Marcus Hogbergs nightmare stretch makes Islanders offseason priority clear

The Islanders’ offseason shopping list just got longer. This was Marcus Högberg’s net Thursday, with Ilya Sorokin down with a lower-body injury suffered Tuesday night in Nashville, and it’s Högberg whose long-term prospects are set back most by the Islanders’ worst performance of the season, a 9-2 loss to the Rangers. There was plenty of blame, fault and embarrassment to go around, to be clear. Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock were minus-5 and minus-4, respectively, with Pulock at fault for an awful turnover leading to the Rangers’ first goal.Alexander Romanov was benched for 10 minutes of the second period after turning the puck over and failing to get back on Artemi Panarin’s goal at the end of the first, with coach Patrick Roy later saying he “didn’t notice” that Romanov had been benched.

Bo Horvat was minus-5, so was Anders Lee. “Not much to say,” Lee said.“We played a horses–t game.” As a team and as an organization, the Islanders will wear the shame of this one, in which Rangers fans took over the UBS Arena stands and the Rangers took over the UBS Arena ice.

For all the bad nights throughout this season, all the injuries and brutal losses, this was the first time the Islanders did not look interested in competing and their pride was in question, with Kyle Palmieri saying as much afterward. They are not officially eliminated, not until the Canadiens either gain one more point or the Islanders lose another game, but they are done and they know they are done.If allowing seven goals in Nashville on Tuesday wasn’t enough evidence, then this was heaps more.

The Islanders hung Högberg out to dry. And still, the Swede’s performance Thursday — his .720 save percentage across six games since returning from a broken hand a month ago — means the Islanders need to look at bringing in a backup goalie this summer. “Just so disappointed,” a stunned and subdued Högberg said after allowing eight goals on 30 shots on a night when...