PITTSBURGH — The Islanders spent much of Thursday night looking like they were moving into a new era with both feet.
Ultimately, though, it was the same old habits that doomed them to a 4-3 loss to the Penguins in their first game of the season.
The penalty kill, a point of emphasis all preseason, coughed up a pair of goals; the power play was scoreless and the Islanders gave up a game-winning-goal to Justin Brazeau after leaving Ilya Sorokin out to dry in the third period, overshadowing all the positivity that came with Matthew Schaefer’s debut. 5
“We’ve been talking about it: We gotta clean up our special teams,” Ryan Pulock told The Post. “And we are, and it’s gonna be better. We know it in here, and there was a couple tonight we gave up on the PK, and we know we’re gonna clean