What, you thought this would be easy?
Well, it seems the Islanders did too.
Is there another reason anyone can come up with for their inexcusable mess of a performance on home ice Tuesday night?
For why, in the late stages of a playoff race in which every game is a must-win, Mat Barzal — benched earlier this season over a failure to backcheck — stopped skating to watch as Tyler Bertuzzi and Frank Nazar went up the ice on a 2-on-0?
For the way the Islanders came undone from there?
Surely not.
The game ended 4-3 to the Blackhawks, who were playing for nothing but pride and yet seemed to operate with more urgency and intensity than the Islanders until the game’s final period.
If the Isles’ loss in Ottawa was a bad night, and their loss in Montreal felt like a shock to the system, then this was something far worse.
This one should make them angry, and it should make their fans angry.
This is what it looked like to toss a promising season in the garbage can.
The Islanders played this game as it was November.
They defended casually, and let momentum spiral against them. After taking a lead inside a minute and dominating the first 10, Barzal made an egregious turnover and then failed to backcheck, allowing Nick Lardis to follow a 2-on-0 rush on which Bertuzzi missed the net and tie the game off Nazar’s feed.
Making matters even worse, Tony DeAngelo was hurt while backchecking on the same play, leaving the Islanders with five defenseman and without their top two right-handed D-men, as Ryan Pulock missed a second straight game with a lower-body injury.
DeAngelo did not return, with the club citing a lower-body injury.
- CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND ISLANDERS STATS
It took the Islanders until the third period, when goals from Simon Holmstrom and Cal Ritchie, along with an urgency level that finally looked appropriate, brought them within one and made for a close ending.
Indeed, the Islanders so nearly got away with this performance, getting a six-on-four power play with 27 seconds to go and coming within an excellent Arvid Soderblom performance of tying the game.
Not one bit, however, does that excuse everything that came before.
The Blackhawks had scored two more times before the end of the first, chasing David Rittich, then added a fourth goal against Ilya Sorokin 6:02 into the second.
Granted, the missed icing call that preceded the 4-1 goal from Frank Nazar was as bad as it gets, but so too was the way the Islanders just stopped skating or defending.
With the possible exception of Matthew Schaefer, who recorded his 30th assist on Anders Lee’s goal 49 seconds into the match, the entire defense corps served up a dog’s breakfast.
Carson Soucy was on the ice for three goals against, Scott Mayfield for two while Adam Pelech committed a pair of penalties.
Mayfield allowed Ilya Mikheyev behind him to score Chicago’s second goal on what looked like botched coverage off the rush, then allowed Lardis to strip him behind the Islanders’ net before assisting Nazar on the 4-1 goal.
On the ice from Long Island
Sign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.
Thank you
Adam Boqvist, for good measure, allowed Tyler Bertuzzi to beat him to a loose puck in the crease to make it 3-1 after David Rittich — who stopped nine of 12 shots before being pulled after just one period — could not secure Alex Vlasic’s shot from the point.
The forwards did not get off scot-free in this one either.
The lack of intensity and desperation was felt throughout the lineup. It was the sort of game that ought to lead the Islanders to take a long, hard look in the mirror, be brutally honest about what they see and do everything in their power to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
They’ve got 10 games left, enough that this loss doesn’t sink their chances, but nowhere near enough that they can hope solutions present themselves.
The Islanders just used up all their jokers in the span of less than a week, and fell out of a playoff spot by virtue of losing on Tuesday.
This is a playoff race in which no one seems to be beating themselves. If the Islanders end up being first to do so, they will be at the bottom of the pile, and they will deserve it.
