RALEIGH, N.C. — The feeling wasn’t overly sad. Just wasn’t.

That’s partially because no one expected the Islanders to ever be here. No one thought they would be one of the final eight teams playing into May. No one thought it would be a disappointment to make it to the second round.

Which is very different than saying the moment wasn’t disappointing, a 5-2 loss to the Hurricanes in Game 4 of their second-round series here on Friday night completing Carolina’s sweep and ending the Islanders season with an exclamation point of heartache.

Following their own sweep of the Penguins in the first round, and then what turned out to be a 10-day break that drained so much of their sharpness, the Islanders became the first team since the 1993 Sabres to go from sweep to swept. It left them feeling burned, but also so much more than that.

“It’s mixed feelings right now,” said goalie Robin Lehner, the man who most embodied the organizational turnaround and who finished the series on a folding chair in the midst of the din of the crowd, having been pulled early in the second period while first-year head coach Barry Trotz tried to jumpstart his team that just could never find any traction.

“Obviously it’s tough that the season is done,” Lehner said, “but you cannot overlook how we played this year. You really can’t. Very proud of this team, very proud of this organization. It’s been a hell of a year.”

There is a massive amount of questions for team president Lou Lamoriello to answer this summer, from the gaggle of pending free agents to a handful of attractive trade pieces. Most notably, the team needs to add some high-end skill to supplement their defensive style. The grinding way Trotz wants to play only succeeds when there is enough talent to be opportunistic — like it was when he led the Capitals to a Stanley Cup a year ago.

“We knew that we were a little bit lean in some of the high-skill positions, but we have some good kids coming,” Trotz said. “We had a season we were No. 1 in goals-against. That’s something that players value and they were committed to.

“A lot of people said that there wasn’t high expectations. They didn’t think we were going to do anything. There was a lot of doubt about this group, from a work ethic to character to just the team itself. This group would not go away. This group was determined to say that everyone doesn’t believe in us, but we believe in this room. And they did.”

After collecting 103 points and finishing the regular season second in the Metropolitan Division, the Islanders kept the unexpected run going with that buttoned-up first-round performance against Pittsburgh. But facing a Carolina team that was so similar to them — so tight defensively, a swarming band of tenacity — and a lack of execution from the Islander undercut any of the good.

Every time they had something going, like the 1-0 lead on a Mat Barzal power-play goal at 2:30 of the first, it quickly disappeared, this time with an awful penalty from Leo Komarov and a Sebastian Aho power-play goal for the Hurricanes a little more than two minutes later.

The start of the second period was then an utter collapse, with Teuvo Teravainen scoring 2:11 in and Greg McKegg getting another 66 seconds later for a 3-1 lead. That’s when Trotz called timeout and sent Lehner to the indignity of the folding chair, bringing in Thomas Greiss for what was more of the same.

“I almost felt like we were Pittsburgh in this series,” said Barzal, who continued to shine in the postseason spotlight. “We couldn’t get a two-goal lead, couldn’t get a bounce. Credit to Carolina.They’re feeling it right now.”

The Hurricanes’ irrepressible captain Justin Williams got his 100th career postseason point when he beat Greiss at 8:51 of the third to make it 4-1, and Andrei Svechnikov and Brock Nelson traded meaningless goals before the final horn sounded and the Islanders season ended.

“It sucks that we [lost],” Lehner said, “but there’s nothing to regret in here.”