Four weeks ago, it seemed impossible that this feel-good Islanders season would end so soon.<\/p>\n
The Islanders had been in a playoff spot since early December. They were buyers at the trade deadline. They were not quite a Cup contender, but with Matthew Schaefer driving the bus, the season\u2019s vibe was impeccable.<\/p>\n
Getting eliminated from playoff contention before the last game of the season even took place? Unfathomable, until it became all but inevitable Saturday night. Impossible to digest until it became official, leaving no choice, on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Islanders\u2019 4-1 loss to Montreal formalized what has been an astonishing, gutting and indicting collapse over the past 25 days. Since losing to Ottawa and falling out of a spot March 19, the Islanders are 4-9-0 in their past 13 games, a .307 points percentage that would rank 32nd in the league by a wide margin over the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can take a guess how I feel right now,\u201d Casey Cizikas said inside an utterly devastated dressing room. \u201cFrustrated, disappointed. It sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the New York Islanders losing 3-0 in the third period to the Montr\u00e9al Canadiens Ilya Sorokin #30 of the New York Islanders rests during a timeout at UBS Arena. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Since the Devils moved to New Jersey in 1982, this is the first time that all three tristate area teams have failed to make the playoffs in a season.<\/p>\n
Had they merely been passably bad as opposed to awful, the Islanders would almost certainly have at least made the playoffs. Had they been average, the Islanders might have home ice in the first round.<\/p>\n
Instead, in game after game, the Islanders fell flat. Two nights after that loss in Ottawa, the Islanders fell to pieces in the third period in Montreal. They came out as if it were a preseason game against the Blackhawks, got blown out 8-3 to the Penguins and \u2014 in the final blow for coach Patrick Roy \u2014 could not muster any desperation or energy whatsoever in must-win games against the Flyers and Hurricanes last weekend.<\/p>\n
Casey Cizikas #53 of the New York Islanders celebrates his third period goal against the Montr\u00e9al Canadiens at UBS Arena on April 12, 2026 in Elmont, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Then, with Pete DeBoer behind the bench and the Islanders knowing they needed to run the table just to have a shot, an 0-for-5 power play and 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Saturday put their playoff chances into Lloyd Christmas territory.<\/p>\n
Reverse just one or two of those results, and the Islanders might be looking forward to the postseason now. Instead, they could barely contain their emotions and shock Sunday night, still in disbelief that a season that had been so promising had ended so terribly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just like, a bit of a gut punch,\u201d Ryan Pulock said. \u201cI think the first 65, 70 games, how we were so resilient and how much fun it was coming to the rink every day, trying to get back in the playoffs. I think at the start of the year, no one had us anywhere close. Just the finish we had and where we\u2019re at now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis league\u2019s tough. It\u2019s tough. Every team is good. It\u2019s such a fine line. You go and compete every night and then when this happens, it sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Suzuki #14 of the Montr\u00e9al Canadiens celebrates his goal and 100th point of the season at 15:46 of the second period against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on April 12, 2026 in Elmont, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The details of Sunday\u2019s match are, largely, immaterial. The Islanders fell apart during a 55-second span in the second period over which they gave up three goals, with Nick Suzuki, Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook doing the scoring. Offensively, they failed to threaten through two periods and failed to build Casey Cizikas\u2019 third-period goal into anything more than a brief spurt of momentum. Zach Bolduc added a fourth for Montreal. The Islanders were left to sit with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of words, without swearing, [for] how I feel right now and how the group feels,\u201d captain Anders Lee said. \u201cWe came up short after putting everything we had towards getting in this year.\u201d<\/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
Tuesday\u2019s now-meaningless bout against Carolina might be Lee\u2019s last as an Islander. He is an unrestricted free agent this summer, and after the way this season ended, it seems a distinct possibility that general manager Mathieu Darche will look for serious changes in the roster\u2019s composition.<\/p>\n
Exactly what, and how much, changes are the questions facing Darche now.<\/p>\n
After two straight seasons without playoff hockey, it\u2019s pivotal to find the right answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four weeks ago, it seemed impossible that this feel-good Islanders season would end so soon. The Islanders had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[48214,9,24,55,54,6821,539,56,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-194905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-montreal-canadiens","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-new-york-islanders","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}