Islanders’ deficiencies on full display in ugly loss to lowly Canucks

There are nights during an 82-game season where every lingering issue around a team crashes down on it all at once, creating a veritable tsunami of a loss.

Friday was one of those nights for the Islanders. The last-in-the-NHL Canucks, less than a week removed from trading their best player, dominated the Islanders for the better part of 60 minutes to score a 4-1 victory at UBS Arena with Kiefer Sherwood recording a hat trick.

Or, more accurately, the Islanders allowed themselves to be played off the ice. Because, while Vancouver deserves plenty of credit for taking advantage of the opportunities put in front of them, the Islanders should be clear-eyed in assessing the level to which this wretched performance was self-inflicted.

“A lot of guys didn’t have a great night,” coach Patrick Roy said. “It’s probably one of our worst games at home all year. We all go through those, and you just hope that they don’t happen. But when they do happen, you gotta find a way to battle through and come back and win the game. We just didn’t do it tonight.”

There was a 59-second five-on-three in which the Islanders got off just one shot on goal. There was Adam Boqvist’s brutal turnover behind the net and Ilya Sorokin’s failure to get set for David Kampf’s weak shot. There was Matthew Schaefer getting his stick lifted by a flying Sherwood for another goal. There was Marc Gatcomb committing a silly tripping penalty and Sherwood getting left alone in the slot for a one-timer.

And that was just in the first period, after which the Canucks led 3-0.