Islanders see how far they have to go with key deficiency exposed in eye-opening loss to Stars
DALLAS — That will put a halt on the Islanders’ fledgling momentum.It’s not merely that the Stars snapped the Islanders’ five-game points streak on Sunday night, beating them 6-3 at American Airlines Center.It’s that the how of it included so many reminders of the Islanders’ limitations.Namely, their speed, or lack thereof.
The Islanders have shown they can play around it — indeed, they did at points on Sunday — but doing so requires impeccable detail and decision-making down the lineup.When pieces are off, when they are playing one of the league’s faster teams or both, as was the case here, it is so much harder to get away with.The Stars could get pucks behind Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock and then beat them to it.
They could handle dump-ins from the Islanders’ workmanlike third and fourth lines with ease, moving the puck out before the Islanders could start their forecheck.Jason Robertson can capitalize on a split-second of indecision from Brayden Schenn behind his own net and turn it into a goal.Put all that together and you have a steep, uphill climb for the Islanders to stay in a game.To their credit, the Islanders did so anyway.
It said something good about the Islanders’ character that they fought back down 1-0 and 2-1 and 3-2 to go into the last 20 minutes tied at three after Schenn deposited Anthony Duclair’s feed from behind the net past Jake Oettinger at 17:45 of the second.What they couldn’t do, though, was change the pattern of the game.So 4:10 into the third, Wyatt Johnston gave Dallas its fourth lead of the night, getting open in the slot after the Islanders overcommitted to the strong side of the ice and burying one.This time, the Islanders didn’t have the immediate answer.Robertson floated behind Pelech and was sprung by Tyler Seguin’s pass before scoring to make it 5-3. Adding insult to injury, Mikko Rantanen — the arch-villain last time the Islanders played here — made it 6-3 mere minutes later.
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