Islanders get trounced by Hurricanes in embarrassing loss
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Islanders’ belief that they can turn the season around is running into the hard reality of what it looks like when they get out onto the ice.
The latest ignominy, Tuesday’s 4-0 defeat to the Hurricanes at the Lenovo Center, was only the latest in what is now 33 games’ worth of evidence that the Islanders — who were last above NHL .500 on Oct. 25 — are a team that will need everything it has just to reach mediocrity.
Let alone the playoffs.
“We’re getting guys healthy now,” Ryan Pulock told The Post. “We have a full lineup, we need to find a way to win these games. I think it might be somewhat early, but there needs to be urgency. These games are really important. We need to find a way to get some points.”
The Hurricanes were faster, stronger on the puck, harder at the front of the net and — to no one’s surprise — light years better on both special teams units than the Islanders.
Mathew Barzal and Adam Pelech returned to the lineup just two days prior, after six weeks of waiting, and already that has been completely overshadowed because the Islanders’ myriad problems look the exact same as they did with them out.
Instead of using the injury returns to build momentum for a run, the Islanders will need wins in both of their remaining games before Christmas just to get back to NHL .500. Right now, the 12-14-7 mark through 33 games is the Islanders’ worst since 2013-14.
Mere days after Patrick Roy publicly admonished his team over their failure to protect Ilya Sorokin’s crease, the Islanders played their softest game of the season at their own net, giving up every rebound, losing every battle and getting boxed out at nearly every available chance.
Roy, who tried his hardest to put a positive spin on things, declined to rip his team over that.
“That’s a team that did a really good job,” he said. “They were better than us. Their forwards were on those pucks, we lost those battles around the net. They also did a good job in front of their net boxing us out, but we also had some good chances.”
The Islanders did outshoot the Hurricanes and, by Natural Stat Trick’s count, were even on high-danger chances, but that belies a lot of what went on.
When the Islanders did possess the puck, they leaked odd-man rushes, with Sebastian Aho sealing a blowout by making it 4-0 off a two-on-one with Eric Robinson with 15 seconds left in the second period.
The Islanders had been playing better hockey in the second than in a disastrous first, but a breakdown in front allowed Tyson Jost to get onto Shayne Gostisbehere’s rebound at the 11:13 mark for a 3-0 lead.
At 4-0 going into the third, Roy gave Sorokin a mercy pull for the second time in the last seven games, the goalie having stopped 19 of 23 shots before Marcus Hogberg relieved him.
In the other net, Pyotr Kochetkov got his first shutout since March 30, holding the Islanders scoreless for the first time since Oct. 30 with 32 saves.
“I think we had some really good looks, that if you score one or two of those, it changes the direction of the game a little bit,” Pulock said, summing up much of the sentiment in the dressing room.
It would be the understatement of the year to call that sentiment generous after the Islanders put up their biggest losing margin of the season.
Andrei Svechnikov put Carolina on the board just 5:47 into the match, driving to the net on the power play and beating Sorokin through the legs. Jordan Martinook made it 2-0 mere minutes later, getting to the crease before Noah Dobson to clean up Jordan Staal’s rebound.
Slow starts now look like just as big a worry for the Islanders as third-period collapses. This was the eighth straight game in which they allowed the opening goal and, more worrying than that, there was no semblance of physicality or defensive zone structure in the opening 20 minutes.
The standings have been incredibly forgiving to the Islanders, but winning just 12 games of their first 33 tells you all you need to know about where this team is at right now.
“The guys were resilient,” Roy said. “The guys tried.”
But this is the NHL. And the only thing you get for trying around here is a spot in the draft lottery.