Islanders show spark but still searching for consistent identity

SALT LAKE CITY — Lou Lamoriello had just admitted Thursday morning that his team still was searching for an identity when reporters walked into the Islanders dressing room and spotted a toy rubber chicken in Anders Lee’s stall. The captain had found it, unclaimed, inside T-Mobile Arena. “It’s coming with us,” he said. After the Islanders blew out the Golden Knights, 4-0, a few hours later, the chicken was 1-0 — and was ceremonially given to Brock Nelson following the game.Maybe if the Islanders can keep a fledgling two-game win streak going Saturday in their first trip to Utah, the chicken will become part of the identity for which they’re searching.

Or, at least, a pretty good mascot. As far as on-ice identity goes, what the Islanders showed Thursday could be a pretty good starting point, chicken or no chicken. “We’re a team that goes out and plays a simple, hard hockey game,” Lee said before the game, articulating something the Islanders turned into a brand in past years but have rarely gotten to over the first half of the season.“That’s who we are.

That’s who we’ve been for a long time.We’re not gonna be flashy.

We’ll have moments with some guys, but we’re not a flashy team.We’re not gonna put five or six in the net.

We’re a structured team that works hard every night and has the ability to win tight games.And that’s been our identity for a long time.” For a long time, yes.

For this season, rarely — though you could see it peaking through Thursday. In Lamoriello’s mind, that’s the result of injuries and the breakup of the Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck fourth line, through which the Islanders channeled so much of that identity in the past. “I think we’ve been searching a little bit for that,” Lamoriello said.“We haven’t had the team together to really see what it is right now.

I think the identity was always focused in on our fourth line, with reference to the way that fourth line ...