The Montreal Canadiens were in the stands at the Nassau Coliseum on Friday to watch the Islanders sleep walk through their disappointing loss against the Ottawa Senators.
That could be either good or bad. It could have made the Canadiens over confident resulting in a letdown or it could have given them too more confidence that they could win the game. How the Islanders would respond would tell the tale of this game. Les Habs came into the game with 91 points (42-19-7) although they have struggled a little bit lately. The Islanders remained at 90 points (43-34-4) and have struggled a lot.
Big changes for the game. Ryan Strome was a healthy scratch after playing in every one of the Islanders 70 games this season. He was replaced by Frans Nielsen who is battling an injury that kept him out of the lineup on Friday night. Strome has struggled a bit lately and has not been putting up many points. That compounded defensive mistakes and bad penalties resulted in a seat in the skybox.
Another surprise was the re-emergence of Matt Donovan in the lineup for Lubomir Visnovsky. Donovan has been a healthy scratch for almost the entire year and had not played since early January. With Nick Leddy out it made sense to give him a shot to see if he could add some offense. The interesting thing was that Donovan replaced Visnovsky instead of Brian Strait. I think that speaks more to how well Strait has been playing and not so much about Visnovsky. Michal Neuvirth got the start in net over Jaroslav Halak due to the back-to-back games at the Nassau Coliseum.
The game against the Canadiens almost seemed to be a carbon copy of the Senators game. The first period saw no scoring a just a couple of penalties. It was as if the two teams were feeling each other out in a playoff game. Neuvirth seemed sharp in the first period as stopped a couple of breakaways. John Tavares made a valiant effort towards the end of the period when he split the defense and got knocked down as headed towards he net as time expired. The captain slammed his stick on the ice as he skated off.
Then again in the second period the visitors struck twice. First it was a tic-tac-toe play from Pierre-Alexandre (P.A.) Parenteau to Alec Galchenyuk to a wide open Tomas Plekanec to give the Canadiens the lead. It was a three on one break just a minute into the period. Neuvirth was on the other side of the net cleaning his bistro table and had no chance to stop the puck from going into the net.
Subsequently, less than three minutes later, Max Pacioretty scored when Neuvirth misplayed the puck in his own end. The Islanders for the second night in a row were down two goals at the end of two periods. They had their opportunities, but Carey Price was right on the spot each and every time to keep the Islanders off the scoreboard.
The third period saw the Islanders once again give some false hope to their fans as Josh Bailey was able to push one past Price with a couple of minutes left in the game to cut the deficit in half. It was Bailey's 15th goal of the year from no one, because it was recorded as an unassisted goal. It was once again too little way too late as the Canadiens added an empty netter to beat the Islanders 3-1 and sweep the season series.
The Islanders powerless play is very disturbing. Sure Nick Leddy is out and Frans Nielsen is hurting, but it should not be this bad. They have not scored in quite awhile. In fact they are only 4-22 in their last six games. It needs to be fixed and quickly. Even though the Islanders have not played poorly, the powerless play is costing them points.
Here is something funny. For the longest time the Islanders were winning with the worst penalty kill in the league. Now the tables have turned, as they are losing while the penalty kill is thriving. They have killed off 43 of 47 power plays (91.5%) and have killed off all 20 power plays in March over a seven game span. Go figure that one out.
The Islanders are in a mini-tailspin. This is probably the most critical point of the regular season. They can forget about Division Titles and Conference Championships until they right the ship. They go on the road for two games this coming week at Chicago and New Jersey. Then they come home for a stretch of home games which will be attended by yours truly.
The loss was their fourth in a row at the Nassau Coliseum, which was almost unthinkable a couple of weeks ago. It has been far from "Fort Neverlose." There will be plenty of days off the rest of the way which will give the Islanders a chance to get healthy, fix the powerless play, and lick their wounds.
It is not time to panic. Islander fans can move back from the ledge. They have accomplished a lot this year and they are the team we saw for the first 60 games this year. However, now is the time to fix what is broken and gain some momentum going into the playoffs. What we have seen lately is not normal for this team. Perhaps all they need is a little rest and relaxation...and a couple of power play goals.
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