Islanders hear 'Fire Lambert' chants as they fall to Capitals for fourth straight loss
Capitals players rejoice ater takikng 2-1 lead in second period as Bo Horvat watches on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Sound the alarm. The Islanders are in real trouble.
“Certain parts of the year, you’re going to go through adversity, and we’re going through it right now,” Bo Horvat said.
The losing streak stretched to four — and five defeats in the last six games — with Saturday night’s 4-1 loss to the Capitals at UBS Arena.
It prompted a succession of “Fire Lambert” chants in the third period, which got louder each time. The displeasure toward coach Lane Lambert followed a similar chant in the Islanders’ previous home game — “Lou Must Go” — calling for the ouster of president/general manager Lou Lamoriello.
“We have passionate fans. I don’t listen to any outside noise whether it’s good or bad,” said Lambert, who then was asked if he believes his message is getting through to the team.
“Yeah, I do,” he said.
“It’s on us in this room that have to perform,” Horvat said. “Lane is doing a good job of putting the right players out there at the right time. We’ve got to take ownership ourselves and find a way to get it done.”
The Islanders (5-5-3) sustained pressure and held a 95-49 edge in shot attempts. They still lost to a Capitals squad that has won six of eight but has seven players injured, were playing on the second night of a back-to-back with an inexperienced defense corps and had a 28-year-old NHL neophyte in net.
The Islanders were held to two or fewer goals for the third straight game, wasting another strong outing from Semyon Varlamov (25 saves).
“It’s tough,” Brock Nelson said. “It’s frustrating. Eighty-two games, you’re going to find yourself in tough spots and you’ve got to find a way to get through it. The only thing we can do is stick together and find a way to win a hockey game.”
Getting more traffic to the crease would help.
Capitals goalie Hunter Shepard (36 saves) was playing his second NHL game with Darcy Kuemper injured (his debut came on Oct. 25). But he got a clear look at too many shots.
Three of the Capitals’ six defensemen have played 40 or fewer NHL games. It was just the sixth game for Hardy Haman Aktell and seventh for Lucas Johansen.
Still, the Capitals (7-4-2) opened a 3-1 lead when Aliaksei Protas slipped between Nelson and Pierre Engvall to get open in the low slot for Matthew Phillips’ feed with 39.9 seconds left in the second period.
Nic Dowd had made it 2-1 at 13:05 of the second period, swatting in the puck at the crease after Varlamov made a diving arm save on Nicolas Aube-Kubel.
Despite a 15-7 shot advantage in the first period, the Islanders didn’t beat Shepard until defenseman Alexander Romanov connected from the blue line for his first goal of the season to tie it at 1 with 42.5 seconds remaining. Shepard had misplayed the puck and was out of position.
Alex Ovechkin, who had gone six games without a goal, made it 1-0 with a snap shot from the top of the left circle at 9:18 of the first period after Evgeny Kuznetsov won an offensive-zone draw against Horvat. Ovechkin added an empty-netter.
“It’s just little plays that are killing us,” Casey Cizikas said. “The majority of the game, we’re playing good hockey.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
