Islanders Blasted By Cannon in Finale; Clinch Bottom-Ten Finish

The New York Islanders (35-35-12) lost their season finale 6-1 to the Columbus Blue Jackets (40-33-9) in Nationwide Arena on Thursday night. After a scoreless first period, the Blue Jackets ran over the hapless Islanders, scoring five goals in the second.

Those looking for the NHL best bets could have seen this one coming.

Hudson Fasching scored the lone Islanders goal in the third period. Matt Martin played in what could be his final career game. He played the last minute plus of the game, with Casey Cizikas, one last time. As he exited the ice, the Blue Jackets stopped him and exchanged another set of hugs and handshakes. A fitting for a hard-effort player for the last 16 seasons with 987 games played, and the second-most hits in NHL History.

Once Columbus scored a couple of goals, things got out of hand. The Islanders played shorthanded defensively, with Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock taking the night off while Alexander Romanov remained sick.

Scott Perunovich played his second game since February, while Mike Reilly and Adam Boqvist played their first games in weeks. The results went about as one would expect.

Marcus Hogberg didn’t have much of a chance all night. He’d probably want Dante Fabbro’s 4-0 goal back, but he couldn’t have done much. The season ended with a whimper.

Lottery Odds:

The silver lining in all of this is that the Islanders clinched their lowest finish in the standings since the 2017-18 season, the final year of the Garth Snow era. That Draft Lottery the Islanders entered holding the 10th and 12th overall picks (Calgary via Travis Hamonic trade).

The ping pong balls bounced the wrong way that year, splitting the middle with the Carolina Hurricanes moving from 11 to 2 and selecting Andrei Svechnikov.

The Islanders will have a 3.5% chance of landing the first overall pick. The lottery is loosely scheduled for May 5/6/7, but has not been formally announced. One apple of the Islanders’ eye is purportedly James Hagens, a Long Island Native.

The current Boston College standout is projected to go either third or fourth overall. The only way to land him is either through lottery help or a trade-up

Thank YOU:

With this being game 82, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of my readers. You are why I get to do this job that I love.

Yes, the regular season might now be over. But here at NYI Hockey Now, I’m not going anywhere. We’ll have you covered all Spring and Summer until it’s October.