Falling short
There were plenty of culprits in the first two periods of the Islanders 3-2 loss to the Canadiens on Wednesday night at Barclays Center, but few more significant than Andrew Ladd, who was held scoreless again.
By the third period, Ladd had been yanked off the Islanders’ top line, where he had been playing alongside John Tavares, and put on the fourth line.
The move, which included shifting 19-year-old rookie Anthony Beauvillier to the top with Tavares, seemed to provide a spark and some stellar play by Thomas Greiss in goal helped keep the game knotted.
In the end, though, a Nick Leddy slashing penalty led to Shea Weber’s power-play goal with 2:57 to go in the third for the game-winner.
“The wrong guy had the puck late in the game,” coach Jack Capuano said of Weber after his team failed to win its third straight game.
Prior to that, Capuano was forced to move his players around, as they seemingly sleepwalked through the first 30 minutes of the game, with Tavares calling the second period, when the Isles were outshot 12-5, one of the worst of the season.
Only Greiss kept them in the game as Montreal improved to 9-1-1 against the Islanders in the past 11 meetings.
“We were slow out of our own end,” Tavares said. “We allowed them to use their speed to get on us.”
The third period opened with Ladd, who signed a seven-year, $38.5 million contract in the offseason, on the fourth line.
“Sometimes you have to do it to try to generate [offense] and we got right back in the game when we had to,” Capuano said of the maneuver.
Through seven games, Ladd has just one assist with Tavares right next to him.
Tavares scored his fourth goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 in the second, but it came on the power play.
Afterwards, Ladd insisted he wasn’t frustrated by being moved down.
“Just try to mix it up and find some offense,” Ladd said. “I have no problem with that.”
Asked if the start to his season was a concern, Ladd said he hasn’t contributed as he would have hoped.
“Listen, I’d like to definitely be more productive through the first seven games, but I also know the player I can be and what I need to do,” Ladd said. “I’m not too worried.”
If Capuano is, he wasn’t saying it — although his coaching decisions certainly point in that direction.
“Without me talking to players [about] their game, I’d rather not discuss it with the media,” Capuano said. “I’m just being fair.”
The coach was pleased with the way Tavares’ line played with Beauvillier, even if there were mixed results from the rookie, as well as another 2015 first-rounder, Mathew Barzal, whose turnover led to Montreal’s first goal.
Barzal was in the lineup because Nikolay Kulemin was out with an upper-body injury. He’s day-to-day.
After the Islanders fell behind again in the third, Dennis Seidenberg tied it with a long slap shot at 14:16. But then the Islanders surrendered just their second shorthanded goal all season.
The Islanders are in the middle of a stretch of playing 10 of 11 games at home. They will play in Pittsburgh on Thursday night before returning to Brooklyn. … The Islanders announced they will give away Ralph Macchio bobbleheads on Dec. 23, featuring the Huntington native’s character from “The Karate Kid.”