An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Warren Foegele celebrates after scoring the game-tying goal on Ilya Sorokin during the Islanders’ 3-2 loss to the Senators on March 19, 2026 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ontario, Image 2 shows Brayden Schenn, who also scored later in the game, fights with Ridly Greig (left) during the Islanders’ road loss to the Senators
OTTAWA, Ontario — It’s a particular cruelty of this playoff race that the Islanders only needed to slip up once to get themselves into serious trouble.
Their performance in Ottawa on Thursday night in losing 3-2 to the Senators on Brady Tkachuk’s game-winner with 11.1 seconds left on the clock, though, certainly was deserving of what followed.
That would be the Islanders falling out of a playoff spot as the Blue Jackets, Bruins and Red Wings all jumped over them in the standings with wins over the Rangers, Jets and Canadiens, respectively.
Warren Foegele celebrates after scoring the game-tying goal on Ilya Sorokin during the Islanders’ 3-2 loss to the Senators on March 19, 2026 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ontario. NHLI via Getty Images
For the first time since Dec. 4, the Islanders are below the cutline, and as good as they were in winning four of the five games preceding Thursday, little about the way they played at the Canadian Tire Centre screamed “Playoff team.”
In particular, the fact that the Islanders finished the third period with just one shot on goal, and zero over the game’s final 17:58 after Brayden Schenn scored to give them a 2-1 lead, counted as damning.
“I don’t know if we were sitting back, but we turned a couple pucks over in the neutral zone, able to give them some momentum,” Ryan Pulock said. “It felt like they were dumping and chasing and we got away from that a little bit. I feel like part of our success is when we’re getting it deep and we’re forechecking and we’re grinding down low, and we got away from that in the third.”
Truth be told, with the exception of their top line, the Islanders didn’t do much of that all night.
In a game that featured two fights in the opening six minutes, including Anders Lee and Tkachuk going at it off the opening draw, the Islanders were out-forechecked and outmuscled by a Senators club whose urgency they did not match.
It seemed like they might be able to steal two points after Schenn broke a 1-1 tie off a perfectly executed give-and-go with Simon Holmstrom anyway, and even after Warren Foegele re-tied the game at two, it looked a near-guarantee that the Islanders would at least get a point.
Brayden Schenn, who also scored later in the game, fights with Ridly Greig (left) during the Islanders’ road loss to the Senators. Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
That would have at least ensured they’d stay in a playoff spot.
Instead, after playing with fire the entire third period, the Islanders got burned when Jordan Spence’s floater from the right point took an odd bounce and came free for Tkachuk to knock it in with 11.1 to go in regulation.
“It stings,” Pulock said. “We’re in such a battle. You try to get a point out of that, at least. To give one up with 11 seconds left obviously stings, but that’s not gonna break us.”
It can’t. Not 69 games into a season that, at this point, would feel like nothing short of a failure if the Islanders somehow missed the playoffs for a second straight season. And not with six teams — the Isles, Red Wings, Bruins, Blue Jackets, Penguins and Canadiens, the latter of whom the Islanders face Saturday in a must-win game at the Bell Centre — all within one point of each other in a playoff race that is separated by a razor’s edge.
The Islanders have held leads easily of late, and they’ve played with unending resilience all year. Thursday felt like an exception to that rule. They got worse as the game went on, and never really looked great to begin with.
“I thought in the first and second we were talking more on the ice and communicating more,” coach Patrick Roy said. “More poised with the puck, moved that puck a little bit better. They put some pressure, especially on the wall [and] we didn’t get the puck out.”
Even so, and even with Matthew Schaefer scoring the 21st goal of his rookie season for a 1-0 lead 4:45 into the second, the Islanders rarely looked in control.
Carson Soucy came up with what might have been the save of the year to stop Tomas Chabot at 17:09 of the first, the defenseman diving into the crease to block what looked like a sure goal after Chabot stickhandled around Ilya Sorokin.
The power play, which looked like it had finally found some life in Toronto, coughed up one of its worst nights of the season, going 0-for-4 and letting up a shorthanded goal to Shane Pinto off a 2-on-1 rush that tied the game at one 10:27 into the second.
The Isles hung on for a while, and had they gotten it as far as 3-on-3, maybe they could have stolen two points and flipped the narrative on its head.
Instead, they are facing the most critical point of their season after the worst gut punch they’ve taken.