from Arthur Staple of Newsday,

The players defended the coach. The coach defended himself and the players. So no one was pointing fingers Monday night after the latest Islanders debacle, a 4-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning that left the Isles still searching for answers with three nervous days off coming.

“If I get what you’re implying, and I think I do, the answer is no,” Cal Clutterbuck said when asked if something fundamental needs to change with his team, which is 5-8-3 overall and 2-5-3 in its last 10. “It’s just . . . No.

“It’s something different every night, it seems. We fix one thing and something else lets you down. But everything is fixable.”

The season isn’t even one-quarter over, but the questions about Jack Capuano’s job security and the status of a number of underachieving players are perfectly legitimate.

No Islander bristled at being asked, but after a decent opening 18 minutes quickly devolved into a 2-0 deficit after a period, there seemed to be an air of resignation after the Lightning dismissed the Islanders for the third time in 13 days by a 14-2 total score.

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