play to make it a one-goal game, but we need more consistency in that urgency from the start to the end. We can’t have holes in our game.”
Loose play was prevalent around every corner.
Anthony Duclair’s turnover at the Islanders’ blue line directly led to Philadelphia’s equalizer 5:15 into the second period, which canceled out Bo Horvat’s power-play opener 9:21 into the first.
Four minutes later, they fell asleep on the power play to transform a simple Flyers breakout into a 2-on-1 break. Travis Konecny hit Garnet Hathaway for a simple one-timer and the Islanders never saw the lead again.
Four minutes after that, a botched zone entry resulted in a delayed offside that gifted the Flyers a 3-on-2, which they converted through Owen Tippet.
“I guess everybody goes through that,” Roy said as he continues to look for answers regarding his team’s lapses. “We’re not the only team. Everybody has moments in games where they’re not as sharp. But for some reason, the quality of our turnovers gave them really nice odd-man rushes. We paid for it. There’s mistakes you can make, but there are mistakes you can’t make. Unfortunately for us, we paid for it.”
While this has become a constant focal point at practice and in the locker room, the Islanders still cannot find a way to bottle the right level of tenacity and keep it humming for a full 60 minutes.
“We talk about it and I think the guys understand that. This is a smart group,” Roy said. “Consistency comes from decision-making and how you manage the puck and working together to break out. When we break out as a unit of five, we’re successful… But when there’s nothing, we don’t have to be perfect. And I understand, we’re not scoring as much as we wish. We’re trying a little bit more. Sometimes, trying harder is not the best thing. Sometimes it’s just simplifying things. I think that’s what we need to do.”
The problem is that the season is more than halfway over and the Islanders sit in last place in the Metropolitan Division. The gap is widening between them and the final Wild Card spot, too. They now sit eight points back of the Boston Bruins with six teams between them.
If they cannot find the urgency now, it feels like they never will, because time is of the essence.
“You always want to stay positive but at the end of the day, we realize where we are in the standings and if we don’t start winning games, we’re not going to be climbing,” Horvat said. “So we know what we have to do in here, and that starts with getting wins.”
If they cannot, the more sobering reality of general manager Lou Lamoriello breaking up the group becomes more and more of a possibility.
“You never want to think about that but our job in here is not to focus on that and just focus on what we have to do in here,” Horvat said. “It’s not up to us at the end of the day. But it is at the same time… we need to start winning hockey games if we want everybody to stay. So it’s on us at the end of the day to do what we can in here on the ice and in the room together so this team can push for a playoff spot. I know it’s not going to be easy, but if there’s any group that’s going to do it, we’re pretty relentless in here.”
