SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The Islanders are limping into the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off in additional methods than one.
The excessive of a seven-game successful streak that vaulted them into playoff rivalry is over.
Now it’s about getting over the cutline and proving that a terrific two weeks wasn’t merely a mirage.
And permitting 5 consecutive targets to see a 3-1 lead flip right into a 6-3 loss to the Wild on Saturday night time doesn’t encourage any notions that the Islanders are a legit contender masquerading as a playoff hopeful.
The Islanders could not have been badly outplayed in any of the three losses they suffered over their previous 4 video games, and this journey at all times seemed powerful with a back-to-back in opposition to two Cup hopefuls.
However it is a outcomes enterprise, and in shedding, the Islanders squandered an opportunity to get inside two factors of the playoff cutline.
“I guess we didn’t have the legs to come back in the third period,” coach Patrick Roy mentioned, echoing the evaluation of Alexander Romanov. “When we play back to back, it’s catchup hockey, maybe a little tougher to do. Especially against a team that’s rested.”
Compounding the difficulty is that the Islanders have primarily performed the previous week with 5 defensemen, as Roy’s belief in Dennis Cholowski has hovered someplace near zero.
Cholowski performed a season-low 2:52 on Saturday, and has not performed greater than 10 minutes in a recreation since returning to the lineup — which implies an excellent more durable load on the remainder of an already taxed protection.
“We just play to win,” Roy mentioned when requested about what led to that, primarily admitting that he doesn’t consider Cholowski might help them achieve this. “And sometimes we have to make the decisions that you think is the right one. We’re just gonna continue to do that.”
Even so, it seemed just like the Islanders have been on their solution to gritting out a win on the second finish of a back-to-back in the beginning went to items late within the second.
Frederik Gaudreau lower a 3-1 result in 3-2 with a power-play purpose from the highest of the zone after the puck glanced off Tony DeAngelo and previous Ilya Sorokin on the 13:21 mark of the interval.
Then Matt Boldy and Yakov Trenin scored almost equivalent targets separated by simply 51 seconds, each of them deflecting level photographs from Jonas Brodin and Jake Middleton, respectively.
All of the sudden, the Islanders have been trailing 4-3 in a recreation that they had largely managed, and reeling going into the second intermission.
And on an evening when the Islanders didn’t have a full tank in the beginning of the sport, having performed 24 hours prior, there was no comeback in retailer.
Drained legs checked out fault on the failed breakout that led to Boldy’s second purpose of the night time 5:53 into the third, when the Minnesota winger threw the puck on the crease just for DeAngelo to whack it into his personal internet.
There was no push forthcoming, and Marcus Foligno’s empty-netter sealed up a outcome that seemed loads much less shut than the sport felt for a lot of the night time.
“We gotta turn the puck over less,” Romanov mentioned. “Before every single goal, we turned the puck over twice in our zone, maybe three times. Couldn’t get it out. So that’s the homework for the break.”
Other than that, the message emanating from the dressing room was that this was a hard-luck sort of loss — the second finish of a back-to-back colliding with a pair powerful bounces, specifically the 2 targets that went off DeAngelo.
There’s some fact in that, however the Islanders have additionally misplaced three of their previous 4, coinciding immediately with Mat Barzal and Scott Mayfield’s accidents.
Worse, it doesn’t seem like the Islanders are getting Barzal again anytime quickly after the workforce confirmed he just lately underwent surgical procedure for a presumed left kneecap damage.
As for Mayfield, who has been referred to as day after day, the Islanders might badly use him again after they return from the break, the timing of which is as useful to them as any workforce within the league.
The Islanders might nonetheless go any which manner on the March 7 commerce deadline, and common supervisor Lou Lamoriello will doubtless keep on with one in all his favourite axioms: You probably have time, use it.
However the Isles’ outlook is way more durable going into the two-week layoff than it was simply seven days prior.
