Next loss could mean the end of a playoff hopes for the NY Islanders

Apparently, to the New York Islanders, home cooking is overrated. Following a successful road trip out West, where they swept all three games, the Islanders found themselves just five points out of the last Wild Card spot with half the season to go.

The team was set to start a crucial seven-game homestand at UBS Arena, with five of the seven against conference teams ahead of the Isles. To make the stakes even higher, four of those five games are against teams within the division and ahead of them in the Wild Card race. So what sounded like a great opportunity to make up ground on the six teams ahead of them in the standings, so far has turned out to be anything but that.

The Isles need to get on the right track once again

The first game of the homestand was against the Ottawa Senators, who are currently third in the Wild Card race. The expectations from the fans were quite high for this game, but unfortunately, the Islanders failed to deliver. Marcus Hogberg got the start in net, the first Islander goalie not named Ilya Sorokin or Varlamov at UBS Arena according to commentator Butch Goring, and was the teams' only bright spot of the night. A structureless power play, overcommitting on the penalty kill, inability to clear the defensive zone leading to a goal, and a total lack of energy for most of the game led to a 2-0 Ottawa win. The only other items worth noting about this game were the NHL debut of Marc Gatcomb and the return of Isiah George, who missed the previous three games following a Max Domi elbow to the head.

Game two in Elmont came at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers, the first of two home games in this stretch of seven, that ended in a Flyers 5-3 win. Ilya Sorokin was getting the start after missing two games with illness. During an eventful first period that saw the Islanders end a 0 for forever power play drought scored by Bo Horvat and a crushing check by Isles Max Tysplakov on Ryan Poehling, the period ended in a 1-0 Isles lead.

The second was a different story, as they proceeded to allow three straight Flyer goals, including a shorthanded goal where Noah Dobson failed to attempt to cover goal scorer Garnet Hathaway. This play encapsulated the entire season for Dobson, where his defensive play has struggled mightily, decision-making has been poor and lack of point production has made him a target for the fans in the stands and on the chat pages.

The third period started positively, as Mat Barzal scored quickly making the score 3-2, but that lasted all of five minutes. On a poor line change by Tysplakov, where instead of heading to the bench at the end of his shift, pursued the puck in the Flyers zone. When he did head to the bench, the change was late and allowed the Flyers an odd-man rush leading to the fourth Flyer goal that turned out to be the game-winner. Lee would add a late PPG after pulling Sorokin to make it a 6-on-4 kill for the Flyers, and Noah Cates would pot an empty netter leading to a 5-3 loss.

As the team prepares for a game against a 14-27-6 Shark team tonight at UBS Arena, Hogberg has been slated by Islanders coach Patrick Roy for the start. Hogberg deserves the opportunity with impressive numbers for his three-game sample size this season. He is 1-2-0, but has a 1.47 GAA and .953 save percentage, looking to be only the third Isles goalie to win at UBS Arena. While San Jose is a bad team, the Islanders haven't been all that great this season either.

The team's announcer and commentator, Brendon Burke and Butch Goring, along with the fans, have been wishing for a long winning streak and hoping it starts tonight. Unfortunately, one three-game winning streak is the best this team has done so far this year and that's not good enough to make the playoffs any season. But if they do hope to land one of the spots, time is running out with 38 games to play eight points to make up, and six teams to surpass. If the Isles hope to avoid jumping the shark, it needs to begin against San Jose (pun intended).