NHL

Sloppy Islanders fall to Canucks in overtime

If it was a good point or a bad point, doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that the game the Islanders played Tuesday night at the Coliseum was one with enough blame to go around, ending in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Canucks.

“We need some guys to player better,” said Islanders coach Jack Capuano, repeating what has seemingly become his typical refrain as precious early-season home-ice points continue to slip away. “Some guys are going to have to do more if they want the ice time they want.”

In what was a seesaw battle, the Islanders (3-3-3) blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2, and went into the final two minutes of the game down 4-3. That’s when Frans Nielsen managed to slap in a rebound to tie it up and take it to overtime.

Yet in the extra period, Brad Richardson scored for the Canucks (6-4-1), who gave coach John Tortorella a win in his first trip back to the New York area since becoming their coach this offseason following four and half years behind the Rangers bench.

“The way that has slipped has been a little bit concerning, because I think we could’ve put teams away,” said Capuano, whose team is now 2-1-3 at home. “We just didn’t find the back of the net on some of the chances we have.”

Matt Moulson did score on two power plays, and rookie forward Brock Nelson opened the scoring 2:26 into the game with his first career goal, playing in place of Michael Grabner, serving the first of his two-game suspension.

The Islanders also were without defensive stalwart Lubomir Visnovsky, who is out indefinitely with a concussion. Rookie Matt Donovan was solid in his place, but Visnovsky’s usual blueline mate, Thomas Hickey, was burned on Henrik Sedin’s goal 12:39 into the second which tied it 3-3.

“I don’t think we played too bad,” said John Tavares, who had an assist but was stuck in the neutral zone with under 20 seconds left in the second period when Long Island native Chris Higgins put the Canucks ahead, 4-3. “We just shot ourselves in the foot a few times there, we kept letting them get back in it.”

It also didn’t help that goalie Evgeni Nabokov, making his fifth start in a row and his eighth of the first nine games, had arguably his worst game of the season, giving up big rebounds all night.

“You might say you’re happy with the point,” said Nabokov, who made 28 saves and likely could sit for backup Kevin Poulin Friday in Pittsburgh. “At the end of the day, we didn’t get two.”