Islanders start new year with embarrassing loss to Mammoth…
Maybe this was payback from the hockey gods for Tuesday night time, when the Islanders have been nowhere close to ok in beating the Blackhawks.
Or perhaps the Islanders just want to take an excellent, exhausting take a look at issues proper now, given it’s been three weeks since they scored three or more objectives in a game.
On Thursday, they coughed up a hat trick to Dylan Guenther, regarded brutal on the energy play and couldn’t maintain momentum at five-on-five in an embarrassing 7-2 loss to the Mammoth.
Way more regarding than their abysmal on-ice performance, though, was the sight of Bo Horvat going up the tunnel with an obvious lower-body injury during the third interval, barely 24 hours after being named to Team Canada’s Olympic roster.
Kyle MacLean of the New York Islanders falls over after he tries to tip in the puck as Karel Vejmelka of the Utah Mammoth and Nick Desimone of the Utah Mammoth defend during the first interval on,January 1, 2026 at UBS Arena in Elmont, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post
They got here into the third interval still very a lot in the game, down 3-1 with 1:26 left on a four-minute man benefit from Alexander Kerfoot high-sticking Cal Ritchie, who had scored the lone Islander objective.
Not only did they fail to generate a shot on the energy play, however at 2:52 of the interval, they’d given up a power-play objective when Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from above the slot beat David Rittich clear from above the slot.
Rittich was caught out of place a few minutes in a while another power-play objective, this one from Clayton Keller, who had an open internet as the netminder didn’t even strive to recuperate from the reverse publish.
Rittich was subsequently pulled and took a quick journey down the tunnel as Marcus Hogberg relieved him. The Swede, in his first look of the year, was no better, letting in a pair of straightforward objectives that only served to validate the manner the Islanders have ridden Rittich with Ilya Sorokin out injured.
As has been the case recently, the Islanders’ game was stuffed with errors and missed alternatives.
Tony DeAngelo was caught behind the play on Dylan Guenther’s opening objective off the rush 36 seconds into the second, then turned the puck over main to Nick Schmaltz’s 3-1 objective on the ensuing rush later in the interval.
There was Jean-Gabriel Pageau — on ice for 3 objectives against — failing to get to a puck in the nook and watching as Lawson Crouse fed Guenther for Utah’s second objective, too.
Most obviously, there have been 5 energy play makes an attempt by means of which the Islanders not only didn’t score until far too late in the game, when Matthew Schaefer obtained one to go with his team down 5-1. The defensive lapses, at the least, could be called anomalies. The energy play can’t, with the Islanders just 3-for-23 relationship again to Dec. 16.
Rittich has carried out an admirable job filling in for Sorokin, however the backup goaltender appeared to hit a breaking point on Thursday in his sixth straight start, stopping just 9 of 14 photographs and being fully caught out on the last two Utah objectives.
David Rittich of the New York Islanders permits a objective during the second interval when the New York Islanders performed the Utah Mammoth on Thursday, January 1, 2026 at UBS Arena in Elmont, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post
Ironically, there have been stretches in this one the place the Islanders managed the run of play — they held Utah without a five-on-five shot in the first interval — and the adjustments Patrick Roy made to the traces, such as splitting up Mat Barzal and Horvat, largely had the meant impact.
Jonathan Drouin, though, has been stapled to a top-six and top-unit energy play position all season and doesn’t have a objective since Nov. 14. DeAngelo had one in all his roughest games of the year, Pageau regarded out of place on the wing and the third line was, at best, up and down.
The Isles have treaded water despite their offensive struggles for a while now.
On Thursday, though, they sunk.
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