VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It was the kind of performance that made you forget the Islanders were playing without nearly a third of their regular lineup, and maybe there's something sustainable here. It was the kind of thing that made you wonder if it was there.
The Islanders entered into the build-up of a playoff team, possessing the puck, playing the game hard under the hash and tilting the ice by establishing the forecheck that was missing two nights ago in Edmonton.
They beat the Canucks 5-2, but the final score rather underestimated their performance, just as Tuesday night's 4-3 overtime loss to the Oilers overstated it. It was.
“I think we've been building our game for nights like this, putting everything together and sticking to a lot of things,” Anders Lee said. “Whether it's the power play or something like that. Every aspect of the game tonight was important for us and I think that's why we played a really solid 60 minutes.”
In doing so, the Islanders won three games without Matt Barzal, Anthony Duclair, Alexander Romanov, Adam Pelech and Mike Riley, extending their winning streak to five games. In six straight games without the quintet, whose goal was to keep things above water, the Islanders are 3-1-2 with a .750 scoring percentage.
It rarely looks as good as it did Thursday, and if the NHL counted all losses evenly, it would be .500. However, the counter-argument to these claims should be, “Who cares?” and “They aren’t.”
And if the Islanders can play like this on a regular basis, it's okay to throw it all away anyway.
“I like being half full.” [more] The glass is not half empty,” coach Patrick Roy said, clarifying that yes, it was a full glass of water. “But anyway, what I'm saying is we're very confident right now.”
Early in the second period, Scott Mayfield and Pierre Engvall scored back-to-back goals to break a 1-1 tie. Mayfield's point shot hit Vancouver's stick, forcing Kevin Lankinen out of position just 14 seconds into the game.
At the 2:40 mark, Engvall, playing his best game since returning from AHL exile, found the back of the net and tucked in Simon Holmstrom's rebound.
The game remained 3-1 going into the third period even though the Islanders quadrupled Vancouver's shots (24-6). This is a perfect area for some kind of collapse, with the blue and orange motif.
In fact, the Canucks had a boost as well, eventually putting pressure on the Islanders and bringing on Semyon Varlamov in the third period.
But Varlamov, who had nothing to do for most of the game, didn't look indifferent and finished the night with 24 saves.
Bo Horvat, playing his second game back in Vancouver, put the nail in the proverbial coffin at the 11:42 mark of the third game, breaking through the neutral zone and feeding Lee in front of the net. Ta. The assist was certainly meaningful to Horvat. Former Canucks captain.
Noah Dobson added an empty netter to make it 5-1, then Tyler Myers added the winning goal for Vancouver.
“I feel like we did a pretty good job all night,” Ryan Purock told the Post. “We did a good job of having puck possession down low. Our forwards did a great job of holding the puck and cycling the puck. A few times they were probably in our zone for a while. I think we had some shifts, but I thought we did a good job of keeping it outside and coming out strong when we needed to.”
From the beginning, the Islanders played like a team looking to prove something after a sloppy performance two nights ago.
The question was whether he could sustain it for 60 minutes.
The answer was yes, and a little.
The answer is, the Islanders just played their best game of the season.
“Everyone played really well. It's hard to pick anyone because everyone played really solid,” Roy said. “Defensively and offensively, I thought we were on the puck, we were sharp and our forecheck was good, which was good.” [offensive zone]. Defensively, we defended pretty well. ”
If they can keep it up, take note.
