from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

“They got a goal on a pretty good shot that I should have stopped and then they got a tip,” said Robin Lehner, beaten twice within 48 seconds of the third period’s first 1:05 by Warren Foegele’s left-circle drive and Nino Niederreiter’s mid-air deflection. “We’re not into excuses, but in reality we were the better team.”

Attention: Scoring one goal through 124:04 of the series is not good enough.

Attention: Getting the puck to the net a total of 27 times, and 17 times in 33:33 against relief netminder Curtis McElhinney after he replaced injured starter Petr Mrazek, is not good enough, either.

Attention: The better team will be the one to advance, not the one that may or may not have had the edge in either aesthetics or analytics.

Lehner’s opinion was not unique in the room. Sometimes players say what they think and other times players say what they think is appropriate. The Islanders’ frustration was understandable after dropping the type of low-scoring tight game that they’d dined on all year, but it is critical for the team to recognize the regular season is as gone as the first-round sweep over Pittsburgh.

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