NY Islanders earn a point in Nashville to start roadtrip with 2-1 shootout loss

Considering last night's game was played in Nashville, maybe you take a shootout loss.

The New York Islanders skated out of Nashville on Thursday night, a place they are now winless in seven straight games (0-4-3) with one point after a 2-1 shootout loss to the Predators, a game that had very little to do with poor effort and a lot to do with missed margins. Tight game. Structured game. And one key mistake.

For much of the night, the Islanders played a strong defensive game and kept Nashville from generating much at even strength, and got another steady performance from David Rittich, who turned aside 26 shots and looked calm and composed from the opening faceoff. The breakthrough finally came midway through the second period when Scott Mayfield worked the puck behind the net and found Simon Holmstrom all alone at the right post. Holmstrom buried it for his second goal in two games and continued his strange dominance over the Predators — three goals and seven points in six career games.

At that point, the Islanders were doing exactly what they wanted. Then came the lapse.

With New York on the power play late in the second, Cole Smith carried the puck deep into the Islanders’ zone and found Ryan O’Reilly cruising through the slot. His wrist shot trickled through Rittich’s pads with just over 40 seconds left in the period, tying the game on a short-handed goal — the fifth the Islanders have allowed this season. One play. One mistake. New game.

The third period was scoreless but tense, and overtime was wide open. The Islanders had the best chance to end it when Matthew Schaefer broke in alone with 20 seconds left, but Juuse Saros came up with the save to send it to a shootout. "I could've tried to bury there," said Schaefer. "There could've been a couple more chances where we bury and it changed the game. We got the point, we're going to learn from it"

From there, it was all Saros. He stopped all three Islanders' attempts, while Filip Forsberg ended it with a smooth forehand-to-backhand move. It’s a frustrating result in some respects, no doubt. But the bigger picture still matters. The Islanders didn’t fold in a tough building. They didn’t get sloppy after a blowout win. They played their game and earned a point to start their road trip.