The Islanders might as well burn the tape. All 82 games of it.
Their season, which sputtered along coughing up plumes of smoke like a broken-down engine, finally came to an end on Friday night with a 6-4 loss to the Lightning. Six months ago, they were envisioning the Stanley Cup coming to a new address along the Hempstead Turnpike.
Now?
They’re going home with a 37-35-10 record, and you wouldn’t blame them for being a little bit relieved that it’s over.
The last 60 minutes of the season came and went, with the Lightning coming back down 3-1 in the third period to tie the game on Ryan McDonagh’s goal at 10:10 of the period. Steven Stamkos then provided the game-winner at 11:13 after Noah Dobson and Josh Bailey ran into each other to create an odd-man rush, ending a season of collapse in fitting fashion. Stamkos would later finish off a hat trick with a goal to seal the victory at 17:50.
Zdeno Chara’s goal with 43.4 seconds to go cut the lead to 5-4 — and gave the Islanders a feel-good moment as he scored his first goal all season on home ice in what might be his last NHL game — but it wasn’t enough for the win, as the Lightning responded with an empty-net goal.
For both teams, though, Friday was about moving on to Saturday — when the Lightning can turn their focus to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and when the Islanders can start what will need to be an exhaustive look at why that vision from October didn’t even come close to fruition.
“Everybody’s immune systems are pretty well shot right now,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said following Thursday’s 5-1 win over the Capitals. “We haven’t practiced in forever. There’s lots of things. We’re gonna look back at this season — and this will be something for the end of the season — it will start fresh. And hopefully we can get a normal season and then we can evaluate if we’re good enough.”
Trotz wasn’t just referring to COVID-19, which ripped through the team during the first half of the season. The Islanders have been dealing with a stomach flu for the last couple weeks, which resulted in Ross Johnston being pulled from Thursday’s lineup at the last minute, with Anthony Beauvillier returning from injury a game early to fill in.
In a season where things have gone so wrong that the bad luck even extended to the team’s broadcast booth, with Brendan Burke and Butch Goring both missing games due to health reasons over the last month, that’s a darkly fitting end.
The Islanders are left to try and figure out what to take from it all as they look to next season with an aging roster that failed to meet expectations amid a season that crumbled down around them.
“You never feel like you have enough,” Trotz said. “But if things are right, we’ve had defensemen out, we’ve had all that. I think we’re a lot closer than 20 points [away from contending], put it that way.”
Trotz, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2014 with the Predators, admitted that doubt crept in with the team’s struggles. Mathew Barzal made no such admission, saying that the lack of a complete roster gave them a situation that was hard to work with.
“I think there’s some tired bodies in that room,” Barzal said Thursday. “Just a lot of mileage this year, it felt like. Obviously not where we thought we’d be coming into the start of the year. We thought we’d be competing for the Cup and at the end of the day, thought we had a better second half. I think when this roster was healthy, we’re still one of the tougher teams in the league to beat.”
Certainly, there’s some truth in that. Exactly how much, though, is an important distinction, and one that GM Lou Lamoriello will need to parse over the coming weeks.
At the end of the day, though, the reality is hard to swallow. For the first time since 2018, the Islanders will be sitting on their couches watching the first round of the playoffs. They’ve known for a while that this was the likely outcome, and they’ve known officially for a couple weeks.
But that doesn’t make it easier.
“It sucks that we’re done, but at the same time, it’s been a challenge on the body and mentally,” Brock Nelson said Thursday. “I’m sure guys will relax and recover as needed.”
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