It’s the day after the trade deadline, and other than the omission of Adam Cracknell (who was claimed on waivers by the Oilers), the Canucks line–up went unchanged. Much to the chagrin of the Canucks faithful. Alas, there’s a game to be played, and tonight the Islanders shut down the home team. Let’s dive into this one.

Prior to the game, Brendan Gaunce was called up to the team, but couldn’t make it to the rink in time to play, so Yannick Weber played on the 4th line alongside Alex Burrows and Jared McCann to start the game.

It was a paltry crowd in the lower bowl to start the game, and who can blame them? There are all kinds of rumours swirling around the team, which makes the fan experience pretty awful. Not to mention, the quality of play hasn’t exactly been stellar. 

This game wasn’t all that different. A lucky goal early in the 1st period put the Islanders on top, but their lead didn’t last long. 

Not long after that, Linden Vey benefited from the extra ice time he got in this one and put the Canucks on the board with a quick rebound goal off the pad of Halak.

One of the strange happenings was the appearance of Wayne Gretzky at the game tonight. He did an interview with MSG in New York and was even seen spending some time on the visitor’s bench before the game.

The 2nd period was lacking in goal scoring at the start, but it became a bit of a feisty affair with a pair of fights taking place in the period. Emerson Etem went with Travis Hamonic, and later on, Derek Dorsett was taken down by Matt Martin.

The momentum from the Martin win over Dorsett was carried into the following minutes when Anders Lee barely eeked one past a sprawling Jacob Markstrom. 

When the Canucks tried to answer, Henrik Sedin wasn’t sparing any chances.

In the 2nd intermission, we were treated to a couple of our own, with Jeff Paterson and Thomas Drance joining Dan Murphy on the panel. Of the topics discussed, the most talked about was Kris Russell. Thom pulled out this old Kent Wilson adage.

The first half of the third was nothing to write home about, but midway through the period, Daniel Sedin gave the fans something to cheer about by notching the tying goal. It was a greasy one, but it counts.

But the excitement was short-lived, as moments later Thomas Hickey put the Islanders back on top with a slapper from the point, which went through a crowd in front of the net. 

There was a bit of a scary moment near the end of the game when Johnny Boychuk took a shot off the face with an errant shot by Henrik Sedin, but he seemed to be alright before returning to the room for the remainder of the game. The captain wanted to make sure of it.

The Canucks would never be able to tie things up again, and they squandered a pair of points they had in their sights a few times. Perhaps that’s not a bad thing, though, according to Canucks nation.

This isn’t a game you’re going to remember at the end of the season. There were moments of excitement, and at least, the game had scoring which isn’t something we’ve been able to say a ton this season. Perhaps the best part of the game was the fact that Ben Hutton and Sven Baertschi got a ton of ice time, except for the fact Willie seemed to be playing the out of position Weber instead of Virtanen or McCann. 

Next up, San Jose on Thursday.