Islanders meagerly fall to Capitals after loss of Kyle Palmieri

Just 10 days ago, the Islanders were riding a wave of momentum, the ceiling on their season looking higher than anyone had realized.

Since then, it has gone down, down, down, with things seemingly getting worse by the day. By the end of Sunday afternoon, they had a fourth loss in five, 4-1 to the Capitals in a game that all but confirmed that yes, this is going to be much harder without Kyle Palmieri in the fold after the winger tore his ACL.

It’s not that the Islanders weren’t competitive; it was quite the opposite in a game where they nearly doubled Washington’s shot count, and Caps netminder Logan Thompson was the best player on either side. Their bad luck has not stopped with injuries during a stretch in which Thompson and Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman alike have stolen two points at UBS.

Still, the second line was just a little bit worse with Max Shabanov replacing Palmieri, the third line was just a little bit worse with Anthony Duclair replacing Shabanov and the fourth line — which seemed to have unlocked something when it was Shabanov with Cal Ritchie and Casey Cizikas — was a nonfactor with Cizikas between Kyle MacLean and Max Tsyplakov.

The Islanders entered the third period with the chance to come back down two, and looked ready to take it.

Bo Horvat broke through on the power play with 6:17 to go in regulation, cleaning up the garbage on Anders Lee’s rebound to cut the lead in half.

The Islanders, though, didn’t seem to get much momentum from it. Despite having 2:38 with the goalie pulled, they didn’t look like much of a threat to tie the game at six-on-five before Aliaksei Protas scored into an empty net seconds after beating out an icing call.

Alex Ovechkin scored a second empty-netter to make it 4-1 before the final buzzer.

Prior to that, the Islanders made a couple of crucial errors when the situation — both their roster and Thompson’s level of play — required a near perfect game.

Ilya Sorokin, in an incredibly rare occurrence, turned over a puck from behind the net and could not get back into position before Tom Wilson made it a 2-0 game at 13:58 of the second.

A few minutes later, Horvat’s feed to spring Mat Barzal on a 1-on-0 breakaway was just a tad too far ahead of No. 13, though it’s worth noting that Thompson was imperious on rush chances all afternoon. These are the margins by which games are won and lost.

For the argument that the Islanders had the better of play and nothing was getting by Thompson on Sunday, there is also the fact that the Isles have, in large part, continued to struggle getting bodies around both creases. Wilson was left alone at the left post to tap in Ovechkin’s feed on the power play for Washington’s opening goal. The Islanders were rarely in the blue paint in front of Thompson in the same way, and that is not an isolated occurrence.

With the Lightning and Avalanche, two of the league’s hottest teams, coming into UBS to finish this homestand, a 1-5-1 stretch on Long Island to follow up a 6-1-0 road trip now seems like a distinct possibility.

That would not just erase the progress the Islanders made, but when you add in the injuries, they would somehow have taken two steps back from the giant step forward they took on the road.