LOS ANGELES — The Islanders may have just had the worst run in Southern California since Magic Johnson tried hosting late-night television.
After 5-1 in Anaheim came 5-3 in Los Angeles on Trade Deadline Eve, as the Islanders fell to the Kings on Thursday in a game where they were completely overmatched from the jump. As messages to management go, this was one Mathieu Darche would probably like to erase.
One bad game was something the Islanders could wave away off the heels of a five-game winning streak. Two is a harder sell.
“It’s a wake-up call for us that we still have a lot of work to do,” said Bo Horvat, whose line has been a shell of its usual shelf so far on this trip. “We still have to play confident, good hockey in order to make the playoffs.”
It is easier to list the couple positives for the Islanders on Thursday than the many, many things that went wrong.
Ryan Pulock was back from injury, and going 8:35 without allowing an empty-net goal was fairly impressive. That is, pretty much, it.
The Islanders turned pucks over, they had no net presence on either side of the ice, they were anemic on the power play.
They have yet to come out of a first period without trailing since the Olympic break, and Thursday was their worst start yet, as the Isles were outshot 19-5 and barely touched the puck.
“I wasn’t surprised the way they came out,” Roy said. “We talked about it. We knew it was the second game for their new coach, and they lost against Colorado.”
Of course, Roy’s team also lost on Wednesday and should have had plenty of motivation.
Somehow, they were still within arm’s length going into the third period thanks to Horvat scoring in, literally, the final second of the second period. After one second was put back onto the clock, Horvat whipped one in from above the left circle off a faceoff to bring the Islanders within 3-1.
The momentum proved fleeting.
The Islanders and Kings ended up trading goals throughout the third, with the deficit never getting below two as Alex Laferriere, Adam Pelech, Adrian Kempe and Emil Heineman all added to the scoresheet.
There is just no way to come back down three goals without being much, much better around the crease and below the hash marks than the Islanders were on Thursday. Let alone when giving the opponent free access through the neutral zone.
Come to think of it, forget coming back, it’s hard to win a game at all under those conditions.
“In the games where we came back, the previous five games, we were getting to the [dirty] areas, creating more havoc our front,” Horvat told The Post. “These last two games, we’re trying to be too pretty. It’s kind of backfired on us. We got to get back to being more simple.”
Horvat’s commentary on his own line, which was on for two goals against and made little positive impact for the second straight night, was just as scathing.
“Right now we’re trying to make something out of nothing,” he said. “We got to be a heck of a lot better in order for our team to win here. My line has to step up in bigger ways and create offense. And be reliable in our own end too. We have to be a lot better than we have been the last two games.”
Making matters worse was that, aside from JG Pageau’s line, pretty much the entire lineup has had a brutal two nights.
The fourth line, which can usually generate some kind of a forecheck, didn’t have much in the tank and Kyle MacLean committed a brutal turnover leading to the Kings’ second goal, via Samuel Helenius.
The second line has been a total nonfactor two straight nights and looks an obvious candidate to be broken up.
Pelech turned it over leading to Mikey Anderson’s third goal just 1:31 later.
Scott Mayfield has had a tough two games and though Matthew Schaefer is beyond any serious criticism, the superstar rookie hasn’t looked like his usual self in either game out West.
Maybe there is something in the air in this building, where the Islanders haven’t won since 2018. Or maybe it is Southern California in general, even though the smog is largely a thing of the past.
Either way, the Islanders will be glad to get out of here.
