Game 26 of the Islanders’ season was typical, insofar because it advised us little concerning the Islanders that we didn’t already know.
The Islanders had been clear in their very own finish, giving up fewer than 20 photographs for the third time in 4 video games; they’d the higher possibilities however acquired only one previous Logan Thompson and didn’t generate sufficient visitors across the crease; they felt they deserved much better than a 4-1 loss to the Capitals and had been, principally, right to really feel that manner. These are all issues we’ve seen earlier than. They are all issues Mathieu Darche has seen earlier than.
The query for the rookie normal supervisor, although, is how he’ll react to a nightmare 10-day stretch over which the Islanders have misplaced 4 of 5 video games, scored simply six targets, misplaced Jean-Gabriel Pageau for a number of weeks and misplaced each Alexander Romanov and Kyle Palmieri for the season.
Darche, over his first six months within the job, has seemed each bit sensible and pragmatic. He has not forged himself because the type of supervisor who, when confronted with adversity, appears to be like for a fast repair that may set the franchise again in the long run. And, on a sensible, pragmatic degree, the suitable factor for him to do proper now could be nothing.