WASHINGTON — If the Islanders were going to play again at Nassau Coliseum, it was going to take a Game 7 win over the Capitals on Monday night.
Instead, their season — and time at the Coliseum — ended with a 2-1 loss at Verizon Center in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They still haven’t won a playoff series since 1993.
And it will be the Capitals — not the Islanders — who advance to face the Rangers in the second round.
“It’s a tough feeling,” John Tavares said. “It’s hard to believe it’s over. We knew what this season meant at the Coliseum.”
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the game-winner 12:48 into the third when he collected the puck near the boards and carried it nearly all the way across the ice, leaving Jaroslav Halak sprawled out in desperation and Johnny Boychuk diving helplessly in an attempt to stop Kuznetsov’s shot.
And while that play put the Capitals up by a goal, there was a sense of inevitability to the outcome, with the Isles apparently leaving their offense back on Long Island, finishing with just 11 shots on goal, barely testing goalie Braden Holtby.
“We just didn’t skate,” Tavares said. “We didn’t want to make mistakes in all three zones and we weren’t aggressive enough in the first two periods.”
And the Capitals kept coming, attacking and circling Halak.
The goalie, who hadn’t lost a Game 7 decision before Monday, stood tall throughout.
“We knew they were going to come out hard,” Halak said. “We didn’t want the season to end this way. … We can all agree it wasn’t our best game tonight. We got outplayed.”
Finally, after Halak stopped Brooks Orpik’s slap shot late in the second period, Washington’s Joel Ward managed to poke the puck underneath Halak to break the scoreless tie.
With an Islanders’ offense incapable of even threatening, that one goal could have been a backbreaker. They spent most of the first two periods scrambling, trying to get the puck out of their own zone.
Frans Nielsen’s harmless-looking shot slipped through the five-hole at 3:13 of the third, and suddenly the game was tied and the Verizon Center crowd was quieted.
Halak made perhaps his best save of the series soon after, robbing Jay Beagle with his right pad when a bad bounce off the boards allowed Beagle to catch Halak on the other side of the net.
Whatever momentum that save provided didn’t last and the Isles didn’t score again, even with a late power play on the only penalty called all game in what was a physical series.
Coach Jack Capuano defended his decision to not pull Halak right away with a man-advantage, noting the Caps had a scoring chance during the power play.
The Isles finished the series 0-for-14 on the power play.
“If you want to go back, for me, the overtime game we lost, we had three consecutive power plays in that game,” Capuano said. “In that particular game at home, we’ve got to find way to score. We even had a chance tonight less than three minutes left in the game. We didn’t get much.”
It proved to be one of many missed opportunities.
“We just weren’t clean all night,” Kyle Okposo said. “It’s not like they did anything special. We were just stuck in mud a little bit.”
Despite the disparity in puck possession and shots, the Isles were still in the game.
“It was 1-1 with 10 minutes to go,” Tavares said. “You have to make some plays down the stretch.”
The Islanders, though, didn’t make plays all game and a campaign that seemed so promising and nearly was derailed by a late-season collapse, was over. And whatever progress may have been made suddenly didn’t seem so impressive.
“Our expectations aren’t to lose in the first round,” Tavares said.