Or, more accurately, the Islanders allowed themselves to be played off the ice. Because, while Vancouver deserves plenty of credit for taking advantage of the opportunities put in front of them, the Islanders should be clear-eyed in assessing the level to which this wretched performance was self-inflicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys didn\u2019t have a great night,\u201d coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of our worst games at home all year. We all go through those, and you just hope that they don\u2019t happen. But when they do happen, you gotta find a way to battle through and come back and win the game. We just didn\u2019t do it tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/121925IslandersCanucks10HK.jpg\")
New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin (30) makes a save during the second period of a game against the Vancouver Canucks at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
There was a 59-second five-on-three in which the Islanders got off just one shot on goal. There was Adam Boqvist\u2019s brutal turnover behind the net and Ilya Sorokin\u2019s failure to get set for David Kampf\u2019s weak shot. There was Matthew Schaefer getting his stick lifted by a flying Sherwood for another goal. There was Marc Gatcomb committing a silly tripping penalty and Sherwood getting left alone in the slot for a one-timer.<\/p>\n
And that was just in the first period, after which the Canucks led 3-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cThought we were flat a little bit,\u201d Ryan Pulock told The Post. \u201cWe made a couple mistakes that obviously ended in the back of their net. And then chasing the game, I thought we were a little sloppy overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every issue the Islanders have been trying to overcome since Bo Horvat went down with injury overcame them, and so did a fair few that go beyond the problems created by No. 14\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
It has little to do with Horvat\u2019s injury, for example, that for two straight games now, the Islanders\u2019 group of defensemen can\u2019t seem to make a good first pass. Or that a team that has gotten through the neutral zone so cleanly all year suddenly looks completely disconnected on its breakouts, unable to sustain possession or pressure of any kind.<\/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
Even down by three goals with 40 minutes to go, the Islanders couldn\u2019t come up with a meaningful push on Friday. You would be hard-pressed to name a single facet of their game that looked good in this one.<\/p>\n
Singling out any player would almost defeat the point, though it would be shocking if Boqvist stays in the lineup on Saturday given Roy\u2019s hesitation to play him on the left side in the first place. The only player the Islanders dressed who did not have a bad night was David Rittich, and that is because the backup goaltender didn\u2019t play.<\/p>\n
By the time Anders Lee scored to end Thatcher Demko\u2019s shutout with 5:05 to go, it was way too little and way too late. Sherwood completed his hat trick with an empty-netter to extinguish whatever menial hope existed of a comeback.<\/p>\n
![\"Vancouver](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/121925IslandersCanucks04HK.jpg\")
Vancouver Canucks left wing Kiefer Sherwood (44) celebrates his goal during the first period of a game against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we\u2019re looking for a perfect play a little too much,\u201d Roy said, summing up the theme of his remarks afterward. \u201cHow many passes [did] we try across that was cut by them instead of throwing [it] at the net or throwing [it] through traffic and finding a way to get those rebounds?\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, there is a worst night of the season for all 32 NHL teams, and the Islanders may well have just had theirs. They are still sitting with a 19-13-3 record, above the playoff cutline, far outstripping preseason expectations and with all their dreams intact. One game, or even one week, doesn\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n
Still, it would be naive not to realize that the Islanders are suddenly in the middle of a rocky patch. They\u2019re 1-2-0 since losing Horvat and, truth be told, have not played well in any of the three games. Their response on Saturday will be instructive.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow is really the biggest game of the year,\u201d Pulock said. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost a couple in a row here. You can\u2019t lose three in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are nights during an 82-game season where every lingering issue around a team crashes down on it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,6821,10,539,319,13976],"class_list":{"0":"post-76356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-islanders","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-vancouver-canucks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76356","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=76356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}