Good Morning, Islanders Country.
They should just start the games in overtime.
As soon as the Islanders took a two-goal lead in the third period, the sarcastic but realistic quips started. “Do I turn this off now or watch them blow it?” Islanders’ Anxiety’s Dan Saraceni posted on X.
He watched, and we all did. It’s been 55 games of this, a staggering 21 of them have gone into overtime, and they’re still inventing new ways to blow games.
This time, Adam Pelech, of all people, scored his first of the season, coming off the bench, skating up the middle of the ice with speed, and wristing a shot off the post and in to avoid a second consecutive complete collapse.
Make no mistake, though, this was still a collapse. They surrendered the lead in a span of 56 seconds. I don’t care if one of the goals was truly a stroke of bad luck off Anders Lee’s skate. It just can’t happen because it’s always something.
It’s the reason why the mood was tempered after the game. The Islanders know things can’t go on like this, they just can’t. They can say it’s small things they need to clean up, but those have amounted to the same big problem all year.
“We really do have the lead lots, we just have to find a way to get over the hump. It was nice to get the win tonight, but it shouldn’t have had to get there. We have to find a way to be better.” - Mathew Barzal
Others may disagree, but I don’t think it’s a talent thing. Lane Lambert didn’t have an answer, and neither does Patrick Roy. The only reasonable explanation is that it’s a mental thing amongst this group. The only way they’ll overcome it is by protecting a lead late in a game and then doing it again and again and again.
Roy has been talking about how it’s hard to break bad habits. Well, they can break most of them, but if the habit of blowing third-period leads doesn’t see an end, their playoff hopes of making the playoffs eventually will.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Isles Fix to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.