Islanders Fall to Kings in Close Matchup

After a game like Friday’s, hearing the phrase “we did a lot of good things on the ground” from the Islanders makes sense.

They had possession and created chances, and their penalty kill was particularly strong.

When Matt Barzal and Bo Horvat were reunited midway through the second period, the top six began to click. Ultimately, the final score of 3-2 felt more representative of the game than the early 3-0 lead the Kings held.

Honestly, for most of the evening, Los Angeles didn’t seem like the superior team.

There’s some truth to that cliché.

The Islanders were down 3-1 heading into the third period, but they clearly controlled the ten minutes leading up to intermission. Emil Heinemann scored, and Anders Lee had several near-misses.

Given that momentum, it wasn’t shocking when Heinemann found the net again just 3:38 into the second, this time on a shot from Matthew Schaefer, narrowing the deficit to 3-2.

The Islanders displayed their best offensive zone play of the season.

Substitutions rolled in, and they pressured hard, pushing against the walls and wearing out the Kings.

Heinemann nearly netted a hat trick but missed a crucial deflection.

It felt like an equalizer was around the corner.

As the clock wound down with the score at 3-2, the Islanders were left feeling they deserved more.

But back to that old saying.

Diving deeper, there were definitely issues for the Islanders to address following this matchup.

First off, while it’s understood that losses happen, it’s late enough in the season that taking things lightly isn’t an option.

They came in hoping to surpass the Penguins for second place in the Metro and left the game anxiously hoping that the Blue Jackets wouldn’t be ahead in the tiebreaker by Saturday’s end, with Columbus facing the Flyers and the Islanders going up against the Flames.

Actually, it’s possible the Islanders could wake up on Sunday outside the playoff picture for the first time since December 4. That would be a gut punch for a team that had begun to feel postseason aspirations were a given, despite the Blue Jackets gaining ground recently.

A single loss isn’t catastrophic, but there was definitely a need for more urgency on Friday.

Another challenging fact: the Islanders struggled to capitalize on their puck possession. They had trouble getting the puck past Kings’ goalie Darcy Kuemper.

After the first 20 minutes, only three of 22 shots by the Islanders had found the net.

The percentages did improve afterward—yet, one might wonder why they didn’t improve sooner. There were just too many mistakes, with numerous shots getting blocked or veering off target, primarily from the defensemen.

For instance, one of Scott Mayfield’s shots was blocked by Trevor Moore, which led to a breakaway goal for the Kings.

The Kings’ other two first-period goals came from an Anze Kopitar rebound and a rush from Adrian Kempe. At least Kempe’s goal followed a sequence where the Islanders couldn’t get a shot off in the offensive zone.

Some positive moments did emerge on Friday.

However, they simply weren’t enough to secure two points, and, really, that’s all that matters in the end.