from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

For this Monday night in Tampa, the Islanders were imposters, unable to compete in any facet of the game, overrun in all three zones by the Lightning in an 8-0 Game 5 defeat that stands as the most lopsided in franchise playoff history and leaves the club on the brink of extinction going into Wednesday’s Game 6 at the Coliseum.

“It was one of those nights where we couldn’t do anything right,” head coach Barry Trotz said following the fiasco. “If this result doesn’t motivate us, then I’m not sure what will. We’ve just got to man up.”

But it may be even worse than that, difficult as that might be to process. Because though the effects of this drubbing would not necessarily carry over into Wednesday under ordinary circumstances, the Islanders are going to have to wait for a decision from the Department of Player Safety regarding the availability of Mat Barzal for the team’s first potential elimination game of 2021.

And there is not a soul in the world who would want to be at the mercy of the decision-making process of VP George Parros and his band of consultants under any circumstance, let alone while on the precipice of doom.

But that is where the Islanders stand. That is where Barzal brought his team by losing his cool at the second-period buzzer following a giveaway on the power play by getting a major penalty and game misconduct for cross-checking Jan Rutta to the ice with what appeared to be the side of the head after No. 13 first responded to their engagement with a cross-check to the defenseman’s left shoulder.

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Below, wath two incidents from the game.