Islanders' goal drought leaves them high and dry even when they play well

The way the Islanders played, Anders Lee said, was optimal.

They generated shots against old friend John Tavares and his Maple Leafs teammates on Thursday night at UBS Arena. They produced scoring chances.

They did almost everything they set out to do.

Almost.

“We created chances. We didn’t score on them. That was the difference” was Lee’s analysis of the 2-1 loss after a 40-minute practice at Northwell Health Ice Center on Saturday morning. “We had plenty of great looks throughout the game and plenty in the third. We just weren’t able to put them in. Other than that, other than not scoring, we played a great hockey game.”

The captain’s theory of the case two days later echoed what Mathew Barzal and Patrick Roy said, independently of each other, immediately after Thursday night’s game.

“We’re playing good hockey,” Barzal said. “It’s just hard getting over the line right now.”

A few minutes later, down the corridor from the home dressing room, Roy said the following: “I have nothing to support what I’m going to say, but we’re playing good hockey. We limited the chances. We had some chances. I think we just need to get better shots on net. The quality of our shots needs to be better.”

There is merit to the argument proffered by Roy, Barzal and Lee. The Islanders finished the game outshooting (33-31) and out-attempting (70-64) the Leafs. But Toronto was the beneficiary of two goals by Bobby McMann, including the tiebreaking goal with 2:59 left in regulation that dropped the Islanders to 14-18-7 with their third straight loss.

Among the myriad issues that have plagued the Islanders this season is that while they are ranked 14th in the NHL with a 28.8 shots-per-game average, their 2.59 goals-per-game average is 28th in the league.

Or to put it succinctly: They are generating shots, but those shots are not finding their way behind opposing goaltenders often enough.

“It’s hard,” Kyle Palmieri told Newsday on Saturday. “It’s frustrating.”

So then the question becomes: Is there a way to fix what ails the Islanders and salvage the season?

Short of team president and general manager Lou Lamoriello obtaining a high-end goal-scorer in a trade, Roy’s option is to continually experiment with line combinations. Which he did ahead of Sunday’s game against the Bruins in Boston.

Brock Nelson centered the top line with Lee and Barzal during practice and Bo Horvat was flanked by Palmieri and Anthony Duclair on the second line. Jean-Gabriel Pageau skated between Max Tsyplakov and Casey Cizikas on the third line and Pierre Engvall, Kyle MacLean and Hudson Fasching comprised the fourth line.

“We just want to try different things,” Roy said. “Help the scoring, and we thought that would be a good way [to go].”

On defense, Roy had Dennis Cholowski skate on the third pair with Scott Mayfield in place of rookie Isaiah George, who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury after taking an elbow from Toronto’s Max Domi in the second period Thursday night.

Cholowski, who last played in the 4-0 loss to the Hurricanes on Dec. 17, will replace Ryan Pulock on the second power-play unit.

“He’s doing a really nice job on the power play,” Roy said. “He’s moving that puck very well, and that will be an asset for us. Not that Pully didn’t do a good job. I feel like he’s allowing Pully to rest and focus on playing against the top lines and I think it’s a good thing to have him. He’s very good at moving the puck out of the zone on his own.”

Which is a necessary component to consistently create offense. As is confidence.

“I feel like in that game, it was, what, 14-14 in scoring chances, so we had enough chances to win the game,” Roy said when asked why he thought the Islanders had played well against the Maple Leafs. “I don’t mind those 2-1 games or 1-0 games. Sometimes you have to find a way to win those ones and get some confidence and feel good about it.

“Yeah, I’d love to win every night 6-1, but that’s not how it works. For us to continue to play well defensively and hopefully we’ll get some confidence offensively . . . Be more relaxed offensively and I think that’s going to help us.”

Notes & quotes: Simon Holmstrom (upper body) is day-to-day, Roy said.