Blackhawks will try to outlast Islanders (Mar 23, 2018)
NEW YORK -- Two teams who hoped to spend the final few weeks of the season vying for playoff positioning will instead continue playing out the string Saturday night when the New York Islanders host the Chicago Blackhawks in a battle of last-place clubs at Barclays Center.
Both teams continued skidding Thursday night. The Islanders' frantic third-period comeback fell short in a 7-6 loss to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning. The host Blackhawks were beaten 5-2 by the Vancouver Canucks.
The loss was the 12th in the last 14 games for the Islanders (31-33-10), who have fallen from a wild-card spot to the edge of official elimination during their 2-8-4 slump. New York's "tragic number" for elimination is six points.
This will be the third time in the last four years the Islanders miss the playoffs, but players and coach Doug Weight at least found some solace Thursday in their comeback attempt against the Lightning, who led 7-3 after two periods before New York scored three goals in the first five minutes of the third.
"Coming out of the second intermission, all you want is some fight, some hunger," Weight told reporters after the game. "We battled in the third. It's not good enough, but it's great to see the way some of the guys stepped up."
Playing meaningless games in March is a new experience for the Blackhawks (30-36-9), who have lost five straight and are 13-25-4 since Dec. 21. Chicago's Western Conference-best streak of nine straight playoff appearances -- a stretch that included three Stanley Cup championships -- officially ended Tuesday when it was eliminated from postseason contention with a 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
"It's a situation we've never been in," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters after the loss to the Avalanche.
Quenneville became Chicago's head coach four games into the 2008-09 season, the first one in their impressive run.
"For a long time, we've been in a good spot from start to finish for a majority of the seasons," he said.
The goalie matchup Saturday could pit two players familiar with one another. The Islanders are likely to go back to starter Jaroslav Halak, who stopped 11 of 12 shots Thursday but took the hard-luck loss. He allowed the decisive goal in relief of Christopher Gibson, who was pulled after giving up six shots in a little more than a period-and-a-half.
The Blackhawks will have to decide between Jean-Francois Berube, who took the loss Thursday after giving up four goals on 18 shots before he was pulled in the second period, or Anton Forsberg, who made eight saves in relief.
Berube and Forsberg are a combined 6-11-1 as starters for Chicago, which has been without top goalie Corey Crawford since Christmas because of head and vertigo issues.
Berube spent the previous two seasons with the Islanders as a little-used third-stringer behind Halak and Thomas Greiss, posting a 6-4-3 record in 21 games.
