There’s plenty of examples of the Islanders power play failing to win them games this year.
This was the first example of the Islanders power play actively losing them a game.
At five-on-five, the Islanders absolutely dominated the Blue Jackets on Monday night — playing up ice, forechecking and doing all the right things to dismiss a young, upstart Columbus team and extend a five-game points streak to six.
At five-on-four, they allowed a shorthanded goal and saw their momentum get sapped at every turn, letting the Blue Jackets straight back into the game and opening the door for Columbus to come back on them, with Adam Fantilli’s shootout winner culminating in a 4-3 collapse at UBS Arena.
The loss not only means that the Blue Jackets are a point behind the Islanders in the standings, but it also prevents the Islanders from moving ahead of the Rangers in the standings and from tying the Canadiens on points before Montreal faces the Blues on Tuesday.
In other words: The Islanders fumbled one of their biggest opportunities of the season in a fashion that would make Wile E. Coyote blush.
They built an early 2-0 lead and gave the Blue Jackets no quarter at five-on-five, but things started to go wrong as soon as Damon Severson was called for tripping Bo Horvat early in the second.
Columbus easily killed off the penalty, and the Islanders’ disjointedness suddenly extended into even strength.
Shortly thereafter, Fantilli cut the lead in half with a goal off the rush.
The second power play was even worse, with Boone Jenner tying the game off a shorthanded rush at 17:13 of the second.
Anders Lee put the Islanders back up 3-2 almost immediately after the game went back to even strength, but the damage had been done and the door had been opened.
Even at five-on-five, where the Islanders had absolutely dominated earlier, they were now pushed back onto their heels.
The Blue Jackets parlayed their momentum to tie the game up at three with 7:04 to go in the third — this goal at five-on-five — on Kirill Marchenko’s rocket from high in the right circle.
The Islanders thought they had won the game with 8.9 seconds left in regulation when Kyle Palmieri tipped Alexander Romanov’s shot from the left point past Elvis Merzlikins, but Romanov’s jubilant celebration was cut short when the goal was waved off for interference.
A lengthy review confirmed the call, giving the Islanders more reason for upset after a game that never should have gotten to that point.
For a second straight overtime, the Islanders couldn’t come up with a winner as both teams failed to capitalize on chances before the Blue Jackets took the extra point in the skills competition.
The Islanders have come a long way in two weeks to get back in the race, and that’s still worthy of applause.
They played on Monday night with total confidence in every aspect of their game — except the power play, which has been a black hole for the better part of three seasons now.
That was enough to throw away oodles of momentum off one of their best first periods of the season and a two-goal lead with it.
The Islanders were doing everything right at five-on-five, and cannot seem to do the exact same things — entering the zone, retrieving the puck, moving it around the offensive zone — when the opponent is down a man.
It is incomprehensible, and to the players on the ice as much as anyone else.
You could almost see the confidence drift from their bodies at the whistle.
The power play directly cost the Islanders two points on Monday.
And it is not at all a stretch to say it might cost them the playoffs.
