The New York Islanders are on the verge of elimination, after losing 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final.
We got some bad news just before the game, being that Casey Cizikas, as well as Tom Kuhnhackl, have left the bubble and are out for the playoffs due to injury. Kuhnhackl hasn’t played since the qualifying round but obviously Cizikas being injured is a huge loss.
The Islanders were outplayed in the first period, despite making it to the intermission with the game still scoreless. They were outshot 11-5 and while they didn’t surrender a ton of quality chances, they certainly could’ve found themselves trailing after the period.
Despite being outplayed in the first 10 minutes of the second period as well, the Islanders struck first, when Brock Nelson managed to hang on to the puck, find some open ice and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a great shot. However, just 15 seconds after New York took the lead, Yanni Gourde hit Blake Coleman with an excellent stretch pass and Coleman was able to bury his chance on a breakaway. Capping off a wild 30 seconds, Brayden Point then connected with Nikita Kucherov on a pass, who then found Ondrej Palat in a perfect spot and Palat was able to beat a sliding Varlamov for Tampa Bay to take the lead. The teams traded some pretty good chances after that and the Islanders nearly tied it a couple of times, but the period ended 2-1.
Early in the third period, the Lightning were able to add to their lead, when Brayden Point crashed the net and was able to put in a pass from Ondrej Palat. The Islanders would push to tie it but Patrick Maroon sealed the game with an empty net goal with just over two minutes remaining.
While the Islanders were better in the back half of the game, the truth is, the Lightning played a more complete game. If New York is going to get back into the series, they have to find a way to limit more chances. Tampa Bay's offense is just too strong and the Islanders can't afford to spend much time in their own zone or allow easy zone entries.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Islanders Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Islanders for updates on articles, Islanders news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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