Downright Dismal: Islanders Pasted 5-2 by Kraken in UBS

ELMONT, NY — For all the blown leads, inconsistencies, and frustration this year has brought, there hasn’t been a game since Dallas where the New York Islanders (9-11-7) weren’t competitive. Heck, even in Dallas, they pushed but couldn’t solve Jake Oettinger. Tonight? Tonight is the worst effort in Head Coach Patrick Roy’s tenure, and I don’t think it’s particularly close.

It’s easily the worst game of the season. The Seattle Kraken (13-13-1), a team currently sixth in the Pacific Division featuring the 30th-ranked power play, came into UBS Arena and played the Islanders out of their own barn. The non-lethal Kraken power play went 2/2. The lslanders’ penalty kill at home is below 50% on the season.

The Islanders power play tonight? 0/3. That includes a four-minute double minor where they generated absolutely nothing.

By the end of the second period, The Kraken led 4-0. The fans fled the building, as seen here. If you closed your eyes and listened, you’d think it was 2011 in the Nassau “Mausoleum” days. The starting goalie was pulled for a backup with limited NHL experience, and fans booed the effort (or lack thereof).

At 5v5, normally the Islanders’ bread and butter? Horrid. Seattle, throughout the entire game, constantly outskated and outworked the Islanders. Rimming pucks along the wall, draining the blue and orange of all their energy before collapsing inward and garnering opportunities.

Roy said, “They were faster than we were. They were fast on us, and they were moving well. Credit to them… We were not at our best.”

Stats:

Ilya Sorokin allowed four goals on 13 shots and Roy pulled him at the end of the second period. It was far from his fault, but he didn’t make a single save to hang his hat on. Two deflections, a screened rip, and a clap-bomb from the blue line. Marcus Hogberg made his first NHL appearance since 2021, one night after he lost 6-1 with the Bridgeport Islanders against the Hartford Wolfpack.

Tye Kartye and Oliver Bjorkstrand both scored with nifty deflections in the first. Bjorkstrand’s came after an entire 1:58 of power play time was spent in the Islanders’ zone without a single clear or change. Pathetic defense.

In the second, Vince Dunn danced around the exhausted Islanders after a shift where Pierre Engvall failed to clear multiple times. Eventually, a lane opened, and he cranked a slapper past Sorokin. Finally, Shane Wright sent a wrister home on the other Kraken power play after Yanni Gourde set a screen that Alexander Romanov did not even try to oppose.

Listless, lifeless, defective, dismal. You choose the adjective.

Finally in the last 10 minutes of the game, the Islanders decided to try and score. Noah Dobson scored his first goal on a goalie with 8:03 left, so Roy pulled Hogberg. With the extra man, Maxim Tsyplakov smacked home a rebound off a Ryan Pulock shot with 4:23 to go.

The comeback charge ended when Dobson got outraced and outmuscled by Jaden Schwartz to a loose puck hat Schwartz smacked into an empty cage. The goal itself served as a perfect euphemism for the night itself. Outworked, outskated, beaten.

Players React:

Grant Hutton on what went wrong: “Once they started roaming around the O-Zone, we just didn’t have an answer for it. We weren’t closing quick enough. Once that starts happening, the guys start getting tired and it’s kind of a snowball effect. We just needed to be on our toes more.”

When asked how the team could’ve adjusted quicker, Hutton added this: “They were going low to high and rimming back down and bringing guys behind the net with speed and just picking pucks up off the wall. So, especially for us, we have to be able to anticipate that and cut those plays off.”

The clearest Hutton was when he admitted Seattle’s consistent pressure and possession did the Islanders in, calling it “the biggest issue for us tonight.”

He could say that again. Constant, unrelenting pressure led to every Seattle goal. They came in waves, whether it was 5-on-5 or when the Islanders were shorthanded.

But is it a wake-up call? Hutton thought so.

“Yeah, I think so. That just wasn’t a good effort for everybody.”

Ryan Pulock shared a similar sentiment: “We just weren’t quite connected tonight. We dug ourselves a hole.” When asked about any adjustments, Pulock had an eerily similar reply to Hutton: “I just think reads and being on our toes more, trying to end those plays. When you’re not able to end those chances, the team just keeps moving it. Then you get tired, and mistakes are going to happen.”

Pierre Engvall’s Curtain Call?

After being healthy scratched in recent games and being publicly called out for a lack of net drive, Pierre Engvall returned to the lineup with a call to action from his coach. “Drive to the net, bring the puck there.”

Engvall responded by not doing that and looking so out of place that Roy sent him to the fourth line midway through the second period.

Postgame, Roy was asked about Engvall. Roy paused awhile, had a half smirk, and braced, then said, “Do I have to answer that?” Then hesitated again before saying, “I didn’t see the spark that I was hoping to see. That was a tough question.”

Yowza. Engvall has likely played his last game for a while, as it was the harshest postgame critique of a player since Roy buried Samuel Bolduc in Madison Square Garden earlier in the season.

What’s Next?

The Islanders are now firmly entrenched in last place in the Metropolitan Division. They’ve gone 2-5-2 in their last nine games, and there’s very little positive going on. The next team they play is the Carolina Hurricanes, the team that has ended the Islanders’ season in two straight years.

Roy had this to say about the slump: “There’s no morale victories in this game, so we got to come back against Carolina on Saturday and be ready for that game. That’s all I care. Tonight we can’t be happy about our game and no one in this dressing room is happy about the game, but we got to be ready now. What can we do better in the next game to win that game? That’s all that matters.”

That game is at 5 o’clock on Saturday evening in UBS Arena.