WASHINGTON — The Islanders have spent the last month figuring out workarounds to some of their more enduring issues this season, usually to good results.

Getting a point out of Wednesday’s game — a second end of a back-to-back in which they didn’t have much energy throughout — might fall into that category.

Still, a move to 0-4-1 on the second night of back-to-backs this season is less than inspiring after a 3-2 overtime loss to the Caps on Wednesday night following Dylan Strome’s game-winner.

“Playing a lot of hockey, but we gotta find a way to manage it,” said Noah Dobson, whose penalty for tripping set up Strome’s goal at four-on-three. “We gotta manage the puck better. Too many turnovers early and then you’re getting stuck in your own end and they’re coming at you. We’ll take the positive, get a point out of it, but definitely need to get better in those situations. Especially early.”

The Islanders have steadfastly maintained that playing twice in 48 hours is no excuse, but after their second loss this week in such a scenario, it was a lot harder to deny that played a role.

Wednesday was not quite the horror show that Saturday’s loss to the Canadiens was until a late comeback attempt, but the spirit of the thing was not all that far removed.

Again, the Islanders managed the puck poorly, turning it over in their own zone.

Again they struggled to establish a forecheck, looking a step behind their better-rested opposition.

“I thought we managed it a little better maybe than we did in Montreal,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I just didn’t think we were closing. We spent way too much time in our zone. Our legs weren’t going and as a result we had no juice to go north once we were trying to defend.”

The parallels to Saturday go right down to a comeback that did not quite finish the job in the third period. This one did, however, get as far as tying the game and earning a point.

Anders Lee’s goal at 12:02 of the period — coming after the Islanders had spent the early part of the period playing with about as much energy as they had early in the game — injected some life into the game, making it 2-2 as Lee roofed a backhand.

That was enough to force this game into overtime, which on Wednesday, felt a little bit like a win in its own right given how the Islanders played. But they could not come up with the second point.

Forty-three seconds into overtime, Dobson tripped Martin Fehervary.

That set up a four-on-three Washington chance that the Islanders could not defend, as Strome found the winner with a wrist shot from the high slot at the 1:41 mark of OT.

“I thought we did a pretty good job [killing the penalty] up until the time they scored,” Lambert said. “That was kind of the shot we wanted to give them.”

Hendrix Lapierre scored the only goal of a first period in which Washington dominated possession of the puck, hitting a one-timer from the slot after Brock Nelson turned the puck over along the left wall.

Hudson Fasching got the Islanders back into it with a wraparound goal 1:03 into the second that Caps netminder Darcy Kuemper probably would have liked to have back.

It did not, however, lead to a sustained push for the Isles, even as they got two power-play chances in the period.

In lieu of pressure from the Islanders, the Caps came up with some of their own, and eventually took the lead on Joel Edmundson’s one-timer from the midpoint.

“It’s gonna be a night where, you get one on your stick and you gotta find a way,” Lee said. “That’s why I thought we did a really good job of sticking with it and staying on them, especially in the third, to tie that game up. You gotta understand, sometimes, the circumstance of the game and what’s going on and what it’s gonna take to win.”

The Islanders, though, have now lost three games in four — largely thanks to their troubles on back-to-backs.

Getting back to winning against Carolina on Saturday before the holiday break starts, then, will be imperative to flushing this forgettable night from their minds.