VANCOUVER, British Columbia \u2014 Call it an inkblot test of a win.<\/p>\n
On one hand, the Islanders overcame a horrid start to take two points from the Canucks on Monday with a 4-3 final, and six games into a seven-game road trip without their leading scorer, it is something to still be getting points.<\/p>\n
And on the other, well, this looked like a mess at various points, and the Islanders have been playing with fire the entire trip. Are we really going to laud the Islanders for gritting out two points against the 32nd-ranked team in a 32-team league, which lost its 11th in a row Monday after trading their own leading scorer, Kiefer Sherwood, the same morning?<\/p>\n
The Islanders would point out, and rightly so, that they all count the same in the standings, that there\u2019s no such thing as an easy night in this league and that after nearly two weeks on the road, they are in desperate need of some rest and recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a found-a-way-to-win game,\u201d Anders Lee told The Post. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re walking outta here with two points. You gotta win games when you\u2019re not at your best.\u201d<\/p>\n
All fair. And still, it\u2019s hard not to feel uneasy about how this one went.<\/p>\n
The Islanders struggled badly to handle Vancouver\u2019s physicality, lost too many battles and \u2014 it feels like a broken record by now \u2014 were poor in front of both nets. They were discombobulated throughout the game\u2019s early stages, and the newly put together second line of Max Tsyplakov, Cal Ritchie and Emil Heineman lasted all of one period, with two goals against, before Tsyplakov was unceremoniously benched.<\/p>\n
Islanders\u2019 Anthony Duclair, back right, Mathew Barzal (13) and Calum Ritchie (64) celebrate during the second period after Duclair\u2019s second goal against the Vancouver Canucks in an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. AP<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Vancouver couldn\u2019t put them away early, and the Islanders worked their way back into this one. They took a 3-2 lead on a Ryan Pulock snipe at 15:58 of the second, less than two minutes after Anthony Duclair\u2019s second goal of the night had tied the game on the power play.<\/p>\n
The Islanders gave Vancouver a window of opportunity by wasting a 1:39-long 5-on-3 at the start of the third, but instead of seizing momentum, the Canucks fumbled it themselves.<\/p>\n
They failed to convert their own power play shortly afterward, then the Islanders dutifully made it 4-2, with Tony DeAngelo slamming in Lee\u2019s rebound.<\/p>\n
Skating at 6-on-5, the Canucks got back within one on Drew O\u2019Connor\u2019s tip-in from Filip Hronek to throw a scare into the Islanders. That was all they could do though.<\/p>\n
Ilya Sorokin #30 of the New York Islanders blocks a shot during the third period of their NHL game against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on January 19, 2026 in Vancouver, British Columbia. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started to be better in our one-on-one battles,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cThat was the big difference. I think we gave nine chances after the first, it was way too many. So we had to refocus on our defense and play better defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duclair, who loosed a right-circle wrister for the Islanders\u2019 first goal of the night, has been one of few unambiguous positives for the club\u2019s struggling offense on this trip. Since his hat trick two weeks ago against New Jersey, he\u2019s looked like a wholly different player, confident and decisive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m using [Casey] Cizikas\u2019 stick, made the switch,\u201d Duclair said, revealing that his first game with the different stick was the five-point night against the Devils. \u201cThink that\u2019s why it\u2019s going in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Islanders\u2019 Ryan Pulock (6), Matthew Schaefer (48) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (44) celebrate Pulock\u2019s goal against the Vancouver Canucks during the second period of an NHL hockey game, in Vancouver, B.C., Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. AP<\/p>\n
His chemistry with Mat Barzal, who is always engaged when returning home to Vancouver, was on display Monday as the top line put together a strong night. So too was the offensive prowess of the Matthew Schaefer-Pulock pair, with the rookie dynamic as ever, and saving a goal by clearing Evander Kane\u2019s shot off the line after it trickled through Sorokin in the third.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the ledger, start with Tsyplakov, whose confidence looks plainly shot. He looked lost on Monday, was unceremoniously benched after the first period and it\u2019s getting hard to see how this situation gets fixed.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s on me,\u201d Roy said of that situation, adding that Tsyplakov will likely stay in the lineup against the Kraken. \u201cHe didn\u2019t play a bad game. Just, he hasn\u2019t played a lot and sometimes when that happens, you just want to go with the guys that you think you got the best chance to win [with].\u201d<\/p>\n
Cal Ritchie saved his night by notching an assist in his third straight game but otherwise looked stuck in the same funk he\u2019s been in lately.<\/p>\n
The Islanders lack of physicality, as a team, was on stark display here too. The Canucks bum-rushed them in the first, the visitors looked bewildered and a better opponent would have surged to an easy win.<\/p>\n
Getting two points isn\u2019t enough reason to ignore the wake-up call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER, British Columbia \u2014 Call it an inkblot test of a win. On one hand, the Islanders overcame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[43519,9,11,6821,10,539,319,13976],"class_list":["post-105630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-anthony-duclair","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-new-york-news","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-vancouver-canucks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}