3 Takeaways: Islanders Fall to Bruins 6-2

Less than one night after an uplifting comeback win, the New York Islanders were dealt a humbling loss, falling 6-2 to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
Kyle Palmieri and Matt Martin scored for the Islanders, who found themselves down 3-0 after the first period and 6-1 after 40 minutes. Trent Frederic (2G), Jake DeBrusk (1G, 1A), Nick Foligno (1G, 1A) and Charlie McAvoy (2A) each had two-point games, while Pavel Zacha and Patrice Bergeron also found the back of the net. With the loss, the Islanders wrap their season series with the Bruins 0-2-1.

Fortunately for the Islanders, who currently occupy the second wild card with 63 points, the teams they're in direct competition with also faltered on Saturday. Florida (62 points) fell 7-3 to the Nashville Predators in early action, while the New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins (63 points) 5-2.
The Islanders take on the Penguins on Monday and looking forward was the focus after a visceral defeat on Saturday.
"We've got to turn the page, we don't have an option, we're in the chase for a playoff spot" Palmieri said. "We've got an opportunity to kind of turn out a pretty good weekend with a win on Monday. Leave this one in the past and it is what it is. Whether it was 2-1, 5-1, 10-1, it's a loss."

BRUINS BLITZ ISLANDERS EARLY

The Bruins blitzed the Islanders on Saturday evening, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first period.
It started early, with Jake DeBrusk, returning after a 17-game absence, finishing off some pretty passing, cutting across the net and burying a backhander through Semyon Varlamov for a power-play goal at 2:19.
BRUINS 6, ISLANDERS 2
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Nick Foligno beat Varlamov with a wrister at 9:15 of the second period to make it 2-0 and Trent Frederic's tip made it 3-0 at 17:19 of the opening frame. While the shots on goal - 12-6 in favor of the Bruins - wasn't as lopsided as the 18-8 and 19-10 frames on Friday night vs Pittsburgh, it was a humbling period for the Islanders.
In fairness, the Islanders were playing the second night of a back-to-back, only 22 hours removed from puck drop the night before, with a flight to Boston between. TD Garden, where the Bruins entered the game 22-2-3, hasn't been an easy place for any team to play this season, even in the most ideal conditions.
"Regardless of the circumstances, we need to be better managing the puck," Martin said. "We're well aware that we played last night and we definitely could have made the game easier on ourselves especially early on. It was 3-0 before we knew it and that's unacceptable, but we just got to move on from this one."
Kyle Palmieri put the Islanders on the board in the second period, but if there was another indication of the type of evening it was for the Islanders, it was the Bruins fourth goal. Playing four-on-four, the Islanders turned the puck over behind their net. Charlie McAvoy's initial shot was stopped, while DeBrusk's attempt went over the net, kicked off the glass and back over the net where Patrice Bergeron was waiting to knock it in at 8:17
Frederic made it 5-1 shortly after, beating Varlamov with a wrister for his second goal of the game at 11:30. Zacha made it 6-1 at 18:31, as the Islanders netminder could only get a piece of the shot before it crossed the line. Boston scored three goals on six shots in the second period. Head Coach Lane Lambert said he opted to stick with Semyon Varlamov (21 saves) for the entire game, since Ilya Sorokin played the night before.
Martin eventually made it 6-2 in the third period to round out the scoring. The shots favored the Islanders 28-27 at the end of the game, while the shot attempts were 53-52 Islanders. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Islanders had 10 high-danger chances at five-on-five to Boston's seven, but it was a night where things seemed to snowball quick for the Islanders.
"It seemed like every time we made a mistake, it ended up in the back of our net," Lambert said. "That team obviously has the ability to do that. We didn't make a ton of mistakes… The scoring chances throughout the game were fairly equal, but we came out on the wrong end of it. At the end of the day, they just capitalized."

BARZAL LEAVES GAME:

Mathew Barzal left Saturday's game after a collision with Craig Smith in the first period and did not return.
That meant a rotating cast of wingers with Anders Lee and Bo Horvat, though Palmieri seemed to settle into that spot as the game wore on. Palmieri went to the net hard early in the second period, tapping in a backdoor feed from Lee.
"It kind of messes up a little bit of the flow and you're playing a bit shorthanded," Palmieri said. "Doing that on back-to-back nights with a seven o'clock [start and] five o'clock [start], it's part of the part of the challenge and we weren't able to rise to it tonight."
Lambert did not have an update on Barzal postgame.

JOHNSTON IN, BAILEY OUT:

Josh Bailey missed Saturday's game with an upper-body injury.
In his place, Ross Johnston drew into the lineup for the first time since Jan. 21, playing alongside Andy Andreoff and Simon Holmstrom. Johnston played a role in Martin's seventh of the season, creating chaos in front of the net while Martin found a loose puck and buried it on Ullmark to make it 6-2. Johnston, who turned 29 on Saturday, finished the game with five hits in 13:28 TOI.
Lambert said he did not anticipate Bailey or JG Pageau joining the Islanders in Pittsburgh.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders head to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins on Monday night. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.