ST. LOUIS — Even if you are the sort of devoted fan who watches the Islanders in mid-October when both New York baseball teams have playoff games that clash with hockey, you might have changed the channel off this one.
And when you returned to the game after leaving it at 0-0 at the end of the second period, without much having gone on through 40 minutes, you might not have been all too thrilled with what you saw.
That would have been Blues 1, Islanders 0 — a performance that left a bad taste on this inaugural road trip that had a chance to be quite a success — on the back of Jake Neighbours’ overtime winner.
Instead of getting on the plane feeling good, the Islanders trudged on home at 1-1-2, a record that might be slightly harsh for how they’ve looked, but a result Thursday that reflected the game pretty well in the end.
The Islanders looked reluctant to shoot at times over the first three games, but the fourth was a night where they reverted to playing boring hockey — and not in a good way.
They struggled to gain traction in the offensive zone, they struggled to get to the net, they struggled to meaningfully test Joel Hofer after the Blues’ backup netminder played poorly in his only start before Thursday. Given consecutive power plays in the second period, the Islanders produced a whole lot of nothing — just the same as at five-on-five.
In fairness, the Blues did not look any better, with the only grade-A chance coming when Brayden Schenn appeared to have Ilya Sorokin beaten at the right post but had the puck clank off iron, then couldn’t bury the follow-up chance when Sorokin was without his stick.
It became clear around then that the night’s general malaise had served to hide something: Hofer and Sorokin both were playing pretty strong games.
The Blues netminder denied Kyle Palmieri and Max Tsyplakov around the crease within minutes of the third period starting, then added a save on Bo Horvat from the low slot later on.
Sorokin, for good measure, stopped Neighbours point-blank, with some help from Alexander Romanov, who jumped in to protect the netminder.
On the ice from Long Island
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Another scramble around the St. Louis crease with two minutes to go in regulation could not get the puck over the line.
On it went into overtime at zeroes.
Finally, Philip Broberg fed Neighbours in front and the night ended on a tap-in goal.
A frustrating performance, ending in appropriately frustrating fashion.
Over an 82-game slog, it happens.
But the Islanders will rightly feel that they left points on the table this week, during which they lost a game in Dallas despite thinking they played well and lost Thursday in St. Louis despite a sound defensive night.
For now, at least, the record is no reason to panic.
A three-game homestand this week against opposition that, on paper, appears lesser, looks like a chance to make up the points they lost.
Still, this was the sort of game that felt winnable and slipped right through the Islanders’ grasp — the sort of game that nobody wanted to be thinking about on the plane home.