WASHINGTON D.C. — You’d call it a Thanksgiving hangover, except this is who the Islanders have been all year round.
Which leads you to conclude: Maybe this is who the Islanders are.
Twenty-four games into the season, it’s no longer early, and the Islanders can’t lay claim to playing a decent hockey game in every area except the final score Friday in Washington.
Rather, the latest third-period implosion, which led to a 5-4 overtime loss to the Capitals, put into a starker reality that the Islanders are not merely behind the league’s typical Cup contenders, but another club that has been accused of hanging onto a core too long — and this without the injured Alex Ovechkin on the ice.
Outplayed for much of an afternoon that ended on Jakob Chuychrun’s game-winner, the Islanders used a fortuitous series of events — a successful challenge, a rare successful penalty kill and two goals from the ensuing momentum — to snare a 4-2 lead going into the third.
It seemed like real momentum.
It was just as fake as all the other leads the Islanders have let go to waste this season.
Anders Lee took a penalty for hooking just five seconds into the third period and the kill — which had come up huge in the second — faltered, with Dylan Strome wristing one past Semyon Varlamov to cut the lead in half.
The Islanders could not even get to the halfway point of the period ahead, with Tom Wilson taking advantage of a failed clearance by Noah Dobson to rocket in a one-timer off Trevor van Riemsdyk’s feed to tie the game at the 7:24 mark.
The Islanders had a chance to retake the lead after Nic Dowd was called for slashing with 3:50 to go in regulation but came up empty for the third time on the afternoon on the power play.
That sent the game to overtime, which at least gave the Islanders a point.
But it will feel like a paltry return on an afternoon when they led by two before watching Chychrun score to defeat them at three-on-three.
The club will almost assuredly wait to see what they can do when healthy before making a decision on whether to buy or sell, but right now, they are three games behind the very modest goal articulated by Patrick Roy on Wednesday night of being NHL-.500 when the reinforcements come in.
Where the Islanders could at least hang their hats on playing a strong game and generating good chances in a lot of prior losses, that was not the case in this one.
It was instead the Capitals who played up ice and who owned the puck, buoyed by a forecheck the Islanders could not solve and defensive-zone breakdowns the Islanders could not afford.
Simon Holmstrom, who played in place of J-G Pageau on the top line after Pageau was made a late scratch with a lower-body injury, helped them seize the initiative with an early goal, then made it his first career two-goal game late in the second.
The latter goal came after Patrick Roy successfully challenged for goalie interference on a would-be go-ahead goal for Washington, leading to consecutive goals by Kyle MacLean and Holmstrom to turn what would have been a 3-2 deficit into a 4-2 lead.
Though the Islanders struggled throughout the game’s early goings, this looked like something they could grab onto, and a two-goal lead looked as though it might be safe if they could keep the momentum in the final period.
Instead, it was the same mirage.
It was the same Islanders.
It was the same result.
