SUNRISE, Fla. — As the Islanders head home, coach Lane Lambert and his team are staring down a three-game losing streak following a winless trip to Florida that ended with a 3-2 defeat to the Panthers on Sunday. Unlike their loss to the Lightning a night earlier, this one was not as competitive as the score suggests.
As Lambert juggled his lines, pairings and power-play units, the Islanders struggled to put together an offensive attack on backup Florida netminder Spencer Knight at five-on-five. Two games after putting 17 shots on Mackenzie Blackwood in a blowout loss to the Devils at home, they forced Knight into just 23 saves and had six scoring chances at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.
With the third period came a comeback effort as Anders Lee pulled the Islanders to within a goal with a five-on-three tally at 9:07. But as with the rest of the game, the Isles’ five-on-five effort prevented them from following up on that.
Islanders’ Matt Martin (c.) is hit in the face by Florida Panthers’ Ryan Lomberg (94) during the first period. AP“We just gotta find a way to create a little bit more open ice in the offensive zone and deliver the puck [to the net],” Lee said. “We had plenty of shots in previous games that created a lot of zone time and I think when we stick to that and are able to generate that, it pays off for us.”
Anton Lundell scored less than a minute into the match, stripping Adam Pelech behind the net and then scoring from a tight angle past Semyon Varlamov. When Lambert tried to juggle the lines, something he did with success in a win over the Sharks last week, Eetu Luostarinen scored for the Panthers on the first shift that Lee, Mathew Barzal and Oliver Wahlstrom were together, with Lundell assisting.
The second period did come with the team’s first power-play goal since opening night, as Lee tipped Barzal’s shot past Knight to get it back to 2-1. At even strength, though, the Islanders struggled to compete.
The Islanders recorded just one high-danger chance on net, in the third period on a shot from Noah Dobson that missed the net. They were knocked off pucks, beaten below the hashes, beaten on the forecheck and beaten on the walls for most of the night. The score was closer, the opposition was better and the tone was less downtrodden afterwards, but for long stretches this bore an alarming resemblance to Thursday’s effort against the Devils.
Islanders players react on the bench. AP“We knew they were gonna come hard and we at times struggled a little bit breaking pucks out,” Lambert said. “So we spent a little bit more time in our zone than we wanted to.”
Ryan Lomberg made it 3-1, Florida, at 2:54 of the third with a wrist shot past Varlamov. The Islanders again pulled within one after Lee’s second goal, but even then, a comeback felt like a steep ask given how they played at five-on-five. Briefly, it looked as though Lee had tied it before the game went back to even strength, but the would-be goal was waved off, as the puck had gone out of play.
Now, as they come back home to face the Rangers on Wednesday, the Islanders are 2-4. Their next two games after the Blueshirts are at Carolina and home against Colorado. It is early in the season, but that is not a good position to be in.
Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov (16) skates through the Islanders’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau. AP“We have urgency every day, there’s no question,” Lambert said. “The urgency is high.”
After a summer in which the coaching change was the only major change the Islanders made, there is not much room for error if they are to break back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture and the lack of offensive acquisitions has already begun to show up.
A year after scoring once in his first 29 games, Kyle Palmieri has yet to find the scoresheet through the first six matches. Bailey, who was back in the lineup after being made a healthy scratch on Saturday less than a week off from presumably playing his 1,000th game with the club, has not yet recorded a point. Not one of the Islanders’ centers — Barzal, Brock Nelson, Jean-Gabriel Pageau or Casey Cizikas — has scored a goal. Only three forwards have scored more than once and one of them, Anthony Beauvillier, was in the press box during Sunday’s game.
Lambert, afterward, said he has no concern that the right players are on the team.
Still, when he stuck with them over the summer, GM Lou Lamoriello showed a lot of faith in a group that had made two straight Eastern Conference Finals in 2020 and 2021 before slumping last season. It is fast becoming imperative that they start showing that he was right.
