The Islanders' messy 5-on-5 game was carried over from Sunday to Tuesday.
Their ability to overcome it was not.
It was a bit of a reality check for a club that had secured a winning streak, moved within three straight wins to a playoff spot, found the confidence it needed on special teams, and began to wonder if it had turned a corner. The final was a 3-1 victory over the Kings at UBS Arena on Tuesday night. The Islanders can take some consolation from a strong push in the second half of the game when they were two posts away from tying the game, but they need to do the following. It would be better to hang out with the upper echelons of the NHL than this.
The Islanders looked uncoordinated at five-on-five in the first half of the game, struggled to complete passes and break out the puck, struggled with retrieval, and put the brakes on a Kings team that is currently on a six-game winning streak. I was having a hard time putting it on. .
“We had to breathe,” captain Anders Lee said. “Just calm down. I don't want to say it was a runaway game, but we didn't get there.”
They settled in enough to make the Kings sweat during a frantic third period when the ice finally tilted their way. However, that still didn't make up for the nearly 30-minute delay in starting the game.
This left the Islanders in a 2-0 hole, losing twice on plays near their own net.
Adrian Kempe took advantage of the Kings' sustained pressure in the first period and reached the crease unimpeded, while Max Tsyplakov was caught puck-watching and took the lead 13:51 into the game. He decided to feed Anze Kopitar from behind the net.
Kevin Fiala doubled the lead with a shot that Ilya Sorokin never saw, going wide right around a Sam Helenius screen.
“I think as a group, especially in the first game, they dictated the play,” Kyle Palmieri said. “Physically, speed, overall. After the start, we had to step up and match them in different categories.”
Sorokin, who finished the night with 27 saves, spent a significant portion of the game in relief of his teammates, who went 0-for-3 on the power play, including a third that failed to produce the tying goal. It also included a period chance.
Finally, Anders Lee got momentum midway through his second goal when he slotted a Kyle Palmieri feed into the box to make it 2-1. That was where I entered the third time.
“I think Elijah more than anything gave us a chance to move forward,” Noah Dobson said. “He was great all night and gave us a chance to get back in the game. I thought he managed the puck better, got better on the forecheck and just got more O-zone time.”
The push in the second half showed much better shooting than they did early in the game, with two shots hitting the post (one by Dobson, the other by Bo Horvat), and the Isles could get something out of this one. It made me feel like it might have happened.
Chances in the second half were similar until Mikey Anderson sealed the result with an empty netter.
“Let's understand that emotion and understand what we were doing during that third, almost half of it, and why we started to succeed and start to turn around,” Lee said. “Every line was doing well, playing smart hockey and doing things the right way.”
The concern will be that the Islanders are still struggling to put together 60 minutes after Sunday's not-so-deserved win.
It's a little fitting that it continues to keep them on the right side of the cut line on a night when just one point could have vaulted them past the Rangers and into playoff contention.
