BOSTON — The Islanders saw Saturday what a championship contender looks like, and just how far away they are from being one themselves.
Maybe it wasn’t reasonable to expect the Islanders to come into TD Garden and beat the league-leading Bruins just 22 hours after a tough victory at home over the Penguins. But on Saturday, the Islanders did not have enough gas in the tank for a full 60 minutes, and the Bruins embarrassed them in a 6-2 defeat that was even less competitive than the scoreline suggests.
Even worse: Mathew Barzal may miss a pivotal game Monday in Pittsburgh after the star forward left the game Saturday for good in the first period after a hit from Craig Smith.
If the Islanders showed some token fight in the handful of minutes before Barzal left, that quickly evaporated afterwards. Playing with ramshackle line combinations, a result of Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Josh Bailey both being out, the gap between the two teams — who could play each other in the first round should the Islanders make the playoffs — was abundantly obvious.
The Bruins won every battle, competed for every puck and swarmed the defensive zone whenever the Islanders got the puck on their sticks. Whether it was due to exhaustion after the emotional win Friday, the injuries, the Bruins just being better or a combination of all of that, the Islanders could not compete.
“It seemed like every time we made a mistake, it ended up in the back of our net,” coach Lane Lambert said. “This team obviously has the ability to do that.”
Boston led 3-0 after a bruising and dominant first period. If it were a video game, the Islanders would have gladly hit the “Sim to end” button after that.
Just 2:19 into the game, Brad Marchand fed Jake DeBrusk down low on the power play for a tap-in goal. By the 10-minute mark, Nick Foligno had added a second score on a shot that trickled past Semyon Varlamov’s pad, and at 17:19, Trent Frederic converted a deserved third goal on a tip from Charlie McAvoy’s blast.
“Not an ideal situation to be in against the best team in the league, record-wise, in their building,” Matt Martin said. “I think we could’ve done a better job of having a better start and giving ourselves a chance late as opposed to trying to win the game early and making unnecessary mistakes that cost us.”
Leaky goaltending by Semyon Varlamov, who let in five of the first 15 shots he faced did not help.
“Of course I want to play better and then make some big saves when the team needed,” Varlamov said. “I couldn’t do it tonight. Not the best game I played.”
Kyle Palmieri scored 6:46 into the second period to get the Islanders on the board, but Boston responded with three consecutive goals. After Foligno made it 6-1 towards the end of the second period, all five Islanders turned their backs towards the celebrating Bruins and skated to the bench with vacant stares, consigned to playing out the remainder of a game they had no chance of winning.
Breaking the puck out remains a recurring issue for nearly the entire defense corps, and on Saturday, the Islanders were repeatedly victimized by the Bruins’ forecheck. Boston passed the puck with tape-to-tape precision and decisiveness. The Islanders did so as if they had one eye closed the entire game.
“There’s a reason why they’re on top in this league,” Varlamov said of the Bruins. “They’re very skilled, they create a lot of scoring chances, it’s a very dangerous team. So when you make mistakes, you pay for that.”
It is the potential absence of Barzal, though, that could end up mattering much more than the outcome of the match Saturday.
Not only is Barzal one of the most dynamic players on an Islanders team that often lacks offense, but also he has immediately clicked with Bo Horvat, and is regularly asked to play more than 20 minutes a night.
Every game for the Islanders is crucial as they fight for their playoff lives. They cannot afford to be without Barzal on Monday in Pittsburgh, let alone for an extended period of time.
