Here is Islanders coach Jack Capuano on Tuesday morning, making a point that at the time sounded somewhat silly.
"We've tried to play sound defense," he said. "It's always been a defense-first mentality, but it's about battle levels."
So out came his team several hours later at the Coliseum, clamping down for the first time in a long time, only to see all of its hard work disappear in under three minutes, and morph into a 3-2 shootout loss to the Lightning.
Nikita Kucherov got the game-winning tally in the second round of the skills competition, as Evgeni Nabokov couldn't stop the two shots he faced and the Islanders only scored on one of their three attempts.
With just 2:53 remaining in regulation, the Islanders (9-19-7) were holding strong with a 2-0 lead. That's when Frans Nielsen lost a battle in the defensive zone and Valtteri Filppula scored to cut the lead in half and send an ominous buzz through the announced crowd of 13,618.
As the seconds ticked away, it was almost as if you could hear all those loyal patrons taking a deep collective breath they eventually released in fury, as a mad scramble in front of Nabokov ended with Filppula flipping another by him, tying the game with 3.8 seconds remaining.
After missing 12 games with a groin injury, Nabokov was in the Isles' net for the second straight game and was so tantalizingly close to recording the first shutout for the team (and himself) since last March 24.
Yet the Islanders are a team that had just one win in their previous 13 games, a stretch of 1-9-3 sending them directly to the bottom of the already putrid Metropolitan Division. This one finally looked good when Nielsen finished off a 2-on-1 with Michael Grabner midway through the third, giving the Isles a 2-0 lead.
But again, the Isles are a team that always needs that third goal. In one of the most damning stats in recent memory, the team came into Tuesday night's game with a 0-16-4 record when it scores two or fewer goals.
It doesn't really matter if the Lightning (20-11-3) knew that or not, because they came charging back nonetheless. They had gone 3-1-2 in their previous six, Tuesday night's being the fourth game of five they had played on the road. They were 8-6-3 with reigning Rocket Richard winner Steven Stamkos out of the lineup, still sidelined with a broken leg suffered on Nov. 11 in Boston.
The Islanders carried a power play into the second period, and it didn't take them very long to convert. Just 11 seconds into the period, Kyle Okposo fired a rocket shot from the point that beat Ben Bishop stick side, giving the Isles a 1-0 lead. They also had a handful of easy chances after that — one just 15 seconds after Okposo's goal, a two-on-none breakaway from Grabner and Nielsen that Bishop stopped, and three minutes after that with John Tavares denied a rebound chance in front.
The Lightning did attempt 43 shots through two periods, but the Isles blocked 17 and Nabokov sucked up the 21 that did get to him, keeping it 1-0 after 40 minutes.
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