The Islander's offseason shopping list has become longer.
This was Marcus Hegberg's net on Thursday, and Ilya Sorokin suffered a lower body injury in Nashville Tuesday night. And that long-term outlook is Hegberg, whose worst performance of the season, the 9-2 loss to the Rangers, is the most retreated in the long-term outlook.
There was a lot of responsibility, mistakes and embarrassment to get around to make it clear.
Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock were minus 5 and minus 4 respectively, while Pulock was faulted due to the terrible turnover that led to the Rangers' first goal.
Alexander Romanov turned the puck over and didn't return to Artemi Panarin's goal at the end of the first, then he was benched for 10 minutes for the second period, and later coach Patrick Roy said he “didn't realize” that Romanov was benched. Bo Horvat was minus 5, so did Anders Lee.
“There's not much to say,” Lee said. “We played horses – T-game.”
As a team and as an organization, the islanders wore the shame of this, with Rangers fans taking over the UBS Arena Stands and Rangers taking over the UBS Arena Ice.
This was the first time the islanders have not been interested in competition for every bad night, every injury and brutal loss throughout the season, and their pride has become a problem.
They are not officially eliminated until the Canadians score one more point or the islanders lose another game, but they're done and know they're done.
This was even more evidence if allowing seven goals in Nashville on Tuesday isn't enough evidence.
The islanders driered Hegberg and wandered around.
Still, the Swedish performance on Thursday – his .720 save percentage over six matches since returning from a broken hand a month ago – means the islanders should consider guiding the backup goalkeeper this summer.
“I was so disappointed,” said the stubborn and calm Hegberg, who was back at 4:43 after he allowed eight goals on a strangely pulled night with 30 shots before Tristan Lennox allowed goals on the second shot he saw.
Semion Barramov, who collapsed from a lower body injury in late November, rejoined the team for practice when he returned from Utah in January, and suffered a rehabilitation retreat after what has not been heard since was not certain he was not ready for camp.
Even if he is, the 37-year-old has missed time with injuries on his four straight wins, including some of the self-evident and serious issues this year.
Högberg did a great job of being an essentially emergency backup role in December and January, but in six games since returning from his broken hand, he is struggling badly.
As Sorokin's status remains unknown from now until the end of the season, this looked like a chance for Högberg to get a virtual tryout to be second in the fall.
Well, you can hurt it now.
As poor as the islanders played in front of him, Hegberg leaked bad rebounds and bad goals. He seemed naturally because he wasn't confident in the crease.
“We gave those weird rushes, that's a team that runs the puck very well,” Roy said. “Most of them were left and right passes and they scored on them, so I can't say anything more.”
Certainly, this wasn't just goalkeepers. But it was enough for the goalkeeper.
The islanders, who have struggled with Sorokin for the third year in a row, cannot afford to take a chance with his backup.
They need people they can trust and people who can stay healthy. And he only has one year on an eight-year contract, so there's a future to think about, so they need to reduce their first workload.
We have no choice but to make this offseason a priority.
