5 Takeaways: Islanders Season Ends in Game 7 of Semifinal

The New York Islanders playoff run ran out of gas, as the Isles were shut out by the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Semifinals on Friday night at Amalie Arena.

It was a sour ending to a sweet spring, as the Islanders season ended at the hands of the Lightning for a second-straight year. The Bolts will go on to play the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final, starting on Monday.

Yanni Gourde scored the lone goal of the game, a shorthanded marker in the second period, but despite a late push, that's all the Lightning needed to advance. Andrei Vasilesvkiy stopped all 18 Islanders shots for the shutout, while Semyon Varlamov stopped 29-of-30 in a valiant effort.
While their semifinal berth was not satisfactory to a group with Stanley Cup aspirations, the Islanders proved that last season's run to the Eastern Conference Final was no fluke. Last season, the Islanders learned how hard it was to go the distance and this year they got one game further.
"It's an honor to play with these guys. Back-to-back, being one of the last four teams, I don't think that's a fluke," Scott Mayfield said. "I don't know if too many people believed in us during the first two rounds, but we believed in ourselves. We're a confident group. It stings right now."
When the sting of a Game 7 loss wears off, the Isles will learn how to take the next step. Until then, here are five takeaways from a season-ending loss.

ISLES COME UP JUST SHORT:

The Islanders knew the stakes of Friday's game, which had a berth in the Stanley Cup Final vs Montreal on the line.
It was the biggest game for the franchise in 37 years, the closest the organization had been to a Final since 1984.
Given all of the hard work and sacrifices, both on the ice, as well as the COVID protocols and restrictions the players had to abide by off of it, Friday's loss hurt a little more than usual.
Mathew Barzal was one of the players visibly emotional after the game, talking about what the loss meant to him both personally and to some of the tenured Islanders on a veteran-laden group.
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"It sucks getting back to this point and we fell short again," Barzal said. "You've got guys like [Josh Bailey] and [Andy Greene], veteran guys. I know I've got a few more years, but you want to win for those guys. It hurts seeing those guys in the locker room afterwards and how close we were."
Head Coach Barry Trotz has talked about how teams need to experience heartache before breaking through and after two years of coming real close to the summit, the Islanders coach said the only option was to keep climbing the mountain.
"We're on the right path," Trotz said. "As I said last year, and I didn't say to the guys this year, but I think they understand, you have to keep going back. It's no different from Tampa Bay. They had some heartache before they were able to win a Cup and now they have a chance to win two."

ISLES OFFENSE STALLS IN GAME 7:

While the Islanders entered the semis averaging more goals-per-game than the high-octane Bolts, Tampa Bay proved to be the atonic to their offense.
The Islanders scored a total of four goals over four games in Florida, getting shut out in Games 5 and 7 at Amalie Arena.
The Islanders finished the night with 18 shots, successively shooting five, six and seven shots on net in each of the three respective periods. While the Isles opt for quality over quantity - and they did have a few quality looks ranging from an Anthony Beauvillier partial breakaway, to an open-net look that bounced over Barzal's stick - New York had a hard time breaking through Tampa, who blocked 21 shots.
It translated to long stretches without a shot on goal. The Isles went nine-and-a-half minutes without a shot in the first period, with one attempt in that span, and nearly 12 minutes without a shot in the second. Despite all that, they were only one shot away from sending the game to overtime in the third, where they outshot the Lightning and had their best push of the game late, but couldn't convert. Barzal's chance was likely the best of the night, but for a team in need of a good bounce, the Hockey Gods did not cooperate.
In total, the Islanders were outscored 20-11 in the series, a testament to Tampa's abilities on both sides of the puck.
"They're a good defensive team," Trotz said. "They have a good core, an outstanding goaltender, a defenseman who is a Norris Trophy candidate every year. An underrated guy in McDonagh, who is a shutdown guy, and [Mikhail] Sergachev… I think they are a better team now than they were last year and we took them to the brink cause I think we're a better team as well. We've learned some lessons on the way here."

VALAMOV DELIVERS VALIANT EFFORT:

While the offense couldn't get going, Varlamov let the Islanders hang around and have a shot at sending the game to OT.
Varlamov stopped 29-of-30 shots, including all 15 of the Lightning's shots in the first period.
The Islanders goaltender had to make some key saves early, stopping Victor Hedman on a partial breakaway as the defenseman looked to go high after being sprung by a flip pass. The clean sheet in the first was a better result than Varlamov's last trip to Tampa, where the goalie was shelled and pulled in the first period.
He came up with a pair of big stops on an Alex Killorn shot in tight, as well as a Steven Stamkos one-timer in the second period. While he wasn't busy in the final frame, Friday was as good of a game as the Islanders could have asked for from their netminder.
"He's one of the main reasons we're here," Mayfield said. "He had another great game. It stings to lose it."

SEASON ENDS ON SHG:

After not allowing a shorthanded goal all regular season, and only one through the first two rounds of the playoffs, the second one against the Islanders couldn't have come at a worse time.
With the Islanders on the first - and only - power play of the game, Gourde netted the shorthanded game-winner. Anthony Cirelli drew three Islanders to him along the boards, allowing Gourde to skate into the slot undetected where he snapped a feed past Varlamov at 1:49.
"It's disappointing," Trotz said. "It's an opportunity for us to hopefully do something against them. Just a little bit of awareness. Gourde came off the bench real quick and made a play. We weren't paying enough attention and it ended up in the back of our net."

BARN DOORS CLOSE:

Game 7 took place in Tampa, but Friday's game had an residual effect on Nassau Coliseum.
With the Islanders season ending on the road, Wednesday's Game 6 marked the final playoff game played at the old barn. At least it went out on a high note with an OT win and some Long Island confetti.
While closing the Coliseum with a Stanley Cup would have been the most poetic ending, the building lived a good second life since the team's return in 2018. Fans knocked the stanchions out of the glass in the Islanders return on Dec. 1, 2018, setting the tone for the next three years. The building had so many memorable nights during its swan song.
Brendan Burke's "Game 1 to the Island" call happened at the Coliseum. Butch Goring and John Tonelli had their jerseys retired above the ice they played on. The Islanders' 6-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs of Feb. 28, 2019 became one of the most legendary regular season games on a record. The Islanders also won their last meeting with the rival Rangers on Coliseum ice, rewriting a wrong from the 2015 closeout.
But the Coliseum's true swan song was this year's playoff run. It was almost cruel that the Islanders most successful season in 27 years happened in a hermitically-sealed bubble last year, or that the final season would be played in front of empty seats.
Instead, the building got to host a pair of series clinchers, some more magical moments and a go out loud and proud in front rowdy sold out crowds.

THANK YOU

As always, thank you to all of you for reading NewYorkIslanders.com, listening to and watching Islanders games, following the team on social media and cheering on the team at home and on the road.
It was an unique season, but a good one. As Trotz says, it's important to enjoy the moments - and there were certainly plenty of great ones this year.