Forget about all the cockamamee penalties; the Isles are back home in Elmont with sprinkles of optimism to inspire home for a turnabout and wins.
The sting hurts, to be sure, and in a lot of places, including two fluke Carolina goals.
But the cure is as close as tomorrow, and as near as UBS Arena.
Granted that losing 4-3 in overtime, as the Isles did last night to the Hurricanes in Raleigh, is a bummer. Ah, but it's far from fatal.
As one hockey philosopher once said, "You're not out until you lose at home."
"We go home," said Brock Nelson, who had given his club a one-goal lead midway in the third period, "turn the page and refocus."
Forget about all the cockamamee penalties -- Isles got six and the home club, zilch -- and the convoluted, ugly finish. The Isles are back home in Elmont with sprinkles of optimism to inspire home for a turnabout and wins.
"We made more plays," said coach Lane Lambert. "We played fast and played physical and continued to invest."
And there were more plusses:
* They rallied after another weak opening that put them down two-zip.
* For a change they even took the lead in the third with victory in their grasp.
* Their penalty-killing was a commendable five-for-six effective.
* They outhit the Canes 54-28.
* Mat Barzal scored and should be in 100% shape tomorrow.
* Defenseman Noah Dobson was sturdy and effective at both ends. He logged 23:16, got two assists and wound up plus-2.
* The Brock Nelson-Casey Cizikas face-off experts won 60 % of the draws.
"We were in a good position to win but it didn't happen," asserted Zach Parise. "Still, we did a lot of good things."
Just not enough. To wit:
* Hoped for game-stealer Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves but still was not at the very top of his game. One goal whacked off his mask and in!
* His team was not disciplined enough and took too many penalties.
* Rookie defenseman Samuel Bolduc must strengthen his game.
That said, Kyle Palmieri, who scored the Isles first goal and ignited the comeback, nearly won it in overtime but Antti Raanta made the save. And then came the tragedy of errors.
Isles defenseman Scott Mayfield was high sticked along the left boards,went down and -- right or wrong -- no call was made. Mayfield failed to recover in time, leaving the Canes a counterattack opening and eventually Jesper Fast was in position to shoot -- and score.
Sorokin was ill-positioned to stop the left corner thrust and that was that. Which brings us to the next question: Now what?
I'll tell you what: Home cooking and home ice. That's the recipe to get the Islanders right back into this ball game. And one thing is certain; the Canes are not invincible but they exploited a couple of fluky goals and got the W.
In the hard-to-figure department you have to wonder how -- in a hard-fought game -- the penalties wind up 6-0 in favor of the home team.
Meanwhile, enough critics -- on and off the broadcasts -- believe that an overtime penalty should have been called on Jordan Martinook for high-sticking Scott Mayfield. It wasn't and nothing further can redeem the game for New York.
For the Isles it's back to the drawing board with some lineup tweaks possible for Game Three. Or, as coach Lambert succinctly said: "Now we've got to worry about the next game!"
On the other hand, The Maven says, not to worry; two victories do not win a best-of-seven series!