Good Morning, Islanders Country.
As the buzzer sounded at UBS Arena, the words hung in the air longer than they should have. “It’s a shame, it’s a shame, and it’s a missed opportunity,” MSG analyst Thomas Hickey said, and there wasn’t a soul in the building who could argue otherwise. This wasn’t just a loss. This was the kind that follows you, the kind that waits for you at the end of a season and asks what might have been.
One game removed from a needed, feel-good response against Columbus, the Islanders found themselves right back where they didn’t want to be — outside the playoff picture, staring at a result that felt entirely avoidable. If things stay that way, if the margins don’t swing back in their favor, this 4-3 loss to Chicago will be the one circled, underlined, and remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Because here’s the maddening part: they pushed. They pressed. They played desperate hockey when the situation demanded it, piling up 27 high-danger chances — their most in over two years — and nearly clawing all the way back. But none of that erases the 7-minute stretch in the first period where everything unraveled. Sloppy. Disjointed. Completely out of character.
And just like that, a quick start, and dominating ending, all for nought.
“We made a few mistakes in the first,” Anders Lee said. “We made some mistakes and left Rittich out to dry, and the next thing we know it’s 3-1.”
Add in a blown icing call, an injury to Tony DeAngelo, a couple of posts, and it becomes the kind of night where everything that can go wrong does — except this time, it came at the worst possible moment.
It’s hard to explain how that stretch happened. Harder still to ignore what it might mean.
The Islanders gave away what felt like the surest two points left on their schedule. Now they have to chase them down somewhere else, along with their momentum.
And if they don’t?
Well, that would be a shame.
