(Picture courtesy of @NYIslanders on Twitter)

Through two games at PNC Arena in North Carolina, the New York Islanders are currently down 2-0 in the Round 1 matchup to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Do the Islanders deserve to be down 2-0 in the series? Absolutely not.

In my opinion, the Islanders got outplayed in game one but were absolutely the better hockey team in game two, and it should be heading to Long Island in a tied series. In reality? Quite the opposite.

I am not the one to usually blame referees for losing games, but the referees missed calls on a couple of instances has directly caused them to lose games, and quite frankly it is unfair.

In Game 1, Ryan Pulock was penalized for making a simple defensive play that led to the Hurricanes scoring the game winning goal in the 2-1 Final.

Referees aside, Ryan Pulock played his best game as an Islander and had the lone goal in that contest.

In Game 2, it got much worse.

The Hurricanes had (6) power plays heading into an overtime contest at a score of 3-3. The Islanders had (0). Saying that, the Hurricanes did not play mistake-free, clean hockey.

To that point the three Islander goal scorers were Mathew Barzal, Kyle Palmieri, and Brock Nelson.

When overtime happened, the Hurricanes had too many men on the ice, trampled over an Islander player, and high sticked Scott Mayfield in the face, all were not called.

6 seconds later, Jesper Fast scores to win the game for the Hurricanes in Game 2.

The Islanders deserved that win, and it was taken away from them.

The series is far from over. The Islanders are about to play where they play the best. Home.

One more thing I want to say is that specific players need to step it up.

Anders Lee, Bo Horvat, Samuel Bolduc, and Matt Martin all need to step up their game substantially if the Islanders want to have a shot.

Alexander Romanov remains Day to Day.

Will the Islanders win games 3 and 4? We shall find out.

As always, Let’s Go Islanders.