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The New York Islanders’ season came to an end last night, with the team missing the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
The Islanders actually had a pretty strong final week against some tough competition, defeating the Washington Capitals in both games of their home-and-home set, winning 4-1 in Washington on Tuesday, then 5-1 at home on Thursday. However, they blew a two-goal lead against the Lightning last night, falling 6-4 to end the season.
It was a pretty rough way to end the year with the loss, even if the final game didn’t mean much. The Islanders played a really strong game through the first 40 minutes but were sunk with a poor third period, allowing five goals in the final frame. It marks the third year in a row that the Islanders end their season with a loss to the Lightning and that stat, in addition to the blown lead, just leaves a sour taste from the last game of a season which was already wildly underwhelming.
If there was one positive takeaway, Zdeno Chara scored the Islanders’ final goal of the season in what could be his last NHL game. Chara received a nice ovation from the crowd and if that was the final game of his long NHL career, the late goal was a nice moment.
Again though, this is going to be a long offseason for the Islanders. Expected to be contenders in the East, they fell flat with inconsistency and frustrating stretches of play. Despite the quality of the teams in the East who did make the postseason, the Islanders aren’t far off, finishing ninth in the conference. They certainly need some upgrades up front and need to be aggressive in improving this offseason but there are still a lot of core players to build around moving forward.
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