For the past five months, the Islanders have advertised a new era, and it could be felt building to a crescendo at Saturday’s home opener.
Everything from the game presentation at UBS Arena to the roster on the ice looked different. The 7 p.m. start time was a departure from what had previously been a standard 7:30 puck drop. The loudest roar in pregame warmups was for Matthew Schaefer. Of course.
And then … the Islanders went splat.
A new era, it turns out, does not reach its apex in five months. In their 4-2 loss to the Capitals on Saturday night, the Islanders showed that, no matter how sleek the marketing has been lately, there is still plenty of work to do before the on-ice product catches up.
Where Thursday had some encouraging notes even in defeat, there was much less of that on Saturday, when disconnectedness seemed to overpower just about everything else, with the possible exception of Schaefer’s first NHL goal, the raucous ovation that followed and the incomprehensibly long review to confirm it.
The Islanders couldn’t break out, repeatedly got beaten on the walls and had too much east/west in their game.
The second pair of Alexander Romanov and Tony DeAngelo was caved in all night, with Romanov on the ice for three goals against at even strength and DeAngelo for two, including one after his careless turnover gave Aliaksei Protas a one-on-zero break for a 4-0 Washington lead at 15:30 of the second.
That marked a milestone for the year: The first time the Islanders were booed at UBS.
Ilya Sorokin, too, has had a suspect first two games. Though there was not much help in front of the netminder Saturday, his rebound control was poor, and he twice failed to stop Protas without any traffic in front — both tough shots, to be sure, but the kind Sorokin is paid to stop.
The Islanders ceded a goal just 1:50 in after Sorokin failed to control Alex Ovechkin’s rebound, allowing Martin Fehérváry to pounce for a 1-0 Washington lead. Protas would double it at the 13:52 mark, capitalizing on Simon Holmstrom’s turnover on the wall while exiting the zone to rip one in from the slot.
While the Islanders did kill off a penalty after a phantom tripping call on Kyle Palmieri, Ryan Leonard made it 3-0 before Palmieri could even rejoin the play with a shot that ricocheted off Scott Mayfield and in at the 9:50 mark of the second.
By the time Anthony Duclair — one of few Islanders who had an encouraging night — scored on the power play to make it 4-1 late in the second, the game already felt all but over.
The Islanders got some energy in the form of Schaefer’s goal — also on the power play — early in the third, which did prevent the night from feeling like a total loss.
Already, the No. 1 pick looks like one of their best defensemen, and the Islanders fought hard in the last 20 minutes despite how poorly the first 40 had gone. The good thing about where the Islanders are now is that small notes of positivity are possible even in a largely messy game.
The bad is that for all the hopefulness that surrounded the Islanders in recent months, they got a cold, hard smack from reality Saturday. There is still a considerable distance between these Islanders and the Capitals, who won the Metropolitan Division a year ago.
This is a work in progress, and two games into the season, there might be more work to do than the Islanders thought.
