What Went Wrong: Isles Caught in a Hurricane Yet Again

In a wild and crazy playoff Tuesday, on the last day of April, four teams faced elimination. One of them, the Toronto Maple Leafs, avoided elimination with an overtime win in Game Five over the Boston Bruins. Another team, the New York Islanders, were having some trouble in their Game Five against the Carolina Hurricanes. They were down 3-1 after the first period, but they managed to tie it up in the second. However, the Islanders were completely dominated in that third period. Three Hurricanes goals sealed the Islanders' fate.

This was an interesting season for the Islanders. The team was entering their second season after firing Barry Trotz as head coach, but in the middle of that season, they had to make another change. Lane Lambert was out, and in a shocking move, Patrick Roy was in. Somehow, they scratched and clawed to get to third place in the Metropolitan, though it did help that the logjam in the Eastern Conference was full of mediocrity. This team was not in Carolina's class, and it showed. Here's an ironic stat: as many problems the Isles had when it came to overtime, the Isles' one win in this series came in double overtime in Game 4.

So what went wrong? Same problem they had for years: they can't really score. The ironic thing: they had this problem even when they had those deep run, but the defense was there. Now? Not so much.

Only two players on the Isles had multiple goals: Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson. Barzal finished as the points leader with five (2 G/3 A), the only player getting a point per game. Brock Nelson finished with four points (2 G/2 A), as did Anders Lee (G/3 A), while Kyle Palmieri and Bo Horvat each had three points (G/2 A each). That won't cut it. As I said before, the Islanders weren't this offensively sound even during their long runs, but they somehow made it work then. Now? Definitely a problem, because the defense is not there this year, especially in net. Semyon Varlamov fell off in this series, and an attempt to switch it up with Ilya Sorokin in net didn't work out for them.

This playoff appearance is the Islanders' sixth in seven years, and again, the centerpieces of this current stretch came in the 2020 and 2021 campaigns. The 2020 bubble saw them start in the Qualifying Round and then end up in the Eastern Conference Final, losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The shortened 2021 campaign saw the Isles go to the Final Four again, but the Lightning defeated them once again. Most teams build off runs like that, but the Isles? No playoffs in 2022, and back-to-back first round exits, both at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes.

I honestly think that the Islanders' only hope for returning to the playoffs next year is the rest of the Eastern Conference remains mediocre. Honestly, that's how they got in this year. The Metropolitan Division, below the Rangers and Hurricanes, was mediocre. The Islanders capitalized on the Devils fizzling, the Penguins running out of gas after a hot streak, and the Flyers falling off a cliff at the wrong time. All of those things need to happen again if this Islanders team wants to be in the playoffs again next year, because if even one of those three teams actually improves, this Islanders team can forget it.

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