Three Takeaways from the New York Islanders Game 4 Loss to Tampa Bay

The New York Islanders find themselves in a spot that they haven’t all playoffs; The brink of elimination.

Yes, Game 7 in the Second Round they were in danger of being eliminated, but not like this. The Islanders currently trail the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Final following Sunday’s 4-1 loss in Game 4. At the moment, things are not looking good.

Brock Nelson scored the Islanders goal on Sunday to give them a 1-0 lead that lasted only a few seconds. Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves in his sixth loss of the playoffs.

Below are three takeaways from Game 4:

27 seven seconds changed the game, maybe the series

Talk about a way not to follow up on a goal. Every New York Islanders player that spoke with the media echoed a similar sentiment. The next shift after a goal is the most important and the Islanders didn’t do what they needed to.

The momentum was in the Islanders’ favor after Brock Nelson scored at 11:27 of the second period. Then Tampa Bay put on an offensive display and in one fell swoop, Tampa took the wind out of the Islanders’ sails.

“To me, there’s a couple of shifts that you want,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. Obviously the first shift, the last shift of a period. And the first shift after a goal so that you can maintain some momentum in your game. We didn’t do it twice. That’s on us.”

That’s the most frustrating part for the Islanders, who otherwise played a pretty good second period. Shot attempts 5-on-5 were 10-5 in favor of the Islanders and they registered 14 scoring chances for, according to Natural Stat Trick. Of those 14, seven were high danger chances.

One of the biggest differences in this series has been the ability of Tampa Bay to capitalize on mistakes made by the Islanders. In that 27 second span Tampa caught the Islanders flat-footed twice allowing Blake Coleman to get behind the Islanders defense undetected for the breakaway and then Tampa Bay put on a passing display to set up the Ondrej Palat goal.

Islanders’ Top Line vs. Tampa’s Top Line

The Eastern Conference Finals have put a real spotlight on the difference between the Islanders’ top line and Tampa’s top line. The key being that Tampa’s Palat, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov have led the charge with goals in big moments against the New York Islanders.

Tampa Bay’s top line accounted for two of their biggest goals of the game on Sunday, with Palat finishing on the go-ahead goal and Point picking up his ninth goal of the playoffs off an easy tap-in from in front of the net. The trio teamed up for both goals and combined for six points in Game 4.

And between the three of them, they have eight goals and 20 points in four games against the Islanders in the postseason.

“They’ve made some pretty good plays,” Scott Mayfield said about Tampa’s top line. “They have some weapons and we just have to be better on them.”

Comparatively, the Islanders’ top line of Jordan Eberle, Anders Lee and Mat Barzal has struggled to capitalize offensively.  The three have six points (one goal, five assists) through the first four games of the series. Their only goal came in Game 1 on Eberle’s power-play goal in the first period.

“Their first line has put a mark on us in a couple of games here,” Trotz said.

The Islanders coach, when asked about Barzal and Eberle specifically, said that they had been getting some chances.

“They haven’t found the back of the net enough for us, especially 5-on-5,” Trotz said. “We’re going to have to get some production there. We’re best when we get production up and down our lineup. We will.”

Power(less) Play

It was far from a pretty night for the Islanders on the man-advantage, as has been the theme for most of the postseason. The Islanders went 0-for-3 on the man-advantage on Sunday and are 1-for-14 this series against Tampa Bay.

The New York Islanders put up just four shots during 5:43 of power-play time in Game 4 and missed a chance with Kevin Shattenkirk in the box just moments after Tampa had taken the lead to regain some momentum.

The Islanders inability to capitalize during the man-advantage has been another aspect of their game that has cost them during this series.

“I know for me I have to be better at getting pucks to the net,” Nick Leddy said about the power play issues. “Getting pucks through and I think we all just have to be a little better. It starts with us and we can create a lot of momentum for our team. We need to start doing that.”