This was the return to normal, and with it came the return to normal old controversies, normal old frustrations and normal old losses.
The 4 Nations Face-Off, it was not, at UBS Arena on Sunday night. Instead, it was a regular — well maybe not-so-regular — old Islanders defeat that felt downright quaint after what we saw the last two weeks.
This 4-3 loss to the Stars came with, and in no small part because of, one of those regular old Game 56 messes, this one after Casey Cizikas was hit with a match penalty for a hit to the head on Lian Bichsel at 13:26 of the second period.
In addition to a whole lot of anger on the Islanders bench and a potential suspension for Cizikas, it also triggered goals two and three of a Jason Robertson hat trick and a two-goal deficit that became decisive.
For good measure, there was a goalie interference controversy after Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s apparent tying goal was waved off with 4:52 left due to Pierre Engvall pushing Matt Dumba into Jake Oettinger.
The best news the Islanders got Sunday came in the morning, when it was confirmed that Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield would return to the lineup.
That bumped Adam Boqvist to being a healthy scratch, but finally took the defense out of crisis mode.
If a slow first period on Sunday was the price the Islanders had to pay to get two free weeks of recovery for a back end that was in triage when the break started, it was probably worthwhile.
Cizikas hit on Bischel. Called a match penalty. pic.twitter.com/2tJJ4KchGr
— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) February 24, 2025
Still, after the time off took everybody away from the playoff race for two weeks, here was the hand of reality smacking the Islanders right in the face again.
They’ve got five points to make up on the Senators with a game in hand, and losing these two points is no small matter in that equation.
The Islanders did recover their game a bit after starting slow, but it was not enough to beat a Dallas team that had gotten its legs back Saturday against the Devils.
After Kyle Palmieri struck back a mere seven seconds after Robertson opened his account to make it 2-1 to Dallas 8:48 into the second — taking Tony DeAngelo’s feed all the way and scoring off-balance — the game was upended when Cizikas’ shoulder connected with Bichsel’s head a little over four minutes later.
A subsequent three-minute power play for the Stars — reduced from five after Dumba was hit with an instigating call for fighting Cizikas — produced a whole slew of events the Islanders would rather forget.
After possessing the puck for the entirety of the two-minute four-on-four — and refusing to shoot — the Islanders allowed a goal almost as soon as they lost possession on the penalty kill, with Robertson scoring from Roope Hintz on a quick passing sequence.
Before the penalty expired, Robertson did so again, stuffing in Wyatt Johnston’s rebound to make it 4-2 Dallas.
The Islanders did at least go down fighting, with Anthony Duclair breaking a seven-game scoreless streak to pull them within 4-3 at 9:17 of the third.
Pageau looked to have tied it with a shot from the slot with just under five minutes left in regulation, but the roar from the UBS crowd turned to jeers at the referees in short order when the goal was immediately waved off for interference.
That — and Brock Nelson’s chance that was saved by a diving Oettinger at six-on-five — proved the last, best pair of looks in an onslaught of a third period.
Sam Steel got the Stars on the board after just 2:10 of play, corralling a loose puck and sending a backhand past Ilya Sorokin.
That was the only damage done in a first period where the Islanders struggled to complete passes and had to work their way into the game as Patrick Roy experimented with different line combinations.
He finally settled on putting Simon Holmstrom — the Islanders’ best forward Sunday — on the second line with Brock Nelson and Palmieri, which helped them fight it to 2-2 midway through the second on goals from Engvall and Palmieri.
Once the game got away from even strength, though, there was not much helping the Islanders.