In addition to losing the game, the Panthers also lost their top defenseman early in the first period on Long Island when Aaron Ekblad exited with an upper-body injury and did not return.
Already without captain Aleksander Barkov (lower body), Radko Gudas (upper body), Patric Hornqvist (upper body), Anthony Duclair (lower body) and Chris Tierney (upper body), Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said that Ekblad's injury is currently considered day to day.
"We have all the pieces in here," Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. "I think the biggest thing is just getting healthy and getting guys back. Tonight, especially with Ekkie going down, that's four or five of our best players and leaders that are out of the lineup. I think guys have done a really good job of stepping in, but we have to just take it to another level and find a way."
With play at 4-on-4, Tkachuk, who hit the 40-point mark faster than any player in franchise history, opened the scoring for the Panthers when he followed up on a shot from Brandon Montour and powered the rebound past Ilya Sorokin to make it 1-0 at 8:09 of the first period.
Getting the game back to even in the second period, Anthony Beauvillier jumped on a puck in the slot and fired a laser past Sergei Bobrovsky to make it 1-1 at 5:20. Putting the Islanders on top at 19:15, Ryan Pulock's shot clipped off a body in front and went in to make it 2-1.
Making his NHL debut, Aatu Raty slipped into the slot and ripped a shot past Bobrovsky to extend New York's lead to 3-1 at 7:10 of the third period. Just 1:11 later, Zach Parise skated into the zone on a 2-on-1 rush, held the puck and buried a backhand shot to make it 4-1 at 8:21.
Bobrovsky finished with 38 saves, while Sorokin stopped 22 of 23 shots.
"We were behind it right from the start and could never catch up," Maurice said. "Our goalie was really good through the whole game. We didn't give him an opportunity to have a great night by the turnovers we had. We're the best forechecking team in the NHL and we didn't forecheck. We couldn't get a puck in deep and couldn't get it to go. We had absolutely no legs from start to finish."
With 4:10 left, Beauvillier potted an empty-net goal to lock in the 5-1 win for the Islanders.
"You have to earn everything out there," Tkachuk said. "You can't just cheat it and give them what we gave them tonight. It was unfair to Bob. That's what's the most frustrating about it. We just need to take that out of our game. We have to find a way here for each individual to step up after this break. If we play the way we can, I know we can make the playoffs. I believe in our group."
