Islanders defensemen Lubomir Visnovsky, Travis Hamonic hurt in 5-2 loss to Capitals
Members of the Washington Capitals celebrate a second-period goal behind goalie Chad Johnson of the New York Islanders at the Verizon Center on Nov. 28, 2014 in Washington. Credit: Getty Images / Rob Carr
Lubomir Visnovsky didn't take the ice in the third period after suffering an upper-body injury. Travis Hamonic missed some time late after a shot rang off his leg. Johnny Boychuk was scratched.
The Islanders may have lost more than a divisional game against the Washington Capitals in Friday night's 5-2 defeat at Verizon Center. The team's defensive ranks potentially were thinned even more.
"It's a brotherhood," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said of the defense and Hamonic, who went to the locker room briefly before he played out the final few minutes of the contest in noticeable pain. "Obviously, you love to see how tough they are."
Capuano didn't have an update on the trio of ailing defensemen, not that there's a lot of time to get healthy. The Islanders face the Devils Saturday night at Nassau Coliseum.
"We don't know who is in or out yet," defenseman Calvin de Haan said. "Miracles do happen. Everybody could be healthy. You never know."
Added Capuano: "[Hamonic] finished the game, so that's a positive sign for us."
There weren't too many upbeat items to take away from the Islanders' loss, which ended their winning streak at five games. They overcame a 2-0 deficit with two goals in a 35-second span by John Tavares (No. 10) and Anders Lee in the final 1:02 of the first period, but that was about it.
"We didn't do a very good job in the second period," Tavares said. "They kind of controlled the play. When we had a chance to generate some momentum for ourselves, we didn't make too many good decisions."
The Capitals took the lead for good midway through the second period when Alex Ovechkin snapped a shot over goalie Chad Johnson's blocker.
The Caps made it 4-2 with a goal by Evgeny Kuznetsov six minutes into the third. Joel Ward scored into an empty net with 1:28 remaining.
Johnson stopped 22 of 26 shots. Caps goalie Braden Holtby made 26 saves on 28 shots, although the Islanders didn't exactly pepper him on two power-play chances that generated only one shot on net.
"We have to simplify things and get pucks to the net," Tavares said. "We need to get some more bodies up front. We only had two [power-play] chances, but in general, our puck management wasn't great today."
Notes & quotes: It was Capuano's 300th game as Islanders coach (134-127-39) . . . With Boychuk day-to-day with an upper-body injury, Brian Strait got the nod on the blue line over Matt Donovan.
