There was no Bo Horvat on Tuesday night but worse than that, the Islanders looked like a team searching for an identity with little success.
It wasn’t quite the defensive-zone mess that Saturday’s blown three-goal lead to Carolina became.
But it was its own brand of disorganized and aimless hockey, with the Islanders seemingly relying on physicality and guile to win.
That kept the Islanders in the game for a while, but it ended up turning into yet another instance in which they held a lead and could not keep it on home ice.
It also became a third loss in four games, 4-2, to the Wild, with the record falling to 5-3-3 in front of a restless UBS Arena crowd that, late in the game, saw chants of “Lou Must Go!” in pockets.
“The consistency of the identity has not been there for me,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Not yet.”
Whether that is the fault of general manager Lou Lamoriello, as the chanting fans seemed to think, is up for debate. But it is something the Islanders need to change — and fast.
Tuesday’s game reached the third period tied at two before things started to fall apart for the home side.
Consecutive Islander penalties early in the third came back to bite them as Kirill Kaprizov’s one-timer put Minnesota ahead 3-2 after Noah Dobson was sent off for roughing.
Just 41 seconds later, Pierre Engvall was caught overskating in his own zone and turned it over, leading to a backdoor finish for Joel Eriksson Ek to make it 4-2.
That was symptomatic of a problem evident up and down the lineup as everyone from Engvall to Mat Barzal to Ryan Pulock made a habit of skating around in vain as chances failed to open up.
“What happens is we continue a parade to the penalty box and give them momentum. They score a power-play goal,” a frustrated Lambert said. “And then we make an individual mistake trying to beat two guys on our own instead of moving the puck it ends up in the back of our net. As a result, the first 40 minutes have gone for naught because they were pretty good.”
Alexander Romanov’s explanation was more simple.
“Third period, couple stupid mistakes,” he told The Post.
On a night where the Islanders couldn’t generate much offensive momentum, a two-goal deficit in the third meant, in practice, game over.
And as if to punctuate the night, Scott Mayfield took the Islanders’ sixth penalty for an illegal hit to the head with under five minutes to go.
The Islanders have now held a lead in each of their eight home games this season, but have just a 3-2-3 record at UBS Arena.
Not-so-coincidentally, they also have a minus-eight goal differential in the third period and overtime.
They didn’t hold the lead for long in this game, with Vinni Lettieri quickly striking back after Oliver Wahlstrom danced between two defenders to put the Islanders ahead 2-1 at 8:34 of the second.
But that is a symptom of the problem.
“You don’t have to rewrite the book or the definition of playing with a lead,” Kyle Palmieri said. “It’s just something we gotta focus, we know what to do and just execute that.”
The record for the Islanders right now is fine, all things considered, but it is papering over a lot of issues.
Namely that this team is struggling with a lot of aspects that have been bedrocks of its identity for so long.
The Islanders talked for two days leading into this game about the need to manage the puck better and fix their breakouts. Those elements were better on Tuesday, but pretty far from fixed.
The shot count was not quite as bad as the unbelievably lopsided total against Carolina. But it is never good when an opponent getting 31 shots feels like legitimate progress.
The structure, meanwhile, still looks lacking and the Islanders are still struggling to pin opposing teams in the offensive zone.
“Here and there,” Palmieri said, asked if he’s seeing the team play to its identity. “We’re 10 games into the season. I don’t think it’s anything crazy to really overreact to. … As we move forward, try and correct our mistakes.”
It is only going to get tougher from here.
The Islanders have played eight of their first 11 games at home. They will play nine of the next 12 on the road.
And the easy part has not inspired much confidence.
