TAMPA, Fla. — Just as the playoffs began to look inevitable for the Islanders, there came the team that twice prevented them from playing for a Stanley Cup.
Much as both the Islanders and Lightning have changed over in a nearly 24-month span, you can still imagine members of the Islanders uttering the name like Seinfeld spitting out Newman’s: “Tampa!”
After a blowout 5-0 loss at Amalie Arena on Saturday, the Islanders still haven’t beaten the Lightning since Game 6 of the 2021 NHL semifinals — a match that took place at Nassau Coliseum, in which Anthony Beauvillier scored the overtime winner.
Good memories and all, but with Tampa Bay visiting UBS Arena on Thursday to complete the season series, that would be an ideal time to break this six-game albatross.
“The second [period] was garbage,” Anders Lee said. “We gotta find a way — we just can’t [play like that]. We had some missed assignments. Little things we haven’t been doing lately. And then they did take advantage of them.”
The nadir of this one came at 11:45 of the aforementioned second period when the Lightning forced Lane Lambert into an action so rare that it last happened 370 days ago: Pulling Ilya Sorokin from a game.
Nikita Kucherov scores a goal on Ilya Sorokin during the Islanders’ 5-0 loss to the Lightning. APNo prizes for guessing who it was against that time.
That particular concession to reality (and to resting Sorokin to keep open the possibility of him starting on Sunday at Carolina) came amid a flurry of Lightning goals, with Nikita Kucherov netting a breakaway goal and Steven Stamkos making it 4-0 within two minutes.
Earlier in the second, Tanner Jeannot had deflected in a feed from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare after the Islanders lost him in the slot.
“We just didn’t have awareness,” coach Lane Lambert said, “which is not a good thing.”
Sorokin left having stopped just 17 of 21 shots, but the goaltender was a victim of circumstance more than anything.
To pour it on even more, Brayden Point added goal number five at 13:26 of the third, this one with Semyon Varlamov in the Islanders’ net.
Lightning star Steven Stamkos celebrates after scoring a goal during the Islanders’ loss. APDon’t be fooled by the shot count — the Islanders went through a veritable checklist of how to lose a hockey game. They failed to generate a forecheck.
They failed to impose themselves physically — an extreme rarity for this team. Repeatedly, they allowed stretch passes to go through the neutral zone and for most of the game, they got forced into playing chip-and-change hockey, hemmed in and entirely on the back foot.
“They had guys blowing the zone,” Noah Dobson told The Post. “Just, down by a couple goals, you’re trying to seek for some offense, but at the same time, you gotta be aware of who’s behind you. They did a good job of stretching some guys, blowing the zone.”
Tampa Bay began to put its fingerprints on the game midway through the first period, suddenly in constant possession of the puck.
The Islanders couldn’t find a way to break out of the defensive zone or gain control of neutral ice.
Ryan Pulock battles the Lightning’s Tanner Jeannot for the puck during the Islanders’ loss. APThat was never going to end well and when Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from the left point banked off Romanov and past Sorokin at 17:53 of the period, the Islanders began to get their comeuppance.
The Islanders had enough of a cushion in the first wild-card spot to deal with a loss, even with the Panthers beating Columbus.
They did get help with the Penguins losing to the Bruins, so Pittsburgh remains three points behind the Islanders with a game in hand, while the Panthers have moved into the second wild-card spot, two points behind the Isles.
Even amid a run of good vibes for the Islanders, though, a loss like this snaps them back to reality.
“Regardless of the bounces, we have to have a better game,” Lee said. “… We didn’t get to our game at all.”
Locking up a playoff berth should be a formality at this point.
But that doesn’t mean it will be easy.
Not with a game at Carolina on Sunday off a 23-hour turnaround, and not with a match against you know who back at home on Thursday.
The combined score between the Islanders and Lightning since Beauvillier closed the Coliseum: A cool 23-9. You can guess in favor of who.
“That’s ancient history,” Lambert said, regarding his team’s record against Tampa Bay. “We move on from this moment.”
