The Upshot: Islanders lose control of destiny; lose 5-2 to the Washington Capitals

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Washington Capitals scored twice in the opening 1:03 of the game on their way to a 5-2 win over the New York Islanders at Capital One Arena on Monday. Dylan Strome scored twice, and Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves for Washington (35-36-9), who played without Alexander Ovechkin, TJ Oshie, and others. Rasmus Dahlin and Craig Smith had first-period goals, and Tom Wilson added an empty netter. Hudson Fasching and Casey Cizikas scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 20 saves for the Islanders (41-31-9) in the loss.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

It's hard to take solace in anything after a performance like that, but two things broke the Islanders way on the scoreboard Monday night.

In Florida, the Panthers earned a point, but old friend John Tavares scored on a breakaway in overtime, which means the Islanders can still catch Florida depending on how each team's final game of the season ends up. Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the Senators held off the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2, increasing the likelihood that Carolina's final game of the season, which comes against the Panthers in Sunrise, FL, will mean something to the Hurricanes in order to clinch the Metropolitan Division.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The Islanders power-play continues to be just dreadful.

They were 0-for-3 on Monday night with just one shot on goal. Over the last eight games, they are 0-for-16 as the changes head coach Lane Lambert made during their three off-days last week have failed to change any of the results.

"I didn't see enough shots," Lambert said after the game. "So move the puck around. At some point somebody's got to get to the net. When we did get it to the net a couple of times we did we created opportunity, but we had opportunities to score and get back into that game."

STATS OF THE GAME

Per NHL PR, Dylan Strome and Rasmus Sandin each scored in the opening 1:03 of their game, marking the fifth-fastest two tallies to begin a game in Capitals history. The faster instances occurred in 29 seconds (Gaetan Duchesne & Mark Taylor on Oct. 27, 1985), 46 seconds (Alex Ovechkin & T.J. Oshie on Oct. 7, 2017), 53 seconds (David Jensen & Greg Adams on Dec. 19, 1986) and 56 seconds (Tony White & Stan Gilbertson on Nov. 26, 1975).

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

There wasn't anything of note coming from the game, so here is a photo Bo Horvat shared on Sunday of his kids with the Easter Bunny. It's the Islanders fans that feel that way after the 5-2 loss in DC.

WHAT'S NEXT

The Islanders finish up the regular season at home on Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens. The puck drops at 7:00 PM ET.