Islanders suffer letdown after emotional win over John Tavares

The emotional high was followed by the emotional lull.

This is the roller coaster the Islanders are going to ride for the rest of the season, possibly into the postseason — which, mind you, they are thinking about quite a bit now that the calendar has turned to March. And letdowns like this self-inflicted 3-1 loss to the Capitals on Friday night at the Coliseum, just 24 hours after a carnival-like win in John Tavares’ return to Long Island as a villainous member of the Maple Leafs, are still going to leave their mark.

“These games coming up are too important to really sulk and be pissed off,” captain Anders Lee said. “I know we will be tonight, [and] we’ll wake up tomorrow pissed off. And then we have to start focusing on Philly.”

The Islanders (37-20-7) get back to work against the Flyers in a Coliseum matinee on Sunday. They still will be in first place in the Metropolitan Division, holding a game in hand on the Capitals (37-21-7), who have drawn even with them in points. But their perch atop the division is tenuous, and a lot of teams below these upstart Islanders are far more comfortable in that position.

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Their hope was the emotion from Tavares’ return and the 6-1 thumping of the Leafs would carry over. But first-year coach Barry Trotz made it a point to say that this is what playoff hockey is like — needing to refocus immediately after an emotional game, whether it was a win or a loss. And the Islanders played another tight game in the second leg of a back-to-back, having previously been 9-1-0 in those instances this season.

But a 68-second lapse early in the third period is undid them, two quick goals from Jakub Vrana and Alex Ovechkin that turned a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 deficit that became insurmountable.

“That’s playoff-type hockey,” said Josh Bailey, who ended the night with a moment of indignity, putting a back-pass into his own empty net with goalie Thomas Griess on the bench for the extra attacker with 1:28 remaining, the easiest goal T.J. Oshie will ever score, that made it 3-1. “We just came up short.”

The joy from the Islanders locker room on Thursday night had all but vanished, but they certainly weren’t blaming a hangover for the result.

“Obviously a huge game for us, a divisional rival, fighting for top of the division, so I don’t think it was an issue,” Bailey said. “I think guys turned the page and got ready for tonight like we always would. That’s what being a pro is all about.”

Yet Trotz said his team was “a little bit on our heels,” and they could hardly sustain any pressure on goalie Braden Holtby after going up 1-0 just 2:43 into the game when Tom Kuhnhackl scored on a breakaway — a smart play not to touch the puck once it crossed the blue line to avoid offside. But after a slog of a scoreless second period, Vrana was able to tie it when he buried a loose puck in front at 3:26 of the third.

Then Lee took a questionable interference penalty at 4:21, when he shoved Nicklas Backstrom off a draw and the smaller Backstrom fell to the ice in a heap.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” Lee said. “It’s March hockey, and those blockouts happen all the time.”

It proved costly when Ovechkin continued his career-long brutalization of the Islanders — now 35 goals and 54 points in 53 games — by batting a puck out of the air for a power-play goal a 2-1 lead. That was enough for the Capitals, enough to get them even in points atop the division, and enough for the Islanders to officially get over the Tavares night.

“It’s hard to match the night before, that’s just the way it is,” Lee said. “But we were up, we were ready to go. And we put ourselves in a position to win. Then things got away from us.”