Islanders have shown growth since drubbing in last matchup with Blues

When it was over, the expectation was that Patrick Roy was going to publicly lambaste his team.

Because, just a few minutes earlier, the Islanders had dropped a 4-0 decision to the St. Louis Blues. As unsightly as the loss was, the Islanders allowed the Blues to score back-to-back-to-back goals in a span of 32 seconds early in the second period that, for all intents and purposes, determined the outcome.

Add to that former Ranger Pavel Buchnevich’s natural hat trick and Jordan Binnington recording 38 saves in a shutout performance, and all of the elements were in place for a verbal thrashing.

Instead, standing somewhere in the bowels of the Enterprise Center on the night of Feb. 22, Roy was calm and almost praiseworthy.

“We had a lot of good looks,” Roy said after the game. “One thing I’m pleased [with] is they never give up. They kept playing regardless [of] the score. That I would say as a coach, I appreciate that.”

That collective attribute, whose roots began in the Barry Trotz era and continued through Lane Lambert and now with Roy, is coming to the forefront yet again.

Since the loss in St. Louis, the Islanders (26-20-14, 66 points) have won three of four and enter Tuesday night’s rematch against the Blues (32-26-3, 67 points) at UBS Arena six points behind Philadelphia and Tampa Bay for third place in the Metropolitan Division and the second wild-card position in the Eastern Conference, respectively.

So, then, what has changed for the positive in the 11 days following the season’s first matchup against St. Louis?

“For the most part we had a lot of good looks in that game,” Noah Dobson said. “Obviously we have to do a better job in certain situations. Obviously that second-period stretch there I think we [got] scored on back-to-back-to-back. So that can’t happen. We’ll make sure to learn that from that but we’ll look at what we did [well]. Take that into [the game] but also what we can improve on as well.”

Statistics support Dobson’s argument. In the four-game window following the loss to the Blues, the Islanders have outshot opponents by 3.5 shots per game (28.8 to 25.3), have a 15-10 advantage in goals, and have a 56.3% goals-for percentage.

“As a group we’ve been playing good hockey,” Dobson said. “[At] times we didn’t get results when we were playing [well] but I think just sticking with it and [trying] to grind our way out of it. We’ve [gotten] rewarded with a couple good results last few games and we [have] to continue to do the right things and try and keep going here.”

It also bears noting who the Islanders have beaten in this stretch. Dallas is a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Detroit holds the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Boston is second in the Atlantic.

And the Islanders defeated those teams by an aggregate score of 13-6.

“We’ve been building toward something here,” Casey Cizikas said. “You feel it in this dressing room. You can feel it amongst the guys. I think the way we came out [in Saturday’s 5-1 rout of the Bruins], start to end, where we just competed as a group, competed as a whole, and all lines were going. All lines were doing their job and it’s just a good example of what we can accomplish when we work as a team.”

Still, he noted, the lessons from the loss in St. Louis need to resonate.

“As soon as you let your foot off the gas, that’s how quickly things can change,” Cizikas said. “And when you lose sight of what the goal is for the game and how you need to play, then those can happen. It just shows that you need to play a complete 60 [minutes] in this league to win games.”