As always, when the Maple Leafs visited UBS Arena, the loudest boos were directed at John Tavares.
But for the Islanders, Public Enemy No. 2 on Thursday night was Max Domi.
And while the Islanders were furious with Domi after he was ejected from the game in the second period for an elbow to the head by Isiah George, they let Domi win on Thursday night and defeated the Maple Leafs. The reversal could not be achieved. 2-1 loss.
The loss reduces the Islanders to four games below NHL .500 for the first time since Dec. 19, 2021.
As for the second half of the season, the last time the NHL was this below .500 since the calendar turned to January was March 31, 2018 — when Doug Weight was the head coach and Garth Snow was the general manager. The manager, Tavares, was the captain.
To say this loss wasn't all that bad — the Islanders competed hard against the Maple Leafs and kept it close, and could have won if a bounce or two had gone the other way — is almost beside the point. .
The Islanders may not be collapsing as spectacularly as the Rangers, but make no mistake, their season is trending in the same direction after Bobby McMann scored the winning goal in the third period on Toronto's power play. heading towards.
“I'm thinking right now that it takes a bad game from my team to win a hockey game,” said a dejected Mathew Barzal. “All that really matters right now is winning hockey games. All that really matters right now is winning and losing.”
The Islanders have chances to break a one-all tie, like the power play after McMann was ejected for a trip at 10:18 of the third inning, or the Brock Nelson-like look after Joseph Wall's puck miss. It happened many times.
And in what might have been the toughest mistake of the night, Adam Pelech hit the opposite crossbar just seconds after Ilya Sorokin made a save from Matthew Knies, and the ball hit Toronto's Phillip Myers behind. tripped him and drew a penalty in the offensive zone. net.
The Islanders, who are last in the league, were on the penalty kill, with McMann flipping home a feed from Oliver Ekman-Larsson, which bounced off the end boards and back to him, catching Sorokin from the spot and making it 2-1. They took a decisive lead.
With 23 seconds left, it looked like the Islanders would tie the game at 6-5 when Anders Lee made a shot from under Wal, but after review, the play was ruled invalid due to lack of sustained action. The whistle was blown.
“I just thought the whistle blew right away,” said coach Patrick Roy, who did not completely disagree with the ruling. “That's it.”
It was another hard kick for the Islanders — but at least it wasn't an elbow.
“I have nothing to back up what I'm about to say, but we're playing good hockey,” Roy said. “We had limited chances, but we had some chances. I think we need to get better at shooting on net. … I have no complaints other than not scoring.”
Watching the Maple Leafs game for the third time in less than two weeks and second time in two days, there was quite a bit of animosity building up here. It was the second goal before McMann's opening, spilling perfectly from Domi's elbow to George's head.
Unlike Zikas, Domi was not penalized. As George slowly slipped to the bench and then headed straight to the locker room, McMann slipped into the vacant spot on the ice, giving the Leafs a 1-0 lead. Second time around 10:43.
“That ball, to me, was clearly a head shot,” Roy said, later adding that George missed the rest of the game and was being treated for a concussion. “So obviously we didn't look at this play the same way. But what can we do? They're the ones making the decisions on the ice.”
The Islanders eventually tied the game and kept the pressure on for several minutes before Barzal scored on Scott Mayfield at 18:15 of the second to take the lead 1-1 going into the final period.
They had momentum.
they were playing well.
I couldn't score two points.
Such a night.
Such a season.
