You can hear it in their voices more than in what they’re saying. You can see it in their play between the whistles more than in the emotion or frustration that boils over after the play.
After six weeks of relentless struggle, the Islanders are burned out.
The 3-1 loss to the Predators on Monday night at Barclays Center was not just another loss that put them further from that second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but it was the second straight desultory effort at a time when effort should be at its highest. With seven games remaining in the regular season, it’s going to take an unforeseen wellspring of energy to keep the playoffs in sight.
“I think it’s mental, physical, but everybody goes through it,” said interim head coach Doug Weight, who described himself as “exhausted,” and whose normally effusive personality has been consumed by the omnipresent pressure of his new job, his voice now deep and ragged and the jump in his step all but gone.
“Going into every game like if you don’t win, you’re going to be passed by three teams, you’re going to be out of the playoffs. It’s exhausting, but it’s exciting, too,” Weight said. “So we have to find a way to get to them in a better fashion. We haven’t done it the last couple games.”
This game followed a brutal 2-1 loss to the Bruins on Saturday night, and the Islanders (35-28-12) remain two points behind Boston for the second wild-card spot. But worse, they dropped to 10th in the conference as the Lightning leapfrogged them with an overtime win against the Blackhawks.
Going against a Predators (39-25-11) team that was only jockeying for position in the top three of the Central Division, and who started backup goalie Juuse Saros, the Islanders needed to jump on them early. Instead, they came out flat and hardly got any better.
“We just didn’t have a great start, and it took awhile for us to get our game going,” said captain John Tavares, who was joined on his line for most of the third period by youngsters Anthony Beauvillier and Josh Ho-Sang, to no avail. “I didn’t have a good one, and it starts with me. It was a big game, so it was disappointing.”
Of course, the chance of the Islanders rebounding is hardly over. For one, they were left for dead back on Jan. 17, when Weight took over for the fired Jack Capuano and turned the season around. That fact is not lost inside the locker room, even if it’s the reason they’re currently running on fumes.
“We worked hard to give ourselves this opportunity,” Tavares said. “I don’t think anyone expected us to be back in the playoff picture after the start we had. For us, it has to be motivating.”
Yet there was little motivation as Nashville took at 1-0 lead at 10:17 of the first period when Kevin Fiala finished a three-on-two rush by beating goalie Thomas Greiss stick-side (it could have been worse had another Predators goal not been overturned less than a minute before because of a missed offsides call that Weight challenged and won).
By 3:15 of the second, the Predators were up 2-0 on a goal off the skate of Viktor Arvidsson, but a redirection from Josh Bailey late in the second gave the Isles forward his 13th goal of the season and made it 2-1 going into the third.
“After the second, I was tickled pink it was 2-1,” Weight said. “I thought we’d have a good third and find a way to win. We didn’t have enough, for sure.”
An empty-netter from Ryan Johansen sealed it in the final minute, and left the Islanders wondering if they have enough to make this push after all, or if all the energy was spent just getting to this point.
“We’ve played a lot of hockey, emotionally invested for six weeks now trying to get back into this,” Weight said. “It’s not an excuse, it’s just tough to do. But we have to find a way to do it.”