Not 10 hours before losing to the Blue Jackets following Kyle Palmieri’s would-be game-winning goal being controversially waved off for interference, the talk around Northwell Health Ice Center was about keeping an even keel amid a playoff race.
That is a lot more prescient now than it was then.
“You can’t let anything affect you,” coach Patrick Roy said. “That’s what we’re saying. [Maybe] we didn’t have a perfect first period, but we didn’t dig ourselves a hole. It’s a one-goal game or a two-goal game. … A two-goal game now, it’s nothing.”
The Islanders have proven themselves adept at staying level within games.
But doing so from game to game might be a tougher issue, given their streakiness over the past couple of months.
And after the way Monday night ended, shaking off the understandable frustration and anger in time for Wednesday’s match against the Canucks is crucial for the Islanders to bounce back.
There are 12 games left in the season, and the Islanders started Tuesday a point behind the Canadiens for the final playoff spot.
Montreal faced St. Louis on Tuesday, and the Rangers — tied with the Islanders in points but with one extra game played — faced Los Angeles.
Columbus and Detroit are very much in the mix as well, with the Blue Jackets two points behind Montreal and the Red Wings three back.
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It’s absolutely possible the point the Islanders lost Monday or the two points Columbus gained as a result of the interference call could have a major impact on the playoff race.
But the best way to prevent that from happening is to keep accumulating points.
“We’ve been in the same position the last couple years,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said before Monday’s game. “Also, I think we’ve approached every game this year one by one and period by period, try to be the best that we can on that day. And our mentality’s been like that. So we don’t want to change.”
In the immediate aftermath of the game, emotions still were running high, with the Islanders as frustrated as they’ve been all season.
That’s to be expected.
After an off-day Tuesday gave them time to cool down, though, the entire incident needs to be behind the Isles by the time they get on the ice for Wednesday’s morning skate.
Otherwise, they could lose a lot more than one point.
The Islanders have never beaten the Canucks at UBS Arena, with Vancouver winning all three games in the new building in regulation.
The Canucks will be without Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander on Wednesday after both returned to the West Coast early, having suffered injuries Saturday.
Filip Chytil also didn’t make the trip out East.