Unless Islanders Solve The Capitals, This Could Be A Lost Season

You’ve got to be impressed with the Islanders. Their consistency and a well-constructed defensive system are the envy of the league. The Islanders are not sexy, but they usually get the job done.

Their 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals should not shatter that image, but you’ve got to figure that the Islanders are going to have to solve the Capitals at some point, or this could be a lost season for coach Barry Trotz.

The Islanders were riding high, coming into the game Tuesday on a 9-game winning streak until they hit another wall in the form of the Capitals. This easily could have been stretched to 10. Instead, Alex Ovechkin stole the show with his 718th career goal, surpassing Phil Esposito for sixth on the all-time list, as the Islanders fell 3-1.

Barzal Benched in Third

Trotz was not happy with the play of Mathew Barzal, who took a needless cross-checking penalty that led to Ovechkin’s power-play goal, which put Washington up 2-0 in the second period.

Barzal was benched for much of the third period. He played only 14:59 in the game and had only one shot on goal. You can’t have your top scorer sitting in the penalty box as much as Barzal is doing this season. As it is, Barzal has gone cold, with only two points (both assists) in his last five games.

FAREWELL PHIL! 🚨

Alex Ovechkin has passed the Great Phil Esposito for the 6th most goals in #NHL history. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/EId8zjCKyU

— NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) March 17, 2021

Barzal leads the team in penalty minutes with 32. You won’t find many teams where your scoring leader is also your penalty leader. The broadcast last night pointed out that San Jose Sharks’ Evander Kane is the only other player in the NHL who leads his team in scoring and in penalty minutes.

“Barzy should not lead our team (in penalties),” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “I didn’t like the penalty and I didn’t like the shift after that.”

That’s when Trotz decided to bench his leading scorer. “Yeah, it absolutely was a message,” Trotz said. “He’s got to fight through that stuff.”

Wahlstrom Scores Again

If there was some good news, it was the continued good play of forward Oliver Wahlstrom. He scored on a wrist shot from the slot on a power play. It was his second goal of the past three games, giving him 6 on the season. Wahlstrom is tied for 4th among rookie scorers.

The Islanders have passed the halfway mark, and you can’t complain too much if you’re an Islanders fan. In their two previous games, Kieffer Bellows came in for an injured Anders Lee and produced three goals in two games. He wasn’t much of a factor on Tuesday, but the whole line was quiet.

There was more bad news to come. Lee has been ruled out for the rest of the season. He will have surgery this week to repair a torn ACL. Lee was placed on injured reserve following a collision with New Jersey Devils forward Pavel Zacha in the first period of a 5-3 win on March 11.

While Lee is expected to be ready for next season, his loss frees up $7 million in cap space, meaning the Islanders could pursue pending unrestricted free agents such as Taylor Hall or Kyle Palmieri prior to the April 12 trade deadline. The Islanders will need scoring help because Lee was a key performer on the top line and was tied for the team lead in goals (12) with Brock Nelson.

“You lose a player like that, the role that he plays, our leading goal scorer up until his injury, if we can get ourselves better, we will,” GM Lou Lamoriello said Wednesday. “But we will not do something just for the sake of doing it. If we have the opportunity to get a scorer, we certainly will do that without sacrificing what is coming for the future.”

😍 😍 😍 pic.twitter.com/i7S9HM7DKi

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) March 17, 2021

The Islanders have a 19-7-4 record, which is good for second place behind Washington (19-6-4). But the worrisome part is that the Islanders have not beaten Washington this season. The Islanders got a little fat off the terrible Buffalo Sabres, going 6-0 against Buffalo the last two months.

The Islanders have lost all three games to the Capitals. They dropped the first one, 3-2, and the second, 6-3, at the end of January. Now comes the 3-1 defeat. In all three games, the Islanders have been outscored 12-6.

The Islanders were in a good place last night. They were well-rested, while the Capitals were coming off a game against the Buffalo Sabres the night before. But it looked like the Islanders didn’t have their legs.

Capitals have Islanders’ Number

If these teams meet in the playoffs, is anybody giving the Islanders a chance to move past Washington considering what we’ve seen?

Some will point out that the Islanders were without Lee and defenseman Noah Dobson (Covid protocol) in this game.

Well, when the Capitals played the Islanders in late January, Washington was missing Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and goaltender Samsonov due to NHL Covid protocols.

The Capitals seem to bring out the worst in the Islanders. For Trotz, that second loss was tough to bear.

“This is a punch in the mouth and uppercut to the jaw,” Trotz said at the time. “You’ve just got to pick yourself up off the floor because no one else is going to do it. We need to pull together. Sometimes when you think it gets the darkest, that’s when you’re closest to breaking out of it, so that’s what we’re going to hold on to right now.”

Nobody knew it then, but the darkness was going to continue for the Islanders They went on to lose two more to the Philadelphia Flyers, both in overtime, to prolong their losing streak to a season-high five games.

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Anders Lee Lost For Season

There was more bad news to come. Lee has been ruled out for the rest of the season. He will have surgery this week to repair a torn ACL. Lee was placed on injured reserve following a collision with New Jersey Devils forward Pavel Zacha in the first period of a 5-3 win on March 11.

While Lee is expected to be ready for next season, his loss frees up $7 million in cap space, meaning the Islanders could pursue pending unrestricted free agents such as Taylor Hall or Kyle Palmieri prior to the April 12 trade deadline. The Islanders will need scoring help because Lee was a key performer on the top line and was tied for the team lead in goals (12) with Brock Nelson.

“You lose a player like that, the role that he plays, our leading goal scorer up until his injury, if we can get ourselves better, we will,” GM Lou Lamoriello said Wednesday. “But we will not do something just for the sake of doing it. If we have the opportunity to get a scorer, we certainly will do that without sacrificing what is coming for the future.”

Up Next

And look who the Islanders play next. The Flyers. The Islanders face the Flyers for a three-pack of games, starting Thursday. And this is another winnable game because the Islanders have a day of rest while the Flyers play the Rangers tonight.

Following three against Philly, the Islanders have Boston for two games, and Pittsburgh for two games before they close out the month of March.

In this division-only league, the Islanders have five more cracks at the Capitals. Those games come in April during as the 56-game season ticks down. You can bet those last games will tell a lot more about who the best team in the East Division is this season.

Until then, we will watch with interest whether the Islanders make a trade before the April 12 deadline.