Islanders lose to Lightning for sixth straight defeat

This one wasn’t even a moral victory. 

There’s been more than one game this season that had a distinct ‘end of an era’ vibe, and you can add Tuesday’s to the list. 

The Islanders looked slow.

The Islanders looked old.

The Islanders power play made a dog’s breakfast look appetizing.

The Islanders lost a lifeless game to the Lightning 4-1, their second loss in two games to Tampa Bay and sixth defeat in a row. 

Last season, Game 73 was right when the Islanders started their mad dash to the playoffs, going 8-0-1 over the final nine games to clinch in Game 81.

A similar run is still possible given the state of the Eastern Conference, though the Canadiens coming back in the final seconds to beat Florida on Tuesday put the Islanders five points back with eight games left in their season. 

So if this is going to happen for the Islanders, it needs to happen starting Friday against the Wild.

There simply aren’t enough dates left on the calendar for the Islanders to lose more games. 

If the Canadiens, or for that matter any of the other teams fighting for the last wild-card spot, can get hot this week, it could spell a quick end to the Islanders’ chances.

They have hung around in this race, mostly, by default — and that is a dangerous place to be. 

There were chances for the Islanders to get themselves back into Tuesday’s game, which did not reach blowout territory until Nick Paul’s empty-netter with 3:31 to go, with the Lightning taking six penalties in total, four of which gave the Islanders power plays and none of which resulted in a grade-A chance, let alone a goal. 

Only the power play, after scoring in two straight over the weekend, had no momentum at all from that building block.

At times, the Lightning possessed the puck at four-on-five, and accounted for better chances, than the Islanders. For that matter, the Islanders also looked better at four-on-five than on the power play, with Bo Horvat scoring shorthanded and the penalty kill putting in a perfect night. 

A pair of five-on-five breakdowns with the game tied at one in the second period, both off the rush, broke open the game. 

Adam Pelech left Jake Guentzel open at the right post to deliver a one-timer off Nikita Kucherov’s feed at 8:09 of the second for a 2-1 Tampa Bay lead.

Just over 2:30 later, the Islanders were caught in a bad line change and coughed up a three-on-one, with Kucherov dishing it to Victor Hedman to make it 3-1. 

Unlike the two games over the weekend, there was no perfunctory comeback effort here.

The Islanders negated their own power play 23 seconds into the third and did not get much better from there. 

Most damning was the way the Islanders struggled at their offensive blue line, repeatedly failing to keep the puck in and going offside.

Casey Cizikas’ fight with Yanni Gourde in the third felt designed to try to wake the Islanders up, and yes it is problematic that such a thing was necessary to begin with. 

It did no such thing, and by the time Paul made it 4-1, the result already looked perfunctory. 

It’s been over a week now since a controversial goalie interference call negated Kyle Palmieri’s apparent game-winner against Columbus, with the Islanders eventually losing in a shootout, and the team has not looked the same since. 

Whether that game hurt them mentally or this is simply a lacking roster catching up with the Islanders, who can say?

That question is merely academic at this point. 

What matters is that time is running out to take this season off life support.