Recap: Maple Leafs 5, Islanders 0

The New York Islanders dropped their second straight contest on Wednesday night, falling 5-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre. It marked the fourth time this season the Islanders were shut out and first since Jan. 5
Much like Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, the Islanders got off to a slow start on and had trouble establishing their offensive rhythm, while their opponents built up a sizable lead. Kasperi Kapanen's goal at 5:37 of the first period held up as the game-winning goal, while Frederik Andersen made 28 saves for his fourth shutout of the season.

"It's unacceptable the level we're playing at," John Tavares said. "You're not going to win hockey games or really be in it the way we've played the last two nights. We came off a really good road trip and it's disappointing the way we followed it up."
The Leafs opened the scoring early, as Kapanen jammed home a rebound off Mathew Barzal in a goalmouth scramble at 5:37 of the first period. The Islanders fell behind 2-0 when a Thomas Greiss (45 saves) poke check landed on Auston Matthews' stick and the Leafs all-star snapped his team-leading 23rd of the season top corner at 13:39.

Mitch Marner redirected a Nazem Kadri feed past Greiss at 10:32 of the second period to put the Islanders in a 3-0 hole on back-to-back nights and Leafs went up 4-0 on Travis Dermott's first NHL goal, a redirection off a centering feed, at 18:59. Justin Holl, who was an emergency recall before Wednesday's game, rounded out the scoring with his first-career goal, beating Greiss give-hole at 3:42 of the third period.
While the Leafs built a lead, the Islanders had trouble finding their offensive rhythm. The Islanders were outshot 23-6 midway through the game, unable to set up in the Maple Leafs end and establish a cycle or extended zone time.
"We were just out of sync, late on the forecheck, not managing the puck very well," Andrew Ladd said. "I didn't mind our first period. We were skating on the puck and then just weren't able to sustain a forecheck the rest of the night."
The best chance to get on the board came on the Islanders first power play just after Marner's 3-0 goal. John Tavares had a look at the side of the net, but couldn't cleanly coral a Josh Bailey feed and wound up shooting it into a sprawled out Frederik Andersen. The Leafs goaltender also robbed Jordan Eberle early in the third, stretching out with his glove to make a desperation save.

"Andersen was superb tonight," Head Coach Doug Weight said. "Looking back we had some really good chances we missed the net on and they got a couple bounces, but give them credit they played really well. They put a lot towards our goaltender."
While the loss hurt, the Islanders got a good result in Washington on Wednesday night, as the Captials beat the Flyers in regulation keeping the Isles one point back of the East Wild Card.

LADD RETURNS:

Andrew Ladd returned after missing nine games with an upper-body injury. Ladd skated on a line with Brock Nelson and Jason Chimera skating 14:37 with a shot and four hits.
"I felt okay. Timing and stuff it takes a little bit to get back," Ladd said. "I felt pretty good in the first period, but getting back up to speed and the pace I need to play at, hopefully it comes pretty quick."

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders have two days off until their next game when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets.