This looked headed toward not just a loss, but perhaps an ugly one for the Islanders.
For 45 minutes, they played disconnected and disjointed hockey.
They could not possess the puck.
They recorded just 16 shots in two periods.
They were down by just one, but it felt like a nadir — a moment where they could no longer stay positive about how they were playing.
So much for that.
Instead, the Islanders can walk out of Tuesday perfectly optimistic about the most important thing: The result.
They mounted a late comeback before Bo Horvat scored to beat the Penguins 4-3 in a shootout, cementing a resilient comeback victory with half the Islanders blue line still missing and Isaiah George making his NHL debut.
Michael Bunting’s goal 7:44 into the third appeared to be the finishing touch, putting the Penguins up 3-1 after the Islanders had failed to mount a push at the start of the period and prompting “Fire Lou” chants from a small group of fans who had, evidently, seen enough.
But Drew O’Connor’s penalty for kneeing Noah Dobson less than two minutes later opened the door right back up for the Islanders, who promptly converted on the power play with Simon Holmstrom lifting in a backhand from down low to start the rally.
It was continued by Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who put in Anders Lee’s rebound at the 12:48 mark and let out a yell to go along with a double fist pump.
As far as morale goes, it might have been the most important goal of this early part of the season.
That got the Islanders to overtime, where Kyle Palmieri took a penalty for holding after just 30 seconds.
But the much-maligned PK unit came up with a kill at four-on-three, and shortly thereafter the Islanders got a turn of their own on the power play after Kris Letang tripped Horvat.
All the same, though, the Islanders could not come up with a four-on-three goal either.
And in the skills competition, Horvat beat Alex Nedeljkovic with a nasty start-stop move to score the only goal, with Ilya Sorokin stopping all three shooters for Pittsburgh.
None of that is to sugarcoat how bad this looked for much of the evening.
That was not so much about the left side of the defense, which is down all three regular starters, or the top line, which is down Mat Barzal and Anthony Duclair.
It was about basics and fundamentals.
That was something new for a team which has, even through its losses, generally possessed the puck and gotten half-decent chances most nights, albeit while struggling to finish.
The Islanders struggled to complete passes and didn’t look to be reading from the same book while breaking the puck out, leading to long stretches hemmed into their own zone.
After a scoreless first period, the Penguins inevitably got one to go 5:27 into the second, when Scott Mayfield failed to corral the puck, giving Sidney Crosby a look from the low slot that the star center would not miss.
The Islanders challenged for offside, and it did appear that Noel Acciari was past the blue line while getting off the ice for a change, but the goal was declared good, prompting Patrick Roy to go ballistic on the bench.
Palmieri took advantage of a rare chance to tie the game at the 12:21 mark of the same period, batting in the puck after it popped up following Horvat’s initial shot, but less than 90 seconds later, Evgeni Malkin converted from the left circle on the power play to make it 2-1 for the Penguins.
That score was, in reality, beyond flattering for a team that was being out-chanced 21-10 through 40 minutes, per Natural Stat Trick.
The Islanders, though, don’t have much time to worry about that. They can be happy to get out of the building with two points.
