The Islanders lost easily in Raleigh, a fairly predictable result made moreso by the pre-game news that Mathew Barzal would be scratched as discipline for being late to the morning skate.
It was never really close, with the Isles down 2-0 just over five minutes in — ex-Isles Mike Reilly adding a WTF shorthanded wraparound on David Rittich — and 3-0 by the midway point of the first period. When the dust settled it was 6-2, a jovial night for Hurricanes Andrei Svechnikov and Logan Stankoven who answered the lone Isles goals by Matthew Schaefer and Simon Holmstrom.
One bright spot: Alex Romanov back healthy and delivering some entertaining, nearly Kasparaitis-like blowup checks. Hey, if we’re going to be out of it before the game is a few minutes old, at least there was that bit of fun…
The loss makes three out of three on this four-game road trip, with the finale in D.C. Friday night to conclude the back-to-back.
This season could get ugly pretty quickly in a Scott Gordon, West Coast freefall kind of way.