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The New York Islanders continue to slip out of the playoff race, with their losing streak now at five games as a result of a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes last night.
Pierre Engvall was a late scratch for the Islanders, so Hudson Fasching joined the lineup in his place.
The Islanders looked good early on, with a few quality chances in-close that were denied by Pyotr Kochetkov. New York then had a power play but couldn’t convert, and despite the Islanders taking the play to Carolina for much of the first 12 minutes or so, Seth Jarvis managed to open the scoring, sliding a puck through Ilya Sorokin. Then only minutes later, Jarvis finished off a nice give-and-go with Jake Guentzel, putting the Islanders in a 2-0 hole. While it looked like New York had maybe settled things down from there and would get out of the period by killing off most of a late penalty, Martin Necas dangled into New York’s end and ripped a shot past Sorokin, leaving the Islanders in a huge three-goal deficit through 20 minutes.
Carolina came out flying in the second period from there, outshooting New York 10-1 through the first eight minutes of the second period. While New York got a little more going later in the frame, it was still a pretty frustrating period, and the Islanders weren’t able to make up any more ground.
Kyle Palmieri did get New York on the board about five minutes into the third period, burying a rebound in front off an initial chance for Brock Nelson. While they had a bit of pressure as the frame went on, the Hurricanes did a good job limiting quality chances, not giving the Islanders much to work with in high-danger areas. Then while Patrick Roy pulled the goalie early to try to chip away at the Hurricanes' lead, Jake Guentzel managed to bury and empty netter, securing a 4-1 Hurricanes win.
It’s yet another tough loss for the Islanders, with the extended losing skid coming at pretty much the worst possible time. Scoring only a single goal in the loss, the Islanders have now scored six goals over their last five games. Of course in terms of the goals allowed, New York also gave up a power play goal on the one penalty they took in the contest.
There was about a 20-minute stretch between the second half of the first period and the first half of the second period that the Islanders just didn’t really show up for. While they were maybe a little better afterwards, they still struggled to generate a ton of quality chances and didn’t really seem to ever have a shot of climbing out of the three-goal hole. It was just a clear mismatch between the two groups and it’s difficult to draw any major positives from the game for New York.
Patrick Roy hasn’t been shy about mixing up the lines, but still hasn’t been able to top-nine combinations that can produce consistently. The loaded up top line was a fresh take, but it only worked until it didn’t.
As an aside, it’s becoming more likely that Oliver Wahlstrom’s time in New York could be coming to an end. He still wasn’t given a chance with Engvall out, with Roy going with Fasching instead, so at this point, Wahlstrom isn’t even the top spare forward.
In regards to Ilya Sorokin: while he hasn’t always been able to provide the big save he usually could in the midst of his down year, he’s far from the issue. The Islanders can’t score and can’t find consistency in their game and until they do, it’s tough to see any goalie in the league being able to really push them over the hump.
Aside from the Islanders' loss yesterday setting them back, the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers also won. That’s not to mention the Washington Capitals picking up a victory on Monday night.
As a result, both Washington and Philadelphia are multiple points ahead of the Islanders, who have just 13 games remaining at this point. With the regulation wins tiebreaker not in their favour as well, things look a little bleak for New York.
They’ll be back in action tomorrow, in what’s pretty much a must-win road game against the Detroit Red Wings.
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Some sad news as well: it was announced yesterday that Chris Simon, former New York Islander, has passed away.
Simon spent parts of two seasons with the Islanders between 2006-2008, playing 95 games with the team. He suited up for 782 NHL games across 15 NHL seasons, and was 52 years old. The Islanders held a moment of silence for Simon ahead of last night's game.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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