Depleted Islanders lose to Panthers, end win streak at seven
SUNRISE, Fla. — Gravity finally caught up with the Islanders.
For pretty much the entire duration of the seven-game winning streak that got snapped on Sunday, the Islanders have been accumulating injuries and winning anyway.
It was bordering on the absurd, and that was before Saturday, when the Islanders gritted out a win in overtime after Scott Mayfield and Mathew Barzal both limped up the tunnel.
The Islanders deserve a whole lot of credit for rallying around the flag, fighting through all the injuries and putting together a January that saw them jump from the outer fringe of the playoff race to right in the thick of it.
But the reality of their situation hit a whole lot harder after a 6-3 defeat to the Panthers on Sunday in which they nearly rallied to yet another absurd victory before finally running out of gas, ceding a hat trick to Carter Verhaeghe.
This was about as much a scheduled loss as any game on the calendar — the second end of a back-to-back with their fourth-string goalie, Jakub Skarek, making his NHL debut on the road against the defending Stanley Cup champs, and with a laundry list of regulars out.
It’s not so much about the result, though it must be said that every defeat at this point deals the Islanders a blow in the standings.
It’s about the big picture in which the Islanders are living, at least for the next week before the NHL takes two weeks off for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
The club didn’t provide updates on Barzal or Mayfield on Sunday, saying they would know more about the status of both in 24 hours. But even if both return in time for Tuesday’s home match against Vegas (which would come as a pretty big surprise), the Islanders needed the layoff to start yesterday.
Despite an excellent January, the Islanders still need to make up points to get above the playoff cutline. They cannot tread water, but they’re missing the entire right side of their defense corps, their second- and third-string goalies, their most dynamic offensive player in Barzal and a fourth defenseman for good measure in Mike Reilly.
Not all of those issues can be solved with two weeks of rest, but there might not be a team in the league that needs a breather more than the Islanders, no matter what their recent results have been.
After an atrocious first period on Sunday, the Islanders admirably rallied to score three straight goals in the second, two coming from fourth-liners Kyle MacLean and Marc Gatcomb with a power-play goal from Jean-Gabriel Pageau in between — that one coming after coach Patrick Roy scrapped his power-play units and ran out the third line.
It handed the Islanders an improbable 3-2 lead, but that quickly fell apart. Before the second intermission, Evan Rodrigues had converted a backhand at the crease and Sam Reinhart a chance off the rush to put Florida back ahead 4-3.
The Islanders kept on pressing to start the third, but the penalty kill — nearly infallible in January — finally let one up, with Verhaeghe completing his hat trick on a blast from the left circle. An empty-netter from Matthew Tkachuk put a bow on it.
Skarek struggled on Sunday, letting in five goals on 32 shots, but the Islanders left a lot to be desired with their play in front of him. Playing for the third time in four nights after overtime on Saturday, they looked emotionally and physically exhausted, particularly at the start of the night.
It took them 10:59 to record a shot on goal, with the Panthers grabbing a 2-0 lead in the game’s first 13 minutes on a pair of Verhaeghe conversions off rebounds from Reinhart and Gustav Forsling, respectively.
In the immediate, the Islanders can hang their hats on the winning streak that — at least for now — got them back into the race, and take pride in their effort that made a game of it Sunday.
But the big picture as they head back to New York looks a lot grimmer than it should for a team that’s played so well so recently.
