NEW YORK -- There's nothing easy about the commute to Barclays Center for the New York Islanders. But for the Islanders players who live on Long Island, getting to Monday's game by navigating traffic along the New York-area highways or dealing with the train felt like vacation compared to what they went through last week.

Brock Nelson scored just 2:36 into the first period Monday night to give the road-weary Islanders a lead they would never relinquish in a 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals at Barclays Center.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Islanders (17-10-3), who came back early Sunday morning from a 1-2-1 road trip in which they never left the Eastern time zone yet arrived home feeling as drained as they would from a cross-country trek.

"For an Eastern Conference road trip, that week felt like three for some reason," New York captain John Tavares said. "We just seemed flat those last couple of games."

The Islanders opened the trip with a 5-4 shootout win over the Florida Panthers before falling to Tampa Bay (6-2), Pittsburgh (4-3 in overtime) and Boston (3-1). The real exhaustion set in during a delayed trip back from Boston through the season's first snowstorm following Saturday's game.

"We had a tough time getting back from Boston," left winger Andrew Ladd said. "I felt it played a role in terms of how we felt yesterday morning."

Ladd, who has played 551 of his 877 career games in the far-flung Western Conference, grinned and said the recent trip was nothing like those he experienced earlier in his career.

Even head coach Doug Weight, who played 990 games for Western Conference teams, noticed his players dragging during and after the trip.

"Florida, Tampa Bay, Pitt, Boston, it shouldn't be a bone-crushing, terrible four-game trip -- we sound like spoiled Easterners, but I think we all felt it," Weight said. "I think I heard it from a lot of guys coming back that didn't think they were going to feel that way. They're not a group that comes in and says 'I'm tired' so they don't have to skate or beg for days off. It was good to have a day off (Sunday)."

Nelson's goal provided a much-needed spark for the Islanders, who allowed the opponent to score first in each of the previous five games. New York opened the second in even quicker fashion when Ladd and Tavares scored in a 58-second span within the first two minutes to chase Capitals goalie Braden Holtby.

"You look at all the goals, they came early in the periods," Washington head coach Barry Trotz said. "I thought they came out a little bit better than us. I thought they were just a little quicker early."

The Capitals ended the shutout bid of Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak (31 saves) when Dmitry Orlov scored 8:23 into the third. But Washington didn't mount another serious challenge, even after pulling Philipp Grubauer with a little less than three minutes remaining.

"Just coming home, I think being in our own bed and (getting) some home-cooked food just seemed to do the trick," Tavares said.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Capitals (19-11-1), who fell into a tie for second in the Metropolitan Division with the Islanders. The two teams are two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Washington has won seven of its last nine games (7-2-0).

"Everyone knows we didn't really have our best game tonight, so that's a bit of a wakeup call," Capitals right winger Tom Wilson said. "We know them very well, they played us hard, they played us smart. We didn't seem to have the legs in order to compete against them tonight."

Holtby made nine saves while Grubauer stopped all 17 shots he faced.

NOTES: The Islanders scratched D Johnny Boychuk (lower body), who missed his third straight game, as well as C Shane Prince and C Alan Quine. ... Prince, who has been out all season with an ankle injury, was activated Sunday and loaned to Bridgeport of the AHL on a conditioning assignment. In a corresponding transaction, D Thomas Hickey (upper body) was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to Saturday. ... The Capitals scratched RW T.J. Oshie (upper body), who missed his third consecutive game, as well as D Taylor Chorney. ... Capitals G Braden Holtby was lifted from a game for the third time this season. He was pulled in the second period of a 6-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 26, and yanked after two periods of a 6-3 loss to the Nashville Predators on Nov. 14.