The Islanders had all the makings of a great night on Thanksgiving Eve.
They had a third straight sellout crowd at UBS Arena — and unlike the past two, this was a sellout you could see with your eyes, not one that was merely on a piece of paper.
They had a highlight-reel goal from Mathew Barzal on his bobblehead night. They had a team steamrolling the Bruins, playing territorial hockey, living in the offensive zone, outshooting the opposition 3 to 1.
They might have had their eighth win in 10, too, if they had put together the last piece of the puzzle: a power play that was 0-for-4 on Wednesday and is now 0-for-27 since Matthew Schaefer’s first-period power-play goal in Las Vegas nearly two weeks ago.
Instead they had a frustrating, lamentable 3-1 loss to the Bruins that handed Boston the season series via sweep, which, the way things are going, could become important in the playoff race down the line.
You would call this the sort of loss that could be brushed away — being the better team does not always guarantee victory, and the Islanders were certainly the better team at five-on-five, outshooting Boston by nearly a factor of three.
Except for the power play, where the excuse that the Islanders look dangerous despite not scoring died an ignoble death on Wednesday.
“Today the power play was not as sharp as it was in the other games,” coach Patrick Roy said, “in a way that our entry, we were maybe being a little too cute. We tried to force plays instead of putting the puck deep and get it. When we did, we had our looks, we had our chances. Again, it’s just a matter of finding ways to get better shots on net. That’s all, because we can’t change our game.”
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Over eight minutes of power-play time, the Islanders rarely looked dangerous.
They whiffed shots. They hesitated to shoot. They kept to the perimeter. They lost momentum in a game they dominated for long stretches.
They are last in the league on the power play, and if it was a problem that could be looked over before, it is no longer such. Changing the composition of the units could be on the table, Roy said, pending a meeting on Thursday with assistant coach Ray Bennett.
Because of three scoreless power plays, the Islanders entered the third period playing from behind, down 2-1 despite having double the shot total of Boston through 40 minutes, and on the fourth, things got even worse.
A rare turnover at the blue line from Schaefer gave the Bruins a two-on-one, and Alex Steeves promptly deposited Fraser Minten’s pass in the back of the net to make it 3-1 with just under 10 minutes to go.
That sapped what had been a raucous crowd of its remaining energy, and did the same to the Islanders, who by the way, have just two five-on-five goals over the first three games of this homestand.
They had 45 shots in the game, more than triple the Bruins’ 14, but just four came on the power play. Barzal was asked if they need to simplify and shoot more at five-on-four.
On the ice from Long Island
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“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
“We’re definitely looking for like, Bo Horvat shooting from the slot,” Barzal said. “If we can get one look at that versus four average looks, I’ll take that all day. We have good looks. It felt dangerous. Everyone in the building knows it’s dangerous. Just gotta find a way.”
Barzal’s goal just 4:41 into the night, a beautiful piece of stickhandling past Pavel Zacha and then Jeremy Swayman in quick succession, seemed to portend another triumphant night in a string of them.
Instead, it was the only lead the Islanders had.
Steeves answered less than two minutes later, scoring on the Bruins’ first shot on goal all night. Tanner Jeannot gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead 43 seconds into the second period, roofing one from the right circle.
The Islanders ought to have ridden into Thanksgiving on a high.
Instead, this was something of a warning. Even when things are going well, it’s going to be hard to keep this up without two good special teams units.
