Based on the growing evidence of the past four weeks that the Islanders both 1) realize they have a significant problem yet 2) exhibit no hint of knowing how to fix it, I expected nothing other than a bad loss last night.
But 26 shots against in the first period...again? Now that, that I didn’t see coming. All the better that they exited that period with a 1-0 lead. At one point I found myself rooting for an Isles win not as a fan, but as a social observer curious to see how they would assess and react to playing abysmally yet coming out with two points.