Islanders, Hurricanes enter showdown plagued by blown leads

The New York Islanders' most recent trip to the playoffs in April 2024 was marred by an inability to hold onto leads and a tendency to allow goals in spurts during a five-game loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Islanders and Hurricanes will each be looking to snap a two-game losing streak Thursday night when New York visits Carolina in the first duel of the season between the Metropolitan Division rivals in Raleigh, N.C.

Both teams were off Wednesday after squandering multi-goal leads in defeats Tuesday. The Islanders blew an early two-goal advantage and fell to the host Boston Bruins 5-2 while the Hurricanes gave up the final four third-period goals in a 6-3 loss to the visiting Vegas Golden Knights.

The loss was particularly familiar for the Islanders, who led 2-0 fewer than five minutes into the game thanks to goals by Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri but were blanked the rest of the way. On Saturday, New York scored the first two goals before its four-game winning streak ended with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Horvat and Palmieri are among the 11 members of the Islanders' active roster who played in the 2024 Eastern Conference first-round series against the Hurricanes. New York squandered a three-goal lead in a 5-3 Game 2 loss and allowed three unanswered goals in the third period of Game 5 as Carolina clinched the series with a 6-3 win.

The consecutive losses to the Flyers and Bruins threaten to create an arduous early-season path for the Islanders, who fell into sole possession of last place in the Eastern Conference with Tuesday's loss.

"It's early, but you can't let that linger because it gets late fast," said Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock, who was also on the 2023-24 team. "There's little areas we need to clean up that are costing us. This group in here is confident and we know we're fine, but we have to look at it and talk about it and figure it out."

The Hurricanes have no shortage of confidence and belief after reaching the playoffs in each of the last seven seasons, tying a franchise record set by the then-Hartford Whalers from 1986 through 1992.

But frittering away big leads has become commonplace over the first nine games of the season for the Hurricanes. Their 6-1-0 start included victories over the Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche in which Carolina needed overtime and the shootout, respectively, to triumph after blowing a three-goal lead in regulation.

The undermanned Hurricanes -- who are without defenseman Jaccob Slavin (lower body) and left wingers William Carrier (lower body) and Eric Robinson (upper body) indefinitely and lost defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere to a lower-body injury Tuesday -- weren't as fortunate against the Golden Knights and Dallas Stars.

Carolina scored the first two goals in Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Stars and held a pair of one-goal leads Tuesday. Logan Stankoven's goal at 2:31 of the third period put the Hurricanes up 3-2 before the Golden Knights scored three goals in the next 15:05. Tomas Hertl added an empty-netter with 22 seconds left.

"Our job in here is to try and win hockey games and we haven't done that the last couple of nights," Hurricanes left winger Jordan Martinook said. "We have to come out Thursday with the mindset that we're going to dictate every part of the game. I have faith that we're going to do that."