NEW YORK _ The promise the Islanders saw in goalie Christopher Gibson's play was nowhere to be found on Thursday night.
And rather than thinking about how a longshot playoff push might be accomplished _ hint: Many victories are needed _ the Islanders are inching closer to calculating when they'll be eliminated from postseason contention.
The Capitals beat the Islanders, 7-3, at Barclays Center and chased Gibson from his first home start of the season at 10:22 of the second period after he allowed five goals on just 12 shots.
The teams meet again on Friday night at Washington.
The Islanders (30-30-10) remain in last place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind the Rangers, and are 10 points behind the Devils for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference as they failed to win consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 15-16.
The Capitals (40-23-7) won their third straight and remain in first place in the division as Philip Grubauer, allowed to settle in after a shaky start, made 35 saves.
Jaroslav Halak wound up stopping eight of nine shots, with an untouched John Carlson making it 6-2 at 15:41 of the third period. T.J Oshie scored an empty-netter for the Caps, his second of the game.
Gibson was making his third straight start and fourth in the last five games and was coming off Sunday's 50-save performance as the Islanders snapped an 0-4-4 skid with a 5-2 win at Calgary to end a 1-0-3 road trip.
If the rest of this disappointing season is not to include any sort of playoff pursuit, then the time can be well spent evaluating whether Gibson, 25, can be part of the Islanders' goalie rotation in the future.
Both Gibson, playing on a one-year, two-way deal worth $650,000 in the NHL, and Halak, completing a four-year, $18 million deal, are impending unrestricted free agents.
Andre Burakovsky, parked in the slot, deflected a shot past Gibson's left pad to make it 4-2 at 3:12 of the second period after Grubauer stopped two shots with Matt Niskanen sent off for interference just 29 seconds in.
After Cal Clutterbuck was whistled for slashing Tom Wilson, who in the first period left his skates and briefly knocked Casey Cizikas from the game, Nicklas Backstrom batted a power-play goal over Gibson's glove at 10:22 and Halak was summoned.
Gibson looked suspect on two of the Capitals' three first-period goals, which they scored on nine shots.
Lars Eller beat Gibson to the far post from the right circle to tie the game at 1 at 2:19 and defenseman Dmitry Orlov slipped a shot underneath the goalie's pads from below the left circle to give the Capitals a 3-2 lead at 17:17.
Gibson had little to no chance as T.J. Oshie, with his first goal in 20 games, got open on the right to make it 2-1 on the rush at 11:29.
The Islanders tied it a minute later as Andrew Ladd snapped a 25-game goal-less streak dating to Dec. 21 by converting Mathew Barzal's feed on the rush. The Islanders had taken a 1-0 lead at 2:19 as Tanner Fritz, behind the goal line, found Brock Nelson cutting between the circles.
Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock made it 6-3 16:33 of the third period.
