The Islanders are trying to create a soundproof room to insulate themselves from the perceived noise on the outside. And that noise is really just the echoing of one word.

Collapse.

The 3-2 loss to the Ducks on Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum took the Islanders (44-27-4) to 1-6-1 in their past eight, and they’re winless at home (0-6-1) in their past seven. Through all of it, coach Jack Capuano is trying to build his young team up, not break them down. Yet their confidence on the ice, especially in the offensive zone, obviously is shaken.

“As I told them after the game, we’re not going to worry about anything [the media] says, [or] me trying to break them down,” Capuano said. “It’s a singular focus, it’s us in that room. It’s about us. It’s not about [the media]. It’s about us and our team.”

All season Capuano has tried to paint his team as the underdog. He constantly brings up the fact that he thinks no one in the media picked his team to be where it is, which for a large portion of the season was atop the Metropolitan Division.

But now the Rangers have pretty well run away with that role, and suddenly the Islanders are fighting for their postseason lives. The Penguins took a 3-2 win over the Coyotes on Saturday, tying the Isles with 93 points but bumping them to third as Pittsburgh has seven games left compared with the Isles’ six. Capuano’s team still holds a three-point lead on the Capitals, who lost a 4-3 game to the Predators, and an eight-point lead over the Senators for the final wild-card spot.

But those things have to be mentioned, because when the floor falls out, who knows how far the Islanders can drop.

“We had a goal at the start of the year,” Capuano said. “We’re almost where we want to be, but we have to be a little bit better. It’s a brotherhood in that room. It’s a good room, they’re good guys, we have some young players. Just stay the course and do the right things.”

So there’s no question the Ducks (48-22-7) are a good team, clinching a playoff spot and also vaulting into first place in the league with 103 points. They got goals on a Rickard Rakell centering feed that went off Nick Leddy’s stick, a Kyle Palmieri spinning backhand in front, and an Andrew Cogliano breakaway, leaving Isles backup goalie Michal Neuvirth in the dust. That’s not exactly their blueprint for winning, as stars Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry were kept off the scoresheet entirely, an especially proud fact for Capuano.

“Now I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a fight before, when you were a kid — you try to defend against some of those guys and how big they are,” Capuano said. “Yeah, they got zone time and they cycled the puck, but I think our guys did a good job defending them.”

The real problem isn’t with the defending, but with the scoring, as the Islanders have scored more than two goals once in the past eight games. A long shot from Lubomir Visnovsky went in off defenseman Simon Despres late in the first, tying it 1-1, and a late goal from Casey Cizikas got it to 3-2 with just over five minutes remaining. But the equalizer never came, nor seemed like it was going to.

Captain John Tavares is playing his worst hockey of the season, with insult added to injury when he was robbed by Ducks’ goalie Federik Andersen during a monumental 5-on-3 in the second period that lasted 1:54 and killed any possible change of momentum.

“A lot of guys look to me for the way we need to play,” said Tavares, who has one goal and two points in the past eight games. “I accept that challenge and what comes with that.”

With the red-hot Red Wings coming into the Coliseum for a Sunday matinee, it’s not going to get any easier to turn this thing around.

“I’m sure there’s a little frustration amongst the boys,” Capuano said, “but we have to find a way.”