These were the good Islanders, up the ice, carrying the play, possessing and pressuring the puck, creating scoring chances and a two-goal lead.
And then they were just the Islanders, unable to hold a lead, straying from their early-game success by trying to be too cute and then allowing too many odd-man rushes.
And that’s been the problem with this whole season: Too often, there’s no real distinction between which version of the Islanders appears. Too often, as in Monday night’s 4-3 overtime loss at Vancouver, solid starts yield nothing but disappointing results.
So it’s 0-0-2 to start this four-game road trip which continues on Thursday night at Edmonton and 0-4-3 since Feb.