ELMONT, N.Y. — The Islanders were too often a step behind on Saturday.
But it likely wasn’t playing games on consecutive nights that was the culprit. The competition got tougher and the Islanders — again — were not at their best against one of the NHL’s better teams.
The Islanders had a three-game winning streak snapped as they fell to the Maple Leafs, 3-1, at UBS Arena after opening this seven-game homestand with a defensively-dominant 4-0 victory over the Western Conference-worst Coyotes on Friday.
The Islanders (14-14-6) went 0 for 3 on the power play with four shots while allowing a short-handed goal.
Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves, while Petr Mrazek stopped 25 shots for the Maple Leafs (25-10-3), who had not played since a 6-3 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday and completed a 3-2-1 road trip.
So, the Islanders fell to 2-10-3 against teams currently holding playoff spots in the Eastern and Western Conferences. Worse, the Islanders have been outscored 46-21 in those games.
So, while there is optimism over the team’s recent play — they are still 7-2-1 at home since Dec. 11 — the Islanders cannot expect to truly launch themselves back into the playoff hunt without performing better against tougher competition.
"You have to win the games in front of you," Trotz said. "You can’t look too far ahead. You had to take care of Arizona so that you can have the opportunity to take on Toronto tonight, which is a hard match. If we’re going to climb, we’re going to have to continue to win as many games as possible and we’re going to have to go through some very good teams and collect wins there as well."
The loss knocked the Islanders back to seventh place in the Metropolitan Division, just a day after leap-frogging from last to sixth.
"Hopefully we can keep a little bit of momentum at home," Trotz said. "Keep climbing. It was nice to wake up [Saturday] morning and not see New York Islanders last in the Metro. You can say what it is. But it’s a little different feeling just even seeing that on the publication."
The Islanders next face the Flyers on Tuesday night after the Islanders swept a home-and-home series from the Flyers this past Monday and Tuesday.
The Islanders certainly didn’t help themselves in the first period, putting the Maple Leafs on the power play twice in the first 4:10. The Islanders limited them to two shots on the man advantage, then allowed Mitch Marner’s short-handed goal at 13:25 of the first period on their first power play as the Maple Leafs took a 1-0 lead. Marner got up ice off a turnover and slid the puck underneath Varlamov.
Pierre Engvall also slid the puck through Varlamov with 0.4 seconds left in the first period as the Islanders seemed to stop skating in anticipation of the buzzer, giving the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead.
Zack Parise’s backhander at the crease as he pushed the puck up ice — his second goal of the season — had just tied it at 1 with 59.2 seconds remaining.
The Maple Leafs pushed it to 3-1 at 9:42 of the second period as the Islanders look confused in the defensive zone. First, Varlamov had to extend his left pad to stop defenseman T.J. Brodie, who was allowed to skate below the right circle for an open shot. But William Nylander fed defenseman Morgan Rielly cross ice for a one-timer from the right circle that beat Varlamov.
The Maple Leafs became the first opponent to play twice at UBS Arena after topping the Islanders, 3-0, on Nov. 21 in the second game in the building.
