VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Lane Lambert spent the season trying to say as little as possible in front of reporters. So when he criticized specific elements of the Islanders’ performance after Sunday’s 4-1 defeat to the Kraken, it was ear-splitting.
“We weren’t clean in our spots,” Lambert said. “It starts there. You’ll be able to’t play fast when you don’t execute or leave your zone clean, and we didn’t. Then, once we sometimes had the puck within the neutral zone, we turned it over as an alternative of driving deep and settling our money.
The Islanders spent most of Monday’s training at Rogers Arena working on clearances. But more telling than the trifles is that as Season 39 kicks off, the Islanders are still battling for consistency in the sport.
The Islanders won three games before heading West for 4 games, clinically suppressing shots and seeing as they only conceded three goals in those victories. The Kraken game, nevertheless, was so bad with the Isles taking more shots than it generated within the lead game that Lambert opted for an option he definitely shot down lower than per week ago and altered his five-for-four unit squad in practice.
“That was last week,” he said. “Something has definitely modified.”
It’s almost the center of Lambert’s first season in command of the Islanders, and this season will almost entirely be judged by whether the team makes the playoffs. At 21-15-2 at the doorway to Tuesday’s game against the Canucks, they’re on the flawed side of the divide, albeit only because of the Penguins – who are tied with them by 44 points and have one win less in regular time – having a game in hand. All five points separate the sixth-placed Islanders and narrowly out of the playoffs from the second-placed Devils.
For many of the season, the Islanders played against good opponents, with most of their poor performances coming against lesser opponents. To their credit, they’ve also weathered loads of injuries in addition to anyone could have expected.
Even with the activation of Semyon Varlamov on Monday, the Islanders have fewer regulars, with Oliver Wahlstrom, Adam Pelech and Simon Holmstrom skipping out altogether, while Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Palmieri try to heal from injuries in time to play in Western Canada.
Still, the team’s inconsistency has been a killer, and the three matches that make up the remaining of this journey might be a serious test. The Canucks have been in a spiral all season with speculation concerning the way forward for their coach, Bruce Boudreau, in addition to trade rumors circulating around star center Bo Horvat. However the Oilers and Flames, who will see them next, are right in the midst of a playoff race.
The 1v30 winning streak in the facility game the Isles have within the last 10 matches cannot proceed. The 4-4-2 record they’ve maintained during this time, while admirable for the way they’ve battled through countless problems, won’t be adequate to make it into an especially competitive playoff race.
Lambert said he looks on the season in 10-game segments. And while games 39 through 41 would make up different segments, if he prefers round numbers, they might add a rather more positive glow if the Islanders look more like they did within the three games leading up to Sunday than against the Kraken.
“There isn’t a selection,” said captain Anders Lee after the Kraken match. “It’s a crucial four-game trip. Apparently I dropped the primary one so the following one is big.