tore his ACL<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not that the Islanders weren\u2019t competitive; it was quite the opposite in a game where they nearly doubled Washington\u2019s shot count and Caps netminder Logan Thompson was the best player on either side.<\/p>\n
Islanders right wing Max Shabanov (49) skates up ice during the first period against the Washington Capitals at UBS Arena, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Elmont, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did everything right,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cWe had a lot of shots, we had a lot of chances, we came up short. We could find excuses \u2014 I get it, the standard of our team is to win hockey games and do the right thing. Sometimes you need to just continue to play the way we are and believe that things will go on our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he wasn\u2019t right in the literal sense, he was certainly right in spirit. <\/p>\n
The Islanders weren\u2019t perfect but they outshot Washington 31-18 and won the high-danger chances 14-11.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of two-on-ones we had tonight, the grade-A looks we had, we\u2019re doing everything right, I feel like,\u201d Cal Ritchie said. \u201cNot [finding] the back of the net. We gotta bear down on our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bo Horvat\u2019s power-play goal with 6:17 remaining cut a 2-0 lead to 2-1, but ended up being the last gasp of momentum for the Islanders.<\/p>\n
Despite having 2:38 with the goalie pulled, they didn\u2019t look like much of a threat to tie the game at six-on-five before Aliaksei Protas scored into an empty net seconds after beating out an icing call. <\/p>\n
Islanders center Bo Horvat (14) scores on Washington Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson (48) during the third period at UBS Arena. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
Alex Ovechkin scored another empty-netter to make it 4-1.<\/p>\n
Prior to that, the Islanders made a couple of crucial errors when the situation \u2014 both their roster and Thompson\u2019s level of play \u2014 required a near perfect game.<\/p>\n
Ilya Sorokin, in an incredibly rare occurrence, turned over a puck from behind the net and could not get back into position before Tom Wilson made it a 2-0 game at 13:58 of the second.<\/p>\n
Islanders left wing Anders Lee (27) pressures Washington Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson (48) during the third period at UBS Arena, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Elmont, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bad decision,\u201d Sorokin told The Post. \u201cWanted to [put] the puck high. It was a broken play. It happens. Bad decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, Horvat\u2019s feed to spring Mat Barzal on a 1-on-0 breakaway was just a tad too far ahead of No. 13, though it\u2019s worth noting that Thompson was imperious on rush chances all afternoon.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a trend worth noting, it\u2019s that the Islanders continued to struggle getting bodies around both creases. Tom Wilson was left alone at the left post to tap in Ovechkin\u2019s feed on the power play for Washington\u2019s opening goal.<\/p>\n
The Islanders were rarely in the blue paint in front of Thompson in the same way, and that is not an isolated occurrence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just 10 days ago, the Islanders were riding a wave of momentum, the ceiling on their season looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,5791,575,85,4791],"class_list":{"0":"post-319512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-new-york-islanders","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-washington-capitals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}