The hole they dug for themselves was plenty deep before the Islanders finally tried to climb out of it Tuesday night.
On a day when they spoke of the urgency they needed in each of the final 32 games after the All-Star break, that quality was sorely missing in the first 40 minutes.
Only after spotting the Panthers three goals and facing their biggest deficit of the game did the Islanders begin to show life, but it wasn’t nearly enough in a 4-1 loss at Barclays Center.
“The deficit is we’re out of the playoffs right now,” coach Doug Weight said. “That should be kicked in at 7 o’clock, not 8:30.”
Any momentum the Islanders (25-21-5) believed they had captured on a three-game trip before the break came crashing down in one fell swoop.
“I think we’re trying,” captain John Tavares said. “We don’t go out there not to compete. We’re prepared. For whatever reason, we’re just not executing enough to generate most of the momentum going our way. Then we get down and you gotta start taking some chances. For whatever reason, we weren’t as effective as we were on the road trip.”
After a lackluster first two periods, defenseman Adam Pelech finally got the Islanders on the board at 5:09 of the third period, less than a minute after the Panthers (20-22-6) had taken a 3-0 lead.
The game’s first penalty was called minutes later, sending the Islanders to the power play and giving them a chance to keep the heat on, but any momentum proved to be short-lived. The Panthers had the best scoring chance in the two minutes and the power play was quickly finished.
“As a player, you have to know you have to be ready to start the game,” Weight said. “It should be with reckless abandon right now, with 30-something games left. There should be no need to explain it, no need to beg for it.”
The Islanders mounted an offensive attack late in the third period, when they racked up 16 of their 33 shots, but it was all for naught.
“It’s frustrating, because we’d like to play like that for the whole 60 minutes,” Pelech said. “We weren’t good enough for the first two [periods] tonight and playing well in the third wasn’t enough.”
Jonathan Huberdeau’s empty-netter with 1:11 left was the final dagger in comeback hopes.
The Islanders didn’t wreak much havoc early on Florida goaltender Harri Sateri, who earned his first career win for the Panthers and stopped the first 20 shots he faced. The 28-year-old rookie was starting just his third career game while the Panthers dealt with injuries to their top two goalies, James Reimer and Roberto Luongo.
Boos rained down on the Islanders as they skated off the ice for the second intermission, having been outshot 28-17 through the first two periods.
“I think they just frustrated us a lot,” center Tanner Fritz said. “They kind of played a trap and we couldn’t get pucks deep or turn a lot of pucks over. I think that took away from our speed and our offensive push.”
Weight said after the game he hoped to get Andrew Ladd back from injury for Wednesday’s game in Toronto. He missed his ninth straight game Tuesday, a night when Weight said the Islanders were simply “outworked.”
“I think we miss his presence, his maturity — which is a word that is kind of hitting us right now,” Weight said. “We need some guys that know how to play this time of the year and make simple decisions.”