The New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins had opportunities to win Monday night and ensure they’d enter the Olympic break in a playoff spot.
But by squandering leads against teams currently outside of the playoff picture, the Islanders and Penguins can only hope they haven’t put their long-term futures in jeopardy.
New York and Pittsburgh will look to steady themselves in the Metropolitan Division race on Tuesday night when they meet in Elmont, N.Y.
Each squad, which has two more games before the Olympic break, gave up an early lead Monday, as the Islanders fell 4-1 to the Washington Capitals and the Penguins lost 3-2 to the Ottawa Senators.
The loss was the second straight regulation defeat for the Islanders, who squandered an early two-goal lead Saturday in a 4-3 setbacl to the Nashville Predators.
Mathew Barzal scored an unassisted goal with 3:22 left in the first before defenseman Martin Fehervary and Anthony Beauvillier scored the tying and game-winning goals in a span of 31 seconds early in the middle period.
The third-place Islanders (65 points) saw their lead over the fourth-place Capitals shrink to two points. New York also missed a chance to tie the Penguins (67 points) for second place.
The loss to the Predators snapped a three-game Islanders winning streak — the longest for the team since a three-game run from Dec. 9-13.
“Every game is important,” Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield said. “You’re trying to rack up points the entire season, so that’s how we see it. Every game is a new game.”
Should the Islanders and Penguins fall out of the top three spots in the Metro, they would reside behind the Atlantic Division’s Buffalo Sabres (69 points) and Boston Bruins (68) in the race for the two wild-card berths. New York and Pittsburgh each play again on Thursday before beginning the Olympic break.
Consistency also has been difficult to establish for the Penguins, who have alternated hot stretches with slumps for almost two months. The loss Monday ended a six-game winning streak for Pittsburgh, which outscored the opposition 31-15 during the surge.
The Penguins also won six straight from Dec. 28 through Jan. 8 — a streak bookended by a 1-5-4 stretch from Dec. 7-23 and a 1-2-2 skid from Jan. 10-17. The pre-Christmas skid began with a season-high eight-game losing streak (0-4-4).
Egor Chinakhov gave Pittsburgh the lead by scoring 7:57 into the first period on Monday night. But the Penguins tied a season low with 16 shots — including just three after Tommy Novak tied the score at 8:48 of the third.
The Penguins also had 16 shots in a 5-4 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Dec. 14.
“We didn’t play our best and found a way to be in the game,” Novak said Monday night. “We were hoping to steal one but didn’t come out with it.”
Said Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Karlsson: “We were not very good today, I don’t think, myself included. It was one of the tougher nights, and that’s how it’s going to be sometimes, unfortunately. I think we battled as hard as we could with what we had today, and what we had today wasn’t much.”
–Field Level Media
