ELMONT, NY — There are not many indignations for the New York Islanders greater than effectively getting eliminated from playoff contention by the crosstown-rival Rangers and getting embarrassed in the process.
That is exactly what happened on Thursday night at UBS Arena.
The Rangers — who are staring elimination from playoff contention in the face, themselves — ran roughshod over the Islanders and all but ended their season in the process with a blitzing 9-2 victory.
Rangers roll over Islanders 9-2 as playoff elimination bears down on both teams
With four games left in the regular season, the Islanders will be eliminated on Friday night if the Montreal Canadiens, who hold the second and final Wild Card berth in the East, pick up points of any kind against the Ottawa Senators.
“There’s not much to say. We played a horseshit game,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “We had shots, we hit posts, but we gave up too many opportunities the other way, whether it was turnovers or puck management.”
For as much as the nine turnovers haunted them, the Islanders showed little to no semblance of structure, especially in the neutral zone. The Rangers had odd-man rushes galore off takeaways, leaving Islanders goalie Marcus Hogberg with no chance of surviving.
By the end of the first period, the Rangers held a 4-0 lead with three of the four coming on odd-man rushes.
“There’s not really much to say. We got embarrassed,” forward Kyle Palmieri said. “At home, against our rivals. That’s it. Embarrassed… The chances we did give them, we didn’t really give our goalie a chance on them. It doesn’t matter if you give up four Grade-A chances if you’re down 4-0 after one period. It’s not good.”
The Islanders were not competitive against the Rangers all season. In their four games, they were outscored 23-5; stuck looking for answers that simply did not come.
“If we knew, things would obviously change,” center Bo Horvat said. “They had our number this year and we have to find a way to figure out what we need to do better against this team.”
Thursday night’s result was the final spectacular failure of a season-damning skid. After beating the Canadiens 4-3 in overtime on March 20, the Islanders sat just two points out of a playoff spot. They proceeded to lose eight of their next 10 games.
“It’s disappointing because we wanted to make the playoffs,” head coach Patrick Roy said. “We have great fans and we feel like we let them down. There’s things that we did well, but there’s things we didn’t do as well… If we want to be able to be part of the playoffs and want to have good seasons, we have to be better in those areas.”
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