NEW YORK _ Management showed its faith in the Islanders by standing pat at the NHL trade deadline, though that didn't immediately work out for them on Tuesday night. But this loss only punctuated coach Barry Trotz's message before his team before it opened a five-game homestand.
"This is playoff hockey," Trotz said. "Every game you have to tighten your game and be ready. We're playing a lot of games. That can be mentally hard to grind through."
The Islanders, seeking their first playoff berth since 2016, lost to the Pacific Division-leading Flames, who scored twice early in the third period, for the second time in six days, 3-1, on Tuesday night at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum.
The Metropolitan Division-leading Islanders (36-19-7) began a 1-1-1 Western Canada trip with a 4-2 defeat at Calgary last Wednesday. The second-place Capitals pulled even with the Islanders' 79 points by routing the trade-depleted Senators on Tuesday night.
Robin Lehner stopped 24 shots while Mike Smith made 26 saves for the Flames (40-16-7), who have won a season-high six straight.
The Islanders are playing eight of nine at the Coliseum, including against John Tavares' Maple Leafs on Thursday night and the Capitals on Friday night.
The Islanders killed off a Flames' five-on-three power play that lasted one minute, 31 seconds after Matt Martin was called for interference off an offensive zone faceoff and Cal Clutterbuck, trying to clear the puck down the ice on the penalty kill, instead shot it up into the netting for a delay of game at 18:39 of the second period.
But the Flames recovered from the missed opportunity and went up 3-1 as Mikael Backlund connected on a wrist shot from the right circle at 3:15 of the third period and defenseman Rasmus Andersson scored on a slap shot from nearly the same spot at 5:12.
Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello opted not to mortgage the franchise's future for a short-term rental that could have provided secondary scoring and bolstered the power play before Monday's trade deadline.
"We saw his press conference," captain Anders Lee said. "It really puts confidence in us. We're excited for the rest of the year. It's going to be a fun run and we've got a lot of work to do."
"The group earned the right to stay together," Trotz added. "The strength of our group is the group. It's the chemistry. I know from what I know that Lou was looking and there wasn't anything that made sense for us. We felt pretty good adds would be Andrew Ladd and Thomas Hickey."
Ladd, out since Nov. 15 with a suspected ankle injury, and defenseman Thomas Hickey, out since Dec. 18 with a suspected head injury, were both activated off long-term injured reserve on Tuesday.
Trotz started the game with Ladd on Mathew Barzal's left wing along with Leo Komarov but flip-flopped Josh Bailey back onto Barzal's right wing by the end of the first period while reuniting Komarov with third-line center Valtteri Filppula and Anthony Beauvillier.
The left-shooting Hickey was paired with rookie defenseman Devon Toews, who was moved to his off-side on the right, with steady Scott Mayfield _ who had saved a goal with his play at the crease at Vancouver _ being the odd man out as a healthy scratch.
Trotz continued the tinkering after the Islanders generated just five first-period shots, placing Ladd and Bailey around Filppula and that trio connecting for a two-on-one goal as Filppula fed Bailey to tie the score at 1 at 7:39 of the second period.
Matthew Tkachuk's between-the-legs power-play goal at 2:57 of the second had given the Flames a 1-0 lead.
