VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It seems the Islanders have too many players treating this road trip as a vacation.
After a 4-1 loss to the Canucks last night, the Islanders are 1-6-3 in their last 10 games after opening 3-1-0.
“I never call out guys, but there are guys that need to find their game and you’ve got to have some will,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “Our team, let’s face it, there is not a lot of room for error, and once again we had a few guys that took a night off and we can’t have it.”
Roberto Luongo made 23 saves in one of his best games of the season.
His best stop came 6 minutes into the third period, when he made a point-blank glove save off Michael Grabner that left him looking skyward. Four minutes later, Luongo took the puck off his mask to prevent Mark Streit from making it a 3-2 game.
“We’ve gotten our chances the last few games,” Grabner said. “We’ve just got to keep on working. We’ve only played three or four games together now so it’s coming a little better.”
Matt Moulson was the lone Islanders player to beat Luongo, charging hard to the net midway through the second period for his fourth goal of the season.
The Canucks, who did not take a penalty in the game, are trying to regain last season’s form that saw them come within one game of winning the Stanley Cup.
The defense, which has been error-prone for much of the season, limited chances. And a new-look offense – with an effective third line of David Booth, Cody Hodgson and Maxim Lapierre – peppered Evgeni Nabokov with 36 shots.
“We had some good chemistry with Boothy and Lappy, and we had a lot of chances that we didn’t convert on, too,” Hodgson said. “As a line, we feel comfortable.”
With the Canucks leading 2-1 early in the third period, the 21-year-old rookie parked himself at the side of the net on a power play and chipped Rome’s shot past Nabokov for his fourth of the season.
Hodgson also got things rolling for Vancouver in the first period, leading a rush that ended with Aaron Rome backhanding a loose puck behind Nabokov on the first shot of the game.
Rome, who missed the first 14 games of the season because of a broken finger, has three goals in his four games of the season. In the first 131 regular-season games of his career, he had two goals.
Henrik Sedin upped it to 2-0 on the first shot of the second period. He took advantage of Jannik Hansen’s screen and lofted a soft shot off Nabokov’s glove.
Nabokov, who was pulled in his last start after allowing three goals on 12 shots in a 6-2 loss to Boston, looked shaky on the play. But he redeemed himself a few minutes later, robbing Sedin with a glove save.
Capuano pulled Nabokov with 3:30 remaining, but it didn’t pay off as Booth scored his second with the Canucks to make it 4-1.