Friday was one of those nights for the Islanders — and they do happen over the course of 82 games — when every small bad habit a team has let slip into its game seems to bubble up and crescendo all at once.
It’s always ugly, always the sort of thing you can see coming in hindsight, and every so often, it’s either a harbinger or a necessity to jolt a team back into shape.
The Islanders, of course, will hope this was the latter. Time will tell.
For now, their performance in front of the home crowd in a 5-2 loss to the Wild might serve as a warning of sorts for this Islanders club that is now 6-6-2, an even NHL-.500.
They need to tighten it up, they need to improve their details, and they need to start putting together 60-minute performances, otherwise this will not be a mere irregularity.
Friday night was pockmarked by disconnection. The Islanders did not seem to know where their teammates were or where the puck was, frequently getting caught offside or out of position.
There were passes to no one, there were dumps before the red line had been crossed, and there were obvious breakdowns in communication.
The Islanders did briefly allow themselves some hope, when Anders Lee’s backhand feed up the ice sprung Jean-Gabriel Pageau to make it 4-2 in the final minutes of the second period.
A spot of brilliance from Kirill Kaprizov put an end to that. The Russian winger went between his legs on a pass to Mats Zuccarello, then ripped in a one-timer for the 5-2 goal on Zuccarello’s feed back to him.
The Islanders’ failure on the night, though, was much more complete than that.
The Alexander Romanov-Tony DeAngelo pair, a problem spot throughout the early portion of the season, had an especially brutal night, with Romanov on the ice for Minnesota’s first three goals and DeAngelo for their first two.
But make no mistake: This was a team effort.
The top line of Emil Heineman, Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal produced a goal when Horvat fed Heineman on one of few shifts where the Isles manufactured extended pressure but was otherwise barely noticeable. As for the second line, Cal Ritchie struggled to impact proceedings and his line was quiet all night.
In the third period, Ritchie was demoted to the fourth line with Kyle MacLean and Casey Cizikas — three centers — while Anthony Duclair moved up to form a second line without any centers, alongside Jonathan Drouin and Kyle Palmieri.
Even Matthew Schaefer’s pair with Scott Mayfield was caught out for a goal after Schaefer’s feed on the rush ended up in Pageau’s skates and no forward covered for him, leaving Marco Rossi free on the rush to make it 4-1 after Kaprizov sprung him at 9:05 of the second.
That was, in essence, the last gasp for the Islanders, who had cut the lead to 2-1 on Heineman’s goal at 4:38 of the same period, only for their momentum to evaporate barely over a minute later when Brock Faber’s snap shot went off the glove of David Rittich to re-extend Minnesota’s lead to 3-1.
The first period, after a decent five minutes to start, had offered uninterrupted misery, with both Romanov and DeAngelo caught out of position on Vinny Hinistroza’s opener.
A veritable parade of Minnesota pressure kept coming, and Danila Yurov poked one in at the crease for just the second goal of his career to make it 2-0.
With a seven-game road trip starting Saturday at the Rangers, maybe this wake-up call came at the right time.
That, at least, is what the Islanders need to hope.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
