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Noah Dobson sat with his arms crossed, stoic, following another blown opportunity for the Islanders in a seemingly endless line of them.
This one, in which they fell 4-3 to the Canucks on Thursday night at UBS Arena, came down to an inability to get the puck out of their defensive zone. Too often, and for too long, the Islanders were hemmed in. Vancouver finished the night with 38 shots, and they only needed four to find the back of the net to come away with the win.
“We just gotta try and find that effort where we’re going good for a full 60,” Dobson said.
Kyle Palmieri pointed to the way the Canucks cycled the puck as a reason the Islanders had fits.
“It wasn’t just the same corner cycle,” Palmieri said. “They moved it around a lot. That makes it pretty tough to defend.”
Palmieri gave the example of J.T. Miller’s second-period goal, in which Miller redirected Brock Boeser’s shot cleanly past Semyon Varlamov. Once Quinn Hughes came down the wall, replaced by another man on the cycle, the Islanders’ structure came undone.
“They were able to shoot for sticks,” Palmieri said. “That’s, like I said, it’s a lot of movement. Sometimes it’s tough to defend. Tonight, obviously, we didn’t do a good job of defending all that.”
Though the Islanders have handled Zdeno Chara’s absence well since he suffered an upper-body injury against the Kings on Saturday, his imposing presence was missed.
Chara is nobody’s idea of a puck-moving defenseman at this point, but his 6-foot-9 stature and sheer physical ability can still help halt that puck movement.
“He has that ability to close guys quick and then the puck stops,” Dobson said. “We definitely miss him.”
Kieffer Bellows and Oliver Wahlstrom both played below 10 minutes on Thursday as Islanders coach Barry Trotz chose to double-shift Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Brock Nelson in spots to avoid playing Josh Bailey at center.
Trotz said he agreed with a no-call on what seemed to be a trip by Travis Hamonic on Sebastian Aho leading to Brad Hunt’s second-period goal.
Mathew Barzal and Chara missed their third straight games with injuries on Thursday. Trotz continued to describe both as day-to-day.
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