LOS ANGELES — The Islanders may have just had the worst run in Southern California since Magic Johnson tried hosting late-night television.
After 5-1 in Anaheim came 5-3 in Los Angeles on Thursday night, the eve of the trade deadline, in a game in which they were completely outdone by the Kings from the jump.
As messages to management go, this was one general manager Mathieu Darche would probably like to erase.
Coach Patrick Roy expressed some optimism last week that the Islanders were finally finding line combinations that could stick for a while.
Surely, he will go to the blender because this is twice in a row that the top line has been overmatched and the second line a total non-factor.
One bad game was something the Islanders could wave away on the heels of a five-game winning streak.
Two is a harder sell.
It is easier to list the positives for the Islanders on Thursday than the many, many things that went wrong.
Ryan Pulock was back from injury, and Ilya Sorokin kept the score from reaching embarrassing proportions.
That is pretty much it.
The Islanders turned pucks over.
They had no net presence on either side of the ice.
They were anemic on the power play.
It was as bad of a game as they’ve played this year, 24 hours after another loss that easily could make it onto the same list.
Somehow, they were still within arm’s length going into the third period thanks to Bo Horvat scoring in, literally, the final second of the second period.
After one second was put back onto the clock, Horvat whipped one in from above the left circle off a faceoff to bring them within 3-1.
The momentum proved fleeting.
Just 2:30 into the third, the lead was right back at three, as Alex Laferriere beat Sorokin clean off the rush with the Kings on the power play, extending the lead right back to 4-1.
The Islanders quickly got it back on a shorthanded goal from Adam Pelech that made it 4-2 just two minutes later, but again, the Kings quickly snuffed out any semblance of a comeback with an Adrian Kempe goal at the left post off the rush.
Emil Heineman’s tip from Matthew Schaefer at six-on-five with just over two minutes to go accounted for the 5-3 final.
There is just no way to come back down three goals without being much, much better around the crease and below the hash marks than the Islanders were Thursday.
Let alone when giving the opponent free access through the neutral zone.
Come to think of it, forget coming back, it’s hard to win a game at all under those conditions.
Things had started to go poorly just a few minutes into the night when Sorokin lost his stick while playing the puck on a rim.
He played without it for about a minute before Artemi Panarin buried one from the lower right circle for the only goal in a period where the Islanders were outshot 19-5.
Samuel Helenius and Mikey Anderson scored just 1:31 apart starting with Helenius at 14:20 of the second, taking advantage of a turnover deep in the zone from Kyle MacLean. Anderson scored from the left point off Pelech’s turnover shortly thereafter.
Even when the Islanders managed to possess the puck on Thursday, they rarely posed a serious threat to Darcy Kuemper.
This was one of those nights — and so was Wednesday — where their lack of serious net presence was badly exposed.
The fourth line, which can usually generate some kind of a forecheck, didn’t have much in the tank.
Scott Mayfield has had a tough two games, and though Schaefer is beyond any serious criticism, the superstar rookie hasn’t looked like his usual self in either game out west.
The only line that’s played anywhere near its usual standard has been that of Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
The Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat, Ondrej Palat trio — so effective through the five-game win streak — hit a nadir Thursday.
Maybe there is something in the air in this building, where the Islanders haven’t won since 2018.
Or maybe it is Southern California in general, even though the smog is largely a thing of the past.
Either way, the Islanders will be glad to get out of here.