Islanders come up empty in loss to Senators as three-game win streak ends

This first game of a seven-game homestand felt more like the first day back from vacation for the Islanders, and not in a good way.In a lot of ways, that’s what the three-game road trip preceding Tuesday — all wins — was.A break from what the rest of a largely disappointing season has been.The Islanders were, out of nowhere, going into the buildings of playoff teams and winning.Back in their own backyard, against an Eastern Conference opponent in what amounted to a four-point game in the chase for the second wild-card spot, this looked more like the product the Islanders have put out for most of the season and the Senators came away 2-0 victors.The Islanders carried over the physicality and hard defense that sustained them out West.

But offensively, they struggled as much as ever, failing to break the puck out for much of the night and thus, failing to do much of anything against a goalie in Leevi Merilainen who started just his ninth-ever NHL game.The result, after a would-be Adam Gaudette goal was waved off a few minutes into the night following Patrick Roy’s successful goalie interference challenge, was a game of attrition, in which every inch of ice was fought over.That’s the sort of match in which the Islanders can sometimes thrive, but not as often as in past years, and not Tuesday.The Islanders lost ground fast, and found themselves playing much of the game in their own zone before they knew it.Without Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Ilya Sorokin, both out with illness, the Islanders were shorthanded.

But this wasn’t about their injuries or the bug going around the locker room, which forced Marc Gatcomb into an NHL debut via emergency call-up and Marcus Hogberg into a second straight start in the crease.The top line, which drove play all night long two nights earlier in Utah, was bottled up all night playing largely against Brady Tkachuk’s line for the Senators.That only put Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal in the same group as the rest of ...