ST. LOUIS — Even if you are the sort of devoted fan who watches the Islanders in mid-October when both New York baseball teams have playoff games that clash with hockey, you might have changed the channel off this one.
And when you returned to the game after leaving it at 0-0 at the end of the second period, without much having gone on through 40 minutes, you might not have been all too thrilled with what you saw.
That would have been Blues 1, Islanders 0 — the second game of three on this road trip in which the Islanders were shut out — with Jake Neighbours scoring the overtime winner for St. Louis.
“Obviously, we need to score goals to win,” Noah Dobson said. “I think we’ve generated lots. It just comes down to we gotta bear down, find our chances and we gotta capitalize. We’ve had our looks.”
Instead of getting on the plane feeling good, the Islanders trudged on home at 1-1-2, a record that might be slightly harsh for how they’ve looked, but a result Thursday that reflected the game pretty well in the end.
The Islanders looked reluctant to shoot at times over the first three games, but the fourth was a night when they reverted to playing defensive hockey and paid the price.
Until the third period, they struggled to gain traction in the offensive zone, they struggled to get to the net, they struggled to meaningfully test Joel Hofer after the Blues’ backup netminder played poorly in his only start before Thursday.
Given consecutive power plays in the second period, the Islanders produced a whole lot of nothing — just the same as at five-on-five.
In fairness, the Blues did not look any better, with the only grade-A chance coming when Brayden Schenn appeared to have Ilya Sorokin beaten at the right post but had the puck clank off iron, then couldn’t bury the follow-up chance when Sorokin was without his stick.
It became clear around then that the night’s general malaise served to hide something: Hofer and Sorokin were playing pretty strong games, and the two finished with 34 and 29 saves, respectively.
“I think he’s as sharp as I’ve seen him, honestly,” Ryan Pulock said of Sorokin, who stopped Neighbours point-blank in the third period. “Both nights [he played] he looked poised, he looked confident, he’s making the easy saves, making the hard saves. He’s been a wall for us both those nights.
Hofer denied Kyle Palmieri and Max Tsyplakov around the crease within minutes of the third period starting, then added a save on Bo Horvat from the low slot later on.
Another scramble around the St. Louis crease with two minutes to go in regulation, instigated by Anthony Duclair, could not get the puck over the line.
On it went into overtime at zeroes.
Finally, Philip Broberg fed Neighbours in front and the night ended on a tap-in goal.
A frustrating night, ending in appropriately frustrating fashion.
“Both teams played very well defensively,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “It was a great play by their goalie, it was a great pass by their ‘D’ and it was a nice tip in front of the net.”
Three points on a three-game road trip isn’t any reason to be upset, but the Islanders will rightly feel that they left points on the table this week, during which they lost a game in Dallas despite being pleased with their performance and lost Thursday in St. Louis despite a sound defensive night.
A three-game homestand this week against opposition that, on paper, appears lesser looks like a chance to make up ground.
Still, this was the sort of game that felt winnable and slipped right through the Islanders’ grasp — the sort of game that nobody wanted to be thinking about on the plane home.
“It sucks,” Roy said. “But tonight was not our way.”