Islanders’ unforgiving January schedule continues with two tough home games

The Islanders’ January schedule is unforgiving, but they do at least get their next two games at home, splitting two four game trips. That is, however, where the good news ends, since the Canucks on Tuesday and Maple Leafs on Thursday do not represent all that much of a break for a team coming off a 1 2 1 trip through the Southwest.

Getting back on track before another long stretch on the road — this one starting on Saturday in Nashville and winding through the Central Division — is nothing short of imperative for the Islanders, who fell into a tie for third place in the Metropolitan Division with the Flyers thanks to their 5 2 loss to the Golden Knights on Saturday.

The Islanders went to overtime in their first games against both opponents that come to Long Island this week, losing in Vancouver and beating the Maple Leafs after Toronto tied the game late with John Tavares scoring his 1,000th point. “It’s big,” said Mathew Barzal. “Tough road trip, played some good teams.

Would’ve liked to have gotten [a win Saturday]. I thought Pittsburgh, we probably could’ve got that one. Little stretches during the season where it doesn’t go your way. Just gotta bounce back. It’s been a long road trip so we’re looking forward to getting home.” If there is a silver lining to a messy road trip in which the Islanders took a major injury blow with Semyon Varlamov leaving a 5 4 loss in Colorado early, it is that the difference between 1 2 1 and 3 0 1 was minimal.

Lane Lambert said he felt Saturday might have been their best game of the trip and it was hard to argue. The margin in a 3 1 loss to the Penguins on New Year’s Eve was equally tight, with an empty netter making the difference late. But no one is handing out trophies for playing well in a loss, and the Islanders do have issues to fix.

Namely, their defensive structure, which was picked apart at key points against Vegas on Saturday, with Jack Eichel getting free in the slot for the game’s first goal and Pavel Dorofeyev being left alone on the back post for a tap in goal in the second period. “I think it’s just executing and communicating with one another,” Matt Martin said Saturday.

“I think for the most part, the breakdowns tonight happened in the second period when we got extended and guys are pretty tired, maybe [defensemen] are pretty tired. We’re not able to get full changes, we’re just getting the puck in the neutral zone. “So one guy’s coming off at a time, it’s harder to execute and break out cleanly and there’s a lot of fatigue setting in.

I think we can do a better job of changing quicker to get fresh bodies out there. Communicating and executing because a team like that, once you turn the puck over, they can hang onto it for a while and make some plays and be pretty threatening.” Coach Lane Lambert, who had previously harped on costly turnovers in the defensive zone, took a more optimistic tact postgame.

“The second goal they scored, there was a mistake made and that can’t happen. The third goal they scored right away, kept him to the outside,” he said. “I thought our defensive zone structure was fine tonight. I didn’t think they had that many. I will tell you this, I thought we out chanced them high danger.” According to Natural Stat Trick, that is true — the Islanders had 14 high danger chances to the Golden Knights’ 11 on the night.

But when their structure broke down, it broke down badly. And with Varlamov hurt and Ilya Sorokin not at his all world best this season, that is going to cost the Islanders for as long as it keeps happening..