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For a franchise as familiar with calamity as the Islanders, Monday affirmed that losses can still be as soul-crushing as ever.
The Islanders’ playoff fate fell out of their hands with a 5-2 blowout loss to the Capitals in which they were about as close to winning as Charlie Brown was to kicking the football.
The loss does not eliminate the Isles from playoff contention, but it does amount to an invitation for the Penguins to hop them in the standings.
“Disappointing,” said a despondent Casey Cizikas inside an Islanders locker room in which the preferred soundtrack was silence. “Just can’t happen.”
Pittsburgh, which did not play Monday, finishes its season with games against the bottom-feeding Blackhawks and Blue Jackets and now controls its own destiny.
So, too, do the Panthers, who moved a point ahead of the Islanders with an overtime loss to Toronto, but — in what somehow counted as optimism — lost on a John Tavares overtime winner, of all things.
Want to catch a game? The Islanders schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
To make the playoffs, the Isles need to beat Montreal on Wednesday and hope that either the Penguins or Panthers lose.
Otherwise, add this game to the list of embarrassments with which the generation of Islanders fans too young to have seen the Dynasty is all too familiar.
Really, add the last 10 days, over which the Islanders have dropped three of five games in regulation to allow Florida and Pittsburgh the inside track to two wild-card spots.
