1 week Ago By Ethan Sears
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — They’re not mathematically eliminated, not quite yet, but the Islanders’ season is at the lip of the drain. Nine points back of the Canadiens with just five games left, and it looked on Tuesday night like the Islanders were painfully aware that their season is all but officially cooked.
How else to explain this defense-optional, 7-6 overtime defeat to the Predators that landed at the cross-section between preseason and shinny, with a collapse in the final two minutes of regulation before Fedor Svechkov put the Islanders out of their misery in overtime? To make matters worse, the Islanders played the third period and overtime without Ilya Sorokin, who may have gotten hurt on Michael McCarron’s goal late in the second, when the Predators forward landed awkwardly on the goalie. Everyone knew and understood coming in, of course, that the chances of this game ultimately mattering were somewhere between slim and none and that even though the playoff odds don’t yet say zero, the Islanders are pretty much already playing for pride. Still, the Islanders were the team at Bridgestone Arena that started the night with playoff chances north of zero, and ended up playing down to the level of a Predators club that has long been eliminated.
Yes it was close and no that was not much credit to the Islanders, whose only positive came with Simon Holmstrom’s four-point evening that saw the Swede hit 20 goals for the first time. Despite the high-scoring nature of the game, it did hold at 4-all until deep in the third, the offense finally taking a breather despite the Islanders creating chances throughout the period. Finally, one hit paydirt when Kyle Palmieri took a backhand from the left-side dot and roofed it at 15:21 of the third.
The game looked essentially over a few minutes later when the Islanders followed Ryan Pulock’s hooking penalty by scoring shorthanded, Holmstrom feeding Scott Mayfield for his fourth point of the night. Before that penalty expired, though, the Islanders and Predators traded two more to make it five-on-three for Nashville after the Predators pulled the goalie. Steven Stamkos scored on the power play to pull back within one and Michael Bunting tied the game at six with the net empty and 40 seconds to go in regulation, tipping in a shot from Stamkos.
Svechkov netted the winner in the extra period after Holmstrom hit the bar on a chance for the hat trick, strolling into the slot and beating Hogberg. A flurry of goals in the first period marked the defense-optional style of this game early on. Simon Holmstrom put the Islandres ahead 4:16 into the game, deflecting Ryan Pulock’s shot past Justus Annunen.
Ryan O’Reilly tied the game just over 2 1⁄2 minutes later before Filip Forsberg put Nashville into a temporary 2-1 lead off Kyle MacLean’s turnover below the Islanders’ goal line. The Islanders pulled to 2-2 before the first intermission as Adam Pelech’s shot went off Anders Lee and in. The teams traded two goals apiece in the second period as well.
Holmstrom netted his second of the game by finishing off a slick backhand feed from a cutting Jean-Gabriel Pageau, but the Islanders gave it right back on the power play a few minutes later, with Ilya Sorokin having no chance to stop Steven Stamkos’ one-timer. Max Tsyplakov took advantage of an Islanders’ power play shortly thereafter, converting at even strength by putting in Holmstrom’s feed to the crease just seven seconds after Ryan O’Reilly got out of the box. This time, the Islanders gave the lead back via a goaltending error, with McCarron putting the puck through Sorokin from just a few feet away.
When Marcus Hogberg came out to start the third, and when Sorokin was not on the bench , it became clear that was a more costly moment than it appeared..
