Some of these games coming down the stretch for the Islanders are going to be just as Friday night’s at the Coliseum was — seeming as if it’s men against boys.
As Jack Capuano’s Islanders dressed seven rookies out of 18 skaters, they were undone by their inexperience in a 4-3 loss to the mighty Sharks in a game that was a lot closer in score than it was in class.
“The biggest thing right now is to eliminate the turnovers — that’s the thing that’s killing us every game,” said goalie Evgeni Nabokov, playing his first game against the Sharks, the team with whom he played the first 563 of his 681 career games and which remains the only one in the league against which he doesn’t have a victory.
“It’s a game, it’s not like a bunch of robots going to dump the puck out and dump the puck in,” he said. “So sometimes the mistakes are going to be there and I have to make a save.”
Nabokov made 22 saves on 26 shots, but the four goals he allowed were far from easy stops. There were mistakes aplenty, and the Islanders (25-34-9) continued the countdown to the moment they officially are eliminated from the postseason for the sixth time in the past seven seasons.
“They’re learning now, and they’re learning the tough way, you can see that with some of the goals,” Capuano said. “As a coach, you have to stay positive with some of these guys. They’re 20 years old. You have to keep teaching them, and you have to find a way.”
The Sharks (44-17-7) went ahead 2-0 early with goals from Matt Nieto and Jason Demers, the first from a blown defensive coverage by rookie Brock Nelson, the second a slick give-and-go.
“The way they play,” Nabokov said, “it’s just experience and discipline.”
The Isles pushed back early in the second when rookie Anders Lee got his sixth goal (he later added an assist for his ninth point) in eight NHL games this season, but it was wiped out when rookie defenseman Matt Donovan made an awful turnover in his own zone that ended up as a Joe Thornton rebound goal, making it 3-1.
After Nelson got the Isles back within a goal as a result of tipping in a Donovan point shot (see the glimmers of hope in all the inexperience?) it was negated just 79 seconds later when another rookie, Ryan Strome, lost the puck, lost his assignment, and a Martin Havlat wrist shot made it 4-2 Sharks.
Even as Frans Nielsen scored one for the Islanders with the extra attacker on and 21.4 seconds remaining, there is little solace to be had as the last-overall Sabres come to Long Island on Saturday night.
And when Capuano was asked if losses are easier to cope with as he looks to the future, he gawked.
“No, you don’t know me well enough,” he said. “I understand that team we played is a top-notch team, but we prepare our guys to win games. Just because we have 45-percent rookies in our lineup, we still want to do the right things. It doesn’t make it an easier for me, for our staff, or for our players.”