The Islanders spent the three games prior to Friday looking like a group that had just watched their best friend get traded.
That was no longer the case at home against Edmonton.
Instead, they looked like a group that had just watched their best scorer get traded.
The intensity that had been missing earlier in the week, at least, was very much back.
But all that meant was there was no place to look for the cause of this 2-1 overtime defeat to the Oilers aside from what’s fast becoming obvious: the Islanders have got a scoring problem on their hands.
After Friday, it’s three goals over their past 183:53 of hockey, a mark that would be alarming at any point of the season, but especially now.
Against a more talented Oilers team — but one the Isles have regularly played tough over the past few seasons — the ice was tilted for much of the night prior to Leon Draisaitl’s game-winner 3:52 into a pulsating extra period, with Ilya Sorokin the main reason this didn’t get out of hand in the first period.
“I would like to see us score more goals, there’s no doubt about it,” coach Patrick Roy said, after noting the Islanders had technically scored five goals in their past three, including the two overturned in Los Angeles. “I thought we had our chances. I have faith in our group and I believe that eventually the puck will go in. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe in. When you do good things, good things happen.”
Nominally, at least, there is a playoff race here — the Islanders gained ground even by losing on Friday by virtue of going to OT.
With six home games in seven, Friday included, this is a stretch in which the Islanders, now four points back of a spot, must take advantage.
What’s a lot less clear is whether they can.
There were not many Grade-A looks for the Isles in this one — just five high-danger chances in the game, per Natural Stat Trick— but those there were often served to highlight the club’s lack of natural scorers.
Like the two-on-one rush at four-on-four with Alexander Romanov and Tony DeAngelo early in the second, with nary a forward in sight.
Or the odd-man rush later in the period where Bo Horvat fed Scott Mayfield, only for Mayfield to fumble the puck, then take a penalty in short order.
Meanwhile, Leon Draisaitl’s cannon boom of a slap shot at 8:46 of the second was enough for the Oilers to take a 1-0 lead into the third, even with Sorokin looking his unflappable best and bailing out a series of Islander errors early in the night.
The Islanders tied it up just 1:21 into the third, with Horvat taking the puck off Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and keeping it himself to tie the game at 1-1.
That set off an end-to-end, and highly-entertaining, third period through which both teams traded chances — the best, and easily the most fun, hockey the Islanders have played since the Nelson trade.
It also wasn’t enough to get them over the line.
This would take overtime to settle, the Islanders’ first three-on-three hockey since Feb. 1, and Draisaitl scored his 49th goal and 100th point of the season off the rush to seal it.
“He sees the target and shoots in this place,” Sorokin said of the Hart Trophy front-runner. “It’s hard because his shot is so quick. He don’t have a big move. He has a short move, short shot. It’s a very hard shot [to stop].”
That followed a desperate shift in their own end, where Sorokin’s glove save gave the Islanders a reprieve after Simon Holmstrom’s stick broke and Adam Pelech appeared hobbled after taking a shot off his foot, and a couple chances the Islanders will rue, including Calvin Pickard standing up to Casey Cizikas in tight.
Add it to the list of moments at which the Islanders just didn’t have enough finishing punch, and with it, the list of reasons to worry.
“As it went on, I thought we were able to [gain momentum] for sure,” Pelech said, kneading his foot but appearing to be fine in the postgame dressing room. “They’re a handful. They’re a good team. Those two guys [Draisaitl and Connor McDavid] I think maybe had a little too much time and space. It’s not an easy job, but I think a little too much time in our zone with the puck.”
For now at least, the Islanders are still in this race.
To stay in it, they’re going to need to start scoring.
