WASHINGTON — Turns out, there’s such a thing as a blowout in which the winning team plays poorly.
The shot attempts will tell you that the Islanders were outplayed by the Capitals on Thursday.
So, too, will the eye test, with the advanced stats right behind.
That would make just about everything except the scoreboard, on which the Islanders thrashed Washington, 3-0.
The lopsided score came by dint of one of the oddest games you will ever see.
The Islanders’ chances came few and far between.
They did not forecheck enough.
They rarely got on the cycle.
Their star defenseman, Adam Pelech, got hurt in the first period.
They scored on three of the first five shots they took, the fifth of which came after the game reached its halfway mark.
There was almost nothing at all to be excited about, aside from Semyon Varlamov earning his second shutout in three starts and that minor matter of the final score.
On the ice from Long Island
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Just how strange was this victory?
The Islanders put two shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes and went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.
The first of those shots came just 22 seconds into the evening, when Ryan Pulock loosed one from the midpoint that made its way through traffic before settling in the back of Washington’s net.
Ten minutes later, Simon Holmstrom juked his way around John Carlson to set off a breakaway, got the puck back from Hudson Fasching and deposited it for a 2-0 lead.
When Caps goaltender Darcy Kuemper recorded his first save of the night — which only happened 15 minutes of game time after Holmstrom’s goal — it was greeted by a Bronx cheer.
Kuemper’s momentum, however, was short-lived.
Brock Nelson scored to make it 3-0 at 11:15 of the second, converting easily on a breakaway to essentially salt the game.
In between, the Islanders were constantly in their own zone and the Capitals were constantly failing to convert chances.
Forty minutes into the night, Washington had 21 shots on net and 22 attempts that missed the net.
Dylan Strome missed the net from mere feet in front of the crease early in the game, then Tom Wilson went and did the same thing the next period.
It looked as though the Caps had gotten a consolation goal at 9:01 of the third, but Lane Lambert’s challenge for goaltender interference proved successful.
This was not a game to placate the underlying worries about the Islanders.
They are still spending a little too much time in their own zone and leaning a little too hard on their goaltenders for comfort, though Varlamov turned in a second straight strong performance with 31 saves.
Pelech going off in the first period with an injury, not to return, does not help either.
The Islanders were meant to be getting their full defense corps back with Scott Mayfield returning Thursday.
That lasted less than a period and the Isles are now without half of their top pair.
It’s a rare thing to feel conflicted about a win.
It’s even more rare to struggle for much of the night and have your most lopsided win of the season.
Of course, that is a whole lot preferable to struggling and being on the wrong end of such a scoreline.
And no matter how well the Islanders played on Thursday, no one is complaining about a 5-2-2 record.
That, at least, is good enough to leave the worries for another day.