NY Islanders play rare stinker at home; lose 4-1 to the Vancouver Canucks

If the New York Islanders were looking for a wake-up call, Friday night delivered it—loudly and uncomfortably.

Against a Vancouver team sitting near the bottom of the NHL standings, the Isles turned in what was arguably their worst performance of the season, falling 4-1 to the Canucks in a game that was effectively over before it ever found its footing.

Kiefer Sherwood scored three goals for his second hat trick of the season as Vancouver cruised to its third straight win, completing a sweep of the New York area in the process. Thatcher Demko stopped 22 shots, but rarely had to steal anything as the Islanders struggled to generate pace, structure, or urgency.

“It was probably our worst home game at home all year,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “We all go through those. We hope that they don’t happen, but when they happen you have to find a way to battle through and find a way to come back and win the game. We didn’t do it tonight.”

The tone was set early—and poorly—for New York. Vancouver stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, capitalizing on defensive breakdowns and passive coverage that left Ilya Sorokin exposed. David Kampf opened the scoring at 8:55 with his first goal of the season, Sherwood followed less than two minutes later, then struck again at 15:47 to bury the Islanders before the first intermission horn.

Anders Lee finally broke Demko’s shutout bid with 5:05 remaining in the third period, scoring his ninth goal of the season and the 298th of his career, but it did little to change the narrative of the night. Sherwood later sealed it with an empty-net goal for his third career hat trick and team-leading 16th goal. Sorokin finished with 26 saves, but the Islanders offered little resistance in front of him, snapping a five-game home winning streak and dropping their second straight game after winning six of seven.

“We did not play well tonight,” Lee said. “We made some mistakes that ended up in the back of our net, but aside from that, we were off our game tonight. Our passes weren’t great, and we got hemmed in a little too much. We weren’t as connected as we set out to be.”

What made the loss sting even more was the context. Vancouver entered the night following a 2-8-1 skid and was still without leading scorer Elias Pettersson for the sixth straight game. All three of the Canucks’ recent wins have come since trading away their former captain, making the Islanders’ lack of push all the more glaring.

It was a night where the Islanders didn’t just lose—they were outworked, outskated, and outplayed by a team they had no business making look that good. The Islanders are right back at it later tonight in Buffalo against the Sabres.