It is not so much that the New York Islanders lost Monday night but rather the fashion they did.
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy shutout the Isles, 4-0, on 34 saves but even that was not the story.
On defense, the Islanders were lackluster in their effort and were caught up ice on goal-scoring rushes and were not especially rushed in getting back to defend.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (#88) – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
WATCH: All Lightning vs. Islanders highlights
“It’s on me,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “I have to find the right combinations for us to find some offense. We’ve been able to do it in the past. I have faith in myself and my coaching staff. But we have to find a way to get some offense.”
Yes the Isles were hindered by their lack of offense but clearly the defense was absent.
“You just keep going, you keep working, you fight your way out of it,” Islanders captain John Tavares said. “Obviously, we don’t want to be in the spot that we’re in, but we’re not going to quit. We’ve just got to stay positive and stay together. All you can do is get up tomorrow and find a way to get better and get yourself through it.”
In the third period, New York found an offensive push and outshot the Bolts, 20-4, but by then Tampa was playing back and trying to protect the win and shutout.
“We sat back probably a little too much in the third and put [Vasilevskiy] in a tough position to make some big saves to earn that shutout,” Tampa’s Steve Stamkos said. “But the first two periods were pretty good.”
For the Islanders, they will be pleased this was the final game between the two teams this season; the Lightning swept the three games by a 14-2 composite score.
“Last year is last year. We have to let go of that, first and foremost. We have the group in here that can do it,” the Islanders’ Travis Hamonic said. “I think that we’re confident in who we have as players and everyone that we have in the organization. We’ve shown that we can do it this year as well; we’ve played some great games.
“But we just have to box everything out and restart and try to have a good couple of practices here coming up. (We have) a big game Friday night against obviously one of the top teams in the League (the Pittsburgh Penguins), but certainly one of our rivals as well. We’ll be ready for sure, that’s 100 percent.”
Nikita Kucherov, J.T. Brown, Ryan Callahan, and Vladislav Namestnikov scored for the Lightning.
Jaroslav Halaktook the loss on 27 saves.
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