For all the ceiling the Islanders had shown just two days prior, here came the thud that has acted as a metronome to the season’s first 35 games.
Just when there were signs of the Islanders turning the corner, just when they had played their best game of the season, just when they had gotten healthy, just when they could relegate the Rangers to last place in the Metropolitan Division over Christmas — and all they had to do was beat the worst team in the league at home? Thud.
On this Festivus, the Islanders went down like George Costanza in the Feats of Strength. They followed up their best game of the season by playing their worst on Monday night, getting skated off the UBS Arena ice against the 32nd-ranked team in the 32-team NHL, allowing the Sabres to snap a 13-game losing streak in a 7-1 blowout, with fans chanting for general manager Lou Lamoriello to be fired throughout the back half of the game.
“Each and every guy in this room, we know we have a heck of a lot better than that,” Bo Horvat said. “If we want to be in contention or even close to a playoff spot, that’s unacceptable effort. We know that and obviously have to nip that in the bud.”
The loss meant instead of the Rangers sitting in the Metropolitan basement over the holiday, the Islanders were instead occupying the bottom spot thanks to Columbus beating Montreal.
And instead of fashioning together a neat little narrative about finally hitting their stride, here came all the same issues that have plagued the Islanders all season long.
Where the Islanders had played with obvious purpose and relentless physicality in Toronto two nights earlier, they came out completely flat and hung Ilya Sorokin out to dry.
Starting his 11th straight game, Sorokin stopped just 15 of 20 shots over the first two periods, then stayed in for the third to see out the end of this disaster, with coach Patrick Roy citing goalie coach Piero Greco’s recommendation as the reason for why.
“We should be embarrassed, obviously, in front of our fans to do that,” Horvat said. “In front of our goaltender, who’s bailed us out a lot over his career. It was just an unacceptable effort by us tonight.”
Against a reeling Buffalo team, the Islanders failed to seize the initiative and failed to establish a forecheck, peeling off instead of finishing hits and ceding ground in front of their own net. And the penalty kill was, right back on schedule, terrible.
Sound familiar? It should. Only this was worse.
The Islanders put up an awful 16 shots on goal through the first 40 minutes, scoring only after going down 5-0. There was not enough lipstick in the building to cover this pig.
By the end of the first period, the Islanders had already ceded a pair of goals to Beck Malenstyn and Jiri Kulich, both around the net and the latter coming seconds after a Sabres power play had ended — a goal that fell on the penalty kill in spirit if not on the scoresheet.
Just to drive home the point, the PK made sure the next one was official, with Jason Zucker’s blast beating Sorokin at five-on-four to make it just 15 power-play goals allowed in 32 tries for the Islanders at home this season.
Zach Benson and Jack Quinn added two more for the Sabres less than three minutes apart at the end of the second period, with boos and repeated chants calling for Lamoriello to be fired rippling around UBS Arena.
Those chants kept on going in the third as Tage Thompson and Kulich added two more goals.
To add injury to insult, Scott Mayfield was hit in the face by a puck with 2:14 to go in the game and went to the dressing room after getting looked at by the trainer.
“We did some good stuff, but we need to be better in our own building, there’s no doubt about it,” Roy said. “We have to find ways to win games at home. … Our fans deserve better performances from our team.”
It is 35 games into the season and the Islanders are healthy. They just got blown out at home by the worst team in the NHL. They are in last place in their division.
“We have nobody to blame but ourselves today,” Horvat said. “You can’t blame anybody but ourselves. Just have to take a big look in the mirror and figure that out.”
They are running out of games to do so.
