Canadiens 2, Islanders 1 (OT): Extra time and a loss, again

The Isles add to our winter of discontent by losing to the East’s basement dweller.

Hoping to build off a cathartic and long-awaited regulation victory on the weekend, the Islanders instead lost to the worst team in the Eastern Conference, though it came with a consolation point in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

Other consolations include sparing us the godforsaken shootout by ending it 2:39 into overtime, a 3-on-3 exhibition that the Islanders do not appear to have a clear idea how to handle.

Thery deliver the occasional smart individual plays in overtime — Brock Nelson puck possession here, Simon Holmstrom diffusing an odd-man rush there — but overall they have not exhibited the cohesive approach that other teams repeatedly display against them.

3-on-3 is a gimmick for our tie-allergic “The People Demand a Winner” era, but it’s a pretty valuable gimmick — especially with the league-leading number of times the Islanders find themselves vying for a standings point there.

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• J-G Pageau returned to the lineup and skated 14:28. That meant Patrick Roy went back to 12F/6D, with Dennis Cholowski taking a seat and Pierre Engvall remaining a healthy scratch.
• Anders Lee continued his rebound year with his team-leading 11th goal of the season to tie it at 1-1 late in the second period.
• The Isles dodged a bullet, or probably just delayed it, when Max Tsyplakov was called for a high-sticking double minor with 18 seconds left in regulation of a tie game. On video review, however, the officials realized Tsyplakov’s stick was lifted by a Canadien: no penalty.
• Matt Martin logged 10:13 in his 970th regular season NHL game. He was credited with 2 shots on goal, to lift him to 9 on the season.
• Recovering from a preseason injury, Patrik Laine made his Canadiens debut — and scored, of course. He kind of double-clutched on the shot, which initially looked like a perfect power play one-timer setup. Perhaps the delay helped throw Ilya Sorokin off.
• And yes, that means the PK killed one of two Canadiens power plays. The Isles power play at least had 10 shots on goal, but no conversions.
• The OT goal was helped by a fortunate bounce off Bo Horvat’s skate right to Nick Suzuki after Sorokin made the initial save. But again, the Isles were unconvincing in OT, not looking like a good bet to score — I mean, Roy had to call a timeout in overtime. Like, not to buy oxygen, but to emphasize there are things one should and should not do when trying to win the pond hockey thing.

Up Next

Sigh. The Islanders host the “beatable” Kraken on Thursday before the Hurricanes visit on Saturday to take their usual pound of flesh.