from Arthur Staple of Newsday,

Nine times in 35 games.

That’s 25.7 percent of the Islanders’ season, over a quarter of the time they hit the ice -- that’s how often they have blown a third-period lead.

Four of those were two-goal leads, like Tuesday night. In three of them, the Islanders have allowed the tying goal in the final minute of regulation -- like Tuesday night.

A remarkable eight of those nine have been on home ice -- like Tuesday night. That’s eight games out of 18 at the Coliseum, almost half of their games so far.

Say what you want about this team -- that they’re not talented enough, that their defense is subpar, that they aren’t good enough to win regularly -- but they were good enough to be ahead deep into nine of these games and ended up winning two of them.

They are 2-2-5 in those games. If they hold four of these leads, then the Islanders are no better and no worse than the bulk of the Metro Division.

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