So far this year, the Islanders have gotten seven periods out of their franchise goaltender.
That number won’t change for awhile.
Rick DiPietro had arthroscopic knee surgery on Friday to repair a meniscus injury and will be out 4-6 weeks.
And last night, the Islanders got a glimpse of what it might be like without him and it wasn’t pretty, as the Isles disintegrated in the third period of a 5-4 loss to Montreal.
DiPietro’s most recent surgery is in addition to the knee surgery he had during the offseason, as well as the two hip surgeries and a pair of concussions he has suffered since signing a 15-year contract.
He has just entered the third year of that epic contract, which is looking increasingly like an albatross, since injury-prone players do not tend to become more durable as they age.
The latest knee injury occurred a week ago against the Hurricanes after he played just one period.
Now, for at least the next month – and really, for who knows how long? – the Isles will be without their best player.
“He’s a very big part of our team, so it’s obviously going to hurt,” said Mark Streit, who scored a goal in the loss – the Islanders’ sixth straight that came in front of a crowd that was at least half full of Montreal fans. “But it’s been the whole season so far, with missing players.”
The Isles have been besieged by injuries, sure, but that’s just part of why they lost last night.
After building a 4-1 lead through two periods, playing some of their most inspired hockey of the season against a Canadiens team that had won seven of eight, the Isles fell apart in the third. They generated almost no offense and surrendered four straight goals, some the fault of backup goalie Yann Danis, who made his first NHL start in three years.
The game-winner was credited to Alex Kovalev after it deflected off of the skate of the Isles’ Thomas Pock, just to add some more misfortune to their night.
“We collapsed,” Streit said. “We just watched. This may be a learning process, but everybody’s played hockey before.”
Coach Scott Gordon was exasperated afterward.
“We took a lot of shortcuts,” the coach said. “Why? I don’t know. It’s just a lot of old habits. It depends how they respond to this to see if we got anything out of it.”
One thing they do know is that they’ll be without DiPietro. Gordon said he hadn’t thought about his absence yet.
But he will.