WASHINGTON — The Islanders have spent the last month figuring out workarounds to some of their more enduring issues this season, usually to good results.
Getting a point out of Wednesday’s game — the second game of a back-to-back in which they didn’t have much energy throughout — might fall into that category.
They moved to 0-4-1 on the second night of back-to-backs, falling in Washington, where the Capitals were the far more energized team in a 3-2 overtime loss following Dylan Strome’s game-winner.
The Islanders have steadfastly maintained that playing twice in 48 hours is no excuse, but after their second loss this week in such a scenario, actions are speaking louder than words.
Wednesday was not quite the horror show that Saturday’s loss to the Canadiens was until a late comeback attempt, but the spirit of the thing was not all that far removed.
Again, the Islanders managed the puck poorly, repeatedly turning it over in their own zone. Again they struggled to establish a forecheck, looking a step behind their better-rested opposition.
It is tough to shrug that away when it happens twice within a week, or when it happens five straight times on the second end of a back-to-back.
The parallels to Saturday go right down to a comeback that did not quite finish the job in the third period. This one did, however, get as far as tying the game and earning a point.
Anders Lee’s goal at 12:02 of the period — coming after the Islanders had spent the early part of the period playing with about as much energy as they had early in the game — injected some life into the game, making it 2-2 as Lee roofed a backhand.
That was enough to force this game into overtime, which on Wednesday, felt a little bit like a win in its own right given how the Islanders played. But they could not come up with the second point.
Forty-three seconds into overtime, Noah Dobson tripped Martin Fehervary. That set up a four-on-three Washington chance that the Islanders could not defend, as Strome found the winner from the high slot.
Really, though, this was a game in which it was hard to argue the Islanders deserved two points. Even the stars had rare off nights, with Mat Barzal getting stymied in the neutral zone repeatedly, Bo Horvat’s 11-game point streak ending and Noah Dobson having some increasingly rare misplays in his own end.
The power play, which helped win the Isles a game on Tuesday, did not do much. The insertion of Oliver Wahlstrom into the lineup for the injured Julien Gauthier did not add much.
Hendrix Lapierre scored the only goal of a first period in which Washington dominated possession of the puck, hitting a one-timer from the slot after Brock Nelson turned the puck over along the left wall.
Hudson Fasching got the Islanders back into it with a wraparound goal 1:03 into the second that Caps netminder Darcy Kuemper probably would have liked to have back. It did not, however, lead to a sustained push for the Isles, even as they got two power-play chances in the period.
In lieu of pressure from the Islanders, the Caps came up with some of their own, and eventually took the lead on Joel Edmundson’s one-timer from the midpoint.
There are only three back-to-backs left for the Islanders this season, the next one not coming until Jan. 15-16 in Minnesota and Winnipeg. If that is their biggest problem at the moment, it is at least a manageable one, with two days of rest until they face the Hurricanes in Raleigh.
Right now, though, it has turned into a stretch where the Islanders have lost three of four games — a black mark on what has otherwise been an excellent December for the club.
Going into the holidays with a win, and pushing that out of mind, is now imperative.