Game 82 of the season wasn’t an entirely meaningless exercise for the Islanders.
The 6-1 loss to the Blue Jackets to finish the year was an embarrassment of an effort, to be sure, but in so losing, the Islanders secured the 10th-best lottery odds, and with that a 3.5 percent shot of moving into the top three and of gaining the No. 1 overall pick.
Going into the day, an Islanders win combined with a Rangers loss would have dropped them to the 11th-best lottery odds.
If they don’t win the lottery, even the chance to draft in the top 10 would be significant for the Islanders, who have not done so since 2014 when they picked Michael Dal Colle fifth overall.
The highest draft choice Lou Lamoriello has made as general manager was in his first year on the job in 2018, when he took Oliver Wahlstrom and Noah Dobson with the 11th and 12th picks.
After taking Simon Holmstrom a year later, the Islanders did not have a first-round pick again until 2024, trading picks in four straight seasons in deals that brought back Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kyle Palmieri, Alexander Romanov and Bo Horvat, respectively.
While the Islanders did nothing to indicate a tanking posture in their first couple of games after being officially eliminated from playoff contention, they did hold Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock out of the lineup on Thursday, with Marcus Högberg starting in net over Ilya Sorokin.
Högberg, for a second straight game, looked out of his depth, stopping 20 of 26 shots, though the defense in front of him left a lot to be desired.
The Islanders’ 35-35-12 record left them with 80 points, their worst total in an 82-game season since 2017-18, Garth Snow’s last as general manager.
Thursday was Kyle Palmieri’s 900th career game.
“It’s cool. That’s a lot of hockey in this league,” Palmieri said. “It’s one of those things, you don’t take anything for granted. As you watch them pile up and find those milestones, it’s cool. Game 82 for us, it’s about leaving on a good note and being happy about the way we play tonight and finish as a team.”
Alexander Romanov was out with the same illness that kept him out of Tuesday’s loss to the Capitals.