MONTREAL — Patrick Roy wanted to focus on the team and not himself Thursday.
By the end of the night, some of the attention was certainly on the Islanders, but if it was a Roy win, it sure was a disaster.
The Islanders paid the price for the blowout loss, spoiling Roy's return to Montreal, and failing to come back from a 3-0 deficit, they lost 4-3 to the Canadiens, and Roy faced his first adversity as the team's head coach. did.
“Obviously some of the mistakes need to be corrected,” Roy said. “We put pucks in the stands and make turnovers. It just kills our momentum.”
Roy's team erased a three-goal deficit thanks to a major five-minute goal in the third period, but at the cost of losing Adam Pelech to injury.
Pelech was on the receiving end of an open-ice hit by Brendan Gallagher in the third period, when the Canadiens forward left his feet and drove an elbow into Pelech.
Gallagher received a five-minute major and an ejection for an illegal check to the head, but Pelech is of particular concern because of his history with concussions.
“I think we all saw what happened,” Roy said. “I think the league will take a look at the hit. That's all I can say for now.”
The Islanders made it three-all during the power play, with Matt Barzal cutting the lead to 3-2 with a wrist shot at 14:51. Kyle Palmieri then cleaned up Noah Dobson's rebound to tie it at 16:28.
But they fumbled soon after, with Sean Monahan scoring the game-winning goal off a Pierre Engvall turnover while trying to break through the zone with 2:12 left, and the Islanders were unable to show much of their effort. There wasn't.
“At 5-on-5, I thought we were the better team,” Bo Horvat said. “Obviously our power play helped us and got us to where we should have been behind. We have to find a way to get them done. We can't make excuses for ourselves anymore. That stings. .”
Earlier, the best moment of the night for those in attendance came when Roy received a rapturous reception from the Montreal crowd before the game, playing a montage of photos from his playing days to “O Canada.”
Once the puck dropped, the problems began.
In the first period alone, the Islanders earned three penalties, all of which led to Montreal goals.
After Hudson Fassing put the puck on the glass, Nick Suzuki gave the Canadiens the victory with a net-front tap-in from July Slavkowski.
Later, after the Islanders negated their own power play and allowed an odd-man rush for the second consecutive game, Palmieri was called for a slash and Engvall's pass in the defensive zone bounced off the wall and hit Sebastian Aho. was unable to handle the puck and the ball went straight to Cole Caufield. , who scored.
After the fourth-on-four ended, Monahan scored on a nice power play, sliding into the slot unimpeded and finishing off a Mike Matheson feed.
On the road, the Islanders faced an inferior team and the situation in the standings was becoming increasingly tense, so the Islanders finished the game without being able to perform to their full potential. Also.
The Islanders have looked even closer to the team they want to be the past two seasons, seeing the majority of their possessions five-on-five and forcing a 43-save effort from Sam Montembeau.
Horvat's 5-on-3 goal cut the lead to 3-1 early in the second, and the Islanders almost came back from there.
However, they are entering the final stages of the season and the playoffs have been so unfavorable that they cannot praise themselves for the games they ultimately lost.
“They just took advantage of the opportunity,” Dobson said. “It's disappointing to lose three games like that. We fought the rest of the games.”
Whatever good the Isles did in the final 40 minutes was overshadowed by the first period, which ruined their chance to pick up two points and give wild-card rivals Tampa and Detroit wins. He fell even short of the eight ball on the night. Taking care of business.
Lane Lambert would undoubtedly have argued that the first period was unacceptable. And he would have been right.
Roy's system has promise, but it's not fully established yet, and breakouts and turnovers still seem to be an issue.
But no amount of system change will solve the problem if Islanders continue to fall victim to their own mistakes.
So they lost a winnable game on Thursday. It wasn't the first time.
