Why Nothing’s Changed for the Islanders During this Road Trip

The Western Canada swing of the New York Islanders’ road trip has come to an end. In typical Islanders’ fashion, they went 1-1-2. It included a dominant win in Vancouver, an inspiring comeback loss in Edmonton, and two razor-thin losses in Seattle and Calgary.

In those two losses to Seattle and Calgary, the Islanders had plenty of opportunity to win. They were the better team in both games for large stretches. They had third-period leads in both games. They walked away with just one point.

Any way you spin that, it just cannot keep happening. The Eastern Conference increasingly looks like a conference with seven bonafide playoff teams and a bubble that includes teams puking all over themselves. The Boston Bruins fired their coach. The Flyers, Senators, Blue Jackets, and Sabres can’t find consistency. The Canadiens, Penguins, and Red Wings are straight-up terrible hockey teams.

It’s almost like the hockey world is begging for just one team to grab that final playoff spot and build a cushion of a lead. The Islanders, in any world, have been the best of those bubble teams at 5v5, and it’s not really close. So what gives?

One-Goal Third-Period Leads:

The Islanders have held a one-goal lead in the third period six times this year, but they’ve blown every single one of those leads. That’s an embarrassing stat that should send a chill down every spine in the organization.

Whether they won in overtime or a shootout, the Islanders have consistently wasted points in an increasingly predictable fashion. In the last two games, Seattle downed them after Brock Nelson scored a go-ahead shorthanded goal in the third. The Islanders didn’t even get a point.

In Calgary, they ran out of gas after an ill-timed Scott Mayfield penalty that led to an ensuing tying goal. More of the same.

This started in the very first game of the year. Maxim Tsyplakov scored his first NHL goal to put the Islanders up 4-3 with 2:07 left—127 seconds. It took Utah 13 seconds to tie the game before winning it in overtime.

Several weeks later, that just became the warning signal for what appears to be another season filled with embarrassing collapse after embarrassing collapse.

Special Teams:

Factor in the absolute worst combined special teams in the entire league, and you have a recipe for disaster.  Last night in Calgary, after a dominant surge to start the third, Scott Mayfield took a penalty. The Flames tied the game, dominated the rest of the way, and ultimately won in a shootout. The Flames power play went 1/1. The Islanders’ power play went 0/3 without generating even one exciting chance.

Futility, thy name is the New York Islanders special teams. Again, you have to ask if anything has changed. The players have changed through injuries, but the issues remain constant. At this point, it seems the Islanders are just who they are.

They’re not clutch and lack a killer instinct to finish games. Yet, they’re an extremely hard-working team that finds ways to scrape points and rarely looks outclassed. It’s what makes them so frustrating — they’ve clearly got heart and skill. They just get in their own way in the most agonizing of ways.