Andrew Gross: No skating around truth, Isles' playoff chances are slipping
Players from the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders scuffle after a whistle during the third period in Montreal on Saturday. Credit: AP/Graham Hughes
MONTREAL — This was some serious spin doctoring.
“We’re playing 10 of the next 12 at home. We’ve been on the road a lot. On a positive note, if we win [Sunday] night, we’re seven and three in the last 10 games.”
That was coach Patrick Roy after Saturday night’s 7-3 loss to the Canadiens that knocked the Islanders further out of a guaranteed playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division.
But he is right in that the Islanders, who will face the surging Blue Jackets on Sunday night at UBS Arena, have won six of their last nine at home dating to Jan. 3.
Of course Roy is going to be positive. That’s part of his job.
But there are some alarming signs as the Islanders completed a 1-2-0 Canadian swing.
Notably, they were bad in back-to-back third periods when one of their strengths this season has been how they close games. And the way the Canadiens’ top line of Nick Suzuki (four assists) between Cole Caufield (three goals, two assists) and Juraj Slafkovsky (two goals, two assists) dominated with the speed and precision passing emphasized perhaps a talent gap between the teams.
The Islanders lost, 3-2, on a last-second goal in Ottawa on Thursday night to a Senators squad that had to win to keep its playoff chances afloat.
The Canadiens, in a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, are battling for their playoff berth.
The Islanders (39-26-5) are just as desperate. But they flat-out got beat on Saturday in all facets. Even when things went well, they didn’t. The Islanders went 2-for-3 on the power play. So did the Canadiens.
Actually, the game wasn’t even lost in the Canadiens’ four-goal third period as the Islanders matched the most goals they’ve allowed this season (and were kept from setting that mark only when Roy successfully challenged that an apparent eighth goal was offside).
The Islanders did everything to the Canadiens to start the second period that the Canadiens did in outshooting the Islanders 17-6 in the first period. The Islanders were first to pucks and playing deep and for long stretches in the offensive zone, but they could never extend their 2-1 lead despite holding an 8-0 edge in shots more than midway through the second period.
Mathew Barzal and Matthew Schaefer both hit posts. Schaefer quickly had an apparent goal waved off for playing the puck with a stick way above his head — and jumping to reach the puck.
Then the Canadiens scored twice in a minute, 18 seconds late in the period, and not even Schaefer’s power-play goal 45 seconds into the third period — his eighth to set a team record for rookie defensemen — could turn the tide.
“Just some compounding mistakes,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “We gave one up and then we gave a couple up and then we started chasing it, which made it worse. It was just one of those nights.”
Newsday pointed out to Pulock, probably quite unnecessarily, that this is the wrong time of the season to have “one of those nights.”
“Yeah,” Pulock said. “These points are huge. The important part now is nothing can be done and we have one [Sunday] that’s massive, too. We can think about this one for a bit here and then turn the page and get our minds right. That’s going to be the most important thing, getting our minds right.
“I don’t think it’s tough. We understand in here. We’re not happy about tonight, but [Sunday] we’ve got to find it again. It’s a new day. We’ve got to come to work. At home.”
Still, there’s no way to sugarcoat a collapse, with No. 1 goalie Ilya Sorokin exiting after allowing the sixth goal to save some energy for his start Sunday night in a must-win game against the Blue Jackets.
It will be the first time this season he starts on back-to-back days, highlighting the obvious importance of not just getting two points on Sunday but doing so in regulation.
The Blue Jackets beat the Kraken, 5-2, on Saturday for their fourth straight victory. They’ve earned points in 12 straight games. The second-place Penguins won on Saturday, too.
But as bleak as things seem after this shellacking, the Islanders are only one point behind the Red Wings for the Eastern Conference’s final wild-card spot.
“We have a chance to get right back at it [Sunday] and prove we’re better than we did,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “They got the bounces and they were able to take advantage of it. In the second, we didn’t, where I think the game could have been put away.”
That, actually, is not spin doctoring.
But words won’t matter on Sunday.
The Islanders must prove they can keep up in this playoff chase.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
