Following their elimination, the New York Islanders answered questions about what went wrong in the third and the emotion that comes with the reality that their season is over.
The New York Islanders had chances in the first and second period to add to their one-goal lead. But that never happened.
And after the Carolina Hurricanes pushed early in the third period, the Islanders had no answer but to just get the puck out any chance they could.
Failing to string passes together, the Islanders got caught into a cycle of turnover after turnover, whether the puck landed on a Canes stick in the defensive zone or in the neutral zone.
Islanders' netminder Ilya Sorokin did all he could to combat the onslaught of chances before, eventually, Sebastian Aho hopped on a fluttering puck to tie the game at one with 10:36 to play in the third.
The Islanders survived the remainder of the period, after being outshot 19-5.
Within six minutes, the Islanders -- who could smell a Game Seven after chance after chance early in overtime -- saw their season come to an end off an Adam Pelech turnover in their zone, before a sharp angle shot found its way through Sorokin.
"Certainly felt like we could have been more on our toes. I didn't think we established our forecheck in the third period," Islanders head coach Lane Lambert said. "So, as a result, we were on our heels more than we needed to be. There's no question about that."
Mathew Barzal had this to say:
"Yeah, sometimes when you're just trying to hold on, it doesn't work well. I think the first few periods were playing aggressive, and in the third period, we kind of sat back and just wanted to kind of clog it up and make it hard, and sometimes when you do that, it goes the other way."
When asked if that was a conscious decision to sit back, Barzal was adamant that it just happened.
"No, it's just...it's hard to flip that switch mentally when you're up one, and you don't want to make a mistake," Barzal said. "It's not a conscious decision. It's more of just a hard, hard mental battle to try to get through."
"We maybe sat back a little too much. We weren't playing on our toes," Noah Dobson added. "They had a good push. It's tight out there. Just unfortunate weren't able to get done."
As hard as flipping that switch was, the Islanders did so when the third period began.
Bo Horvat had a tremendous start to the extra fame, deking through the Hurricanes zone but failing to get his backhand chance on goal.
The Islanders, for as much offensive zone time as they had, registered just one shot on goal before the nightmarish ending for Adam Pelech, Ilya Sorokin, and the countless fans watching from around the globe:
"I mean, it's not his fault. It happens. He was spectacular for us all season, all playoffs," Ryan Pulock said when asked about Sorokin. "There's so much more to it than that. We will stick together in this room. I mean, everyone has each other's backs in here, and it’s gonna sting. It's gonna sting for everyone, and, we'll find a way out of it and find a way to get our minds right for next year.”
For the 33-year-old Matt Martin, he was emotional as he discussed the group.
"I mean everybody in this locker room wants to win the Stanley Cup. That's the dream. That's the goal, and like I said, it hurts the same amount every time, whether it's the first round or the third round," Martin said. "We believe in the group that we have, and we fought hard all year.
"We had some tough stretches and battled to get here, and we were excited and confident about tonight. We couldn't find the second goal when we were pushing in the second, and they come out in the third and get one, and obviously bang one home in overtime."
Islanders captain Anders Lee spoke for a while.
"We believed in this room, believed in one another and the character we had, and I know it was a tough task at hand, but there was never a doubt in anyone's mind that we were capable of completing it," Lee said.
"It's very hard right now. It's going to sting for quite a while, but this is a special group like I said, and this is just, unfortunately, a part of our journey to do something here. That faith and that belief in one another's not going to waver based on tonight's result, but it's just going to be a part of us getting better. This is part of our journey and our road. So we got to sit on it for a little bit."
ROSNER'S THOUGHTS
Entering the room, there was dead silence. Players spoke, but you could feel the emptiness from what had just transpired as reality set in.
There's moments in a career that take you more inside the mindset of players and although Zach Parise never spoke following elimination, the blank stare he had as he sat at his locker, frozen, spoke volumes.
Kyle Palmieri went over to Parise, giving him a brotherly hug, but that blank stare never faded.
At 38, who knows what comes next for the pending unrestricted free agent.
This is a veteran Islanders group.
Parise told me the other day that the word that kept coming back into his mind as he took part in these Stanley Cup Playoffs was "fortunate".
Whether you are a seasoned vet with playoff experience or a youngster getting his first shot at chasing a Stanley Cup, there's never a guarantee that you will be back.
Throughout the season, you build relationships with these players. There's a respect level that grows after seeing the work that goes into each practice. the comradery in the room and truly the love that each player has for one another.
You write about the big wins, the grueling losses, and the magic that was a playoff berth in game 82.
And now, it all ends, just like that.