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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
It’s never good when you’re debating, ‘which lost was more brutal?’ during the course of the season. The 6-5 loss to the Vancouver Canucks and the 4-3 OT defeat to the Montreal Canadiens transpired differently but represented a troubling trend of not being able to secure third-period leads.
Those lost points are the difference between being in playoff position (even with all their problems) and not. They are just 4-2-3 in their last nine games when holding a lead heading into the final 20 minutes. That’s only 11 of a possible 18 total points.
Per statistician Eric Hornick, with Saturday’s OT loss, the Isles fell to 19-3-3 when leading after two periods; their nine points lost when leading after two periods are the highest total in the NHL this season.
The nine points are the most since losing 10 (25-3-4) in 2014-15. That’s pretty remarkable, considering there is still more than a quarter of the season to play.
Oh, and you remember how the Islanders’ problem over the last month has been their inability to score the elusive third goal? It was kind of a magic number. The Isles were 22-5-1 when scoring three goals (including shootout winners) before the last two games. So not only did these lose games where they held a third-period lead, but it was also in games where they scored 3+ goals.
A double dose of ‘you can’t lose that game.’
Blame it on losing individual battles; blame it on situational awareness; blame it on mental lapses and bad-decision making. Whatever it is, the Islanders have no one to blame but themselves for the situation they find themselves in.
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