The Vancouver Canucks lost to the New York Islanders at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night by the final score of 6 to 2. The reasons and the failed intentions get repetitious.
“We kind of did this one to ourselves if I’m being honest,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said postgame. “Just, every turnover resulted in a goal tonight and that was the story of the game for us.”
Horvat opened the scoring, picking up the lone goal of the 1st period on a tip-in. He’d add his 28th goal of the season late in the second period to cut the Isles lead to 3-2.
He’s tied for third most goals in the NHL with Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals.
That’s all the Canucks could muster against the patient, tight checking Islanders. Despite just the one goal deficit after two periods and the apparent boost off Horvat’s tally, the Canucks were shut down. New York added three goals in the 3rd period.
“I mean again, we talked about it in here that we wanted to come out strong in the beginning of that period,” Horvat added, “obviously we had the momentum after scoring that power play goal, and for us, it was just obviously, turnovers, the thing that killed us. We just couldn’t get our legs under us and our momentum after that, they kept coming and again, just wasn’t a good enough effort by us in the third.”
The back breaker came at the 1:46 mark of the final stanza when Canucks defenceman Ethan Bear turned a puck over in his own zone that Isles captain Anders Lee quickly cashed in on. It gave New York an insurmountable 4-2 lead.
Not So Gabby Canucks
It was another frustrating night for Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau.
“We keep giving them goals,” Boudreau said postgame. “You’re not going to win games. I mean the first (goals) in the second period, the first two goals we gave them. The third goal, the power play goal, we sort of gave them, we didn’t get it out. Then in the first shift in the third period we give them another pass, so you keep giving teams passes and putting pucks on the tape, you’re not going to win.”
The word commitment, in reference to a lack thereof, came up a few times during the club’s various postgame comments.
Canada/USA
Just a friendly reminder: the World Junior Championship semi-final from Halifax between the United States and Canada starts at approximately 4:30 pm pacific on Wednesday and features the tourney’s leading scorer, 17-year-old Connor Bedard from North Vancouver.
