The Islanders’ biggest obstacle to making the playoffs right now isn’t the Red Wings or the Capitals, but they need to pass both teams in the standings to make it.
The Flyers also appear to have enough distance between themselves and the Islanders to make third place in the Metropolitan Division a distant goal.
No, at this point in the season, with 11 games left, the Islanders need everything they can muster to mount a push, but their biggest enemy appears to be themselves.
That’s the only conclusion left after a disastrous and self-defeating performance in Sunday’s 4-0 loss to the Devils. It marked the ninth time in nine tries the Islanders have missed the win in the second end of back-to-back games, and it’s like the 10th time this season that things haven’t worked out, even when they seem to have the momentum. It feels like.
Even in the aftermath of Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Jets firing on all cylinders, there was a veneer of alarm in the Islanders’ locker room.
It wasn’t so much about winning, it was about finding a way to keep it going.
The islanders now know themselves well enough to realize that it is their problem.
But that doesn’t mean they found a way to fix it.
Instead of Sunday, it showed Lucy pulling the football away as she watched the Islanders succumb to their own mistakes and let two points slip away on a day they couldn’t afford to let that happen.
The gears loosened at the end of the first period. The Isles failed to score on the power play for 3 minutes, 58 seconds and committed three consecutive penalties in the final 2 minutes, 12 seconds.
New Jersey then scored three goals in the first 6 minutes, 12 seconds, and a ridiculous second goal ended the game for good when Isles captain Anders Lee was ejected for a dirty hit on Nico Hischier. Ta.
With 1:13 left in the 5-on-3 period from the first period, the Devils had an easy score when Timo Meier deflected Jack Hughes’ pass to the right post.
The Islanders then found themselves in the center of a fumble reel as Kyle Palmieri, Bo Horvat, and Noah Dobson collided in the offensive zone to give the Devils a 2-on-1 breakaway, with the senior Hughes easily I decided that.
A few minutes later, Lee lost a puck battle with rookie defenseman Simon Nemec, who easily slid it up the ice to Alexander Holtz to make it 3-0.
Before the period was over, Lee made the situation worse by sticking his knee out to connect with Hischier’s knee, resulting in a game misconduct and also calling out Meyer, who jumped in to fight the Isles captain. He invited two 5-minute major games. He charges 10 minutes of misconduct by Combat Major and Instigation.
Chris Tierney added a goal from the air late in the third for the Devils.
All of this added up to one of the most spectacular meltdowns the Islanders had on their home ice all season, yet another moment they simply couldn’t afford.
Lee’s hit could result in additional discipline from the league, further hurting the Islanders on a crucial road trip against the Panthers that begins Thursday.
Thanks to the resurgent Capitals’ defeat of Winnipeg, the Islanders are now four points out of the playoff spot, with one fewer game than Washington remaining.
They maintained a three-point difference with Detroit, but even though Detroit did not play on Sunday, they were unable to move up in the standings and conceded the game.
In other words, the math is not in their favor.
At this point, the reality is the Islanders have to find something in the next 11 games that they haven’t found all season, but that’s not their ultimate potential.
Sustaining excellence over a period of more than a few weeks is something they haven’t had all season, not their best performance.
And that’s what we need right now to make the playoffs.
