1) Maybe it was fatigue. Perhaps it was being deflated by a call they felt the league got wrong. Whatever the case, the Canucks didn't have much of a response after Tom Kuhnhackl's apparent kicked-in goal was allowed to stand and extended the New York Islanders lead to 4-2 early in the third period. One of the hallmarks of the Canucks this season -- and even in this game when the Isles appeared ready to pull away at 3-1 in the first period -- has been this team's ability to stick with opponents and give themselves a chance to win hockey games. But after not mounting much of a push until the final seconds on Monday at Madison Square, the Canucks went quietly into the night at Barclays Center. They got outshot 17-5 in a one-sided third period and the spirit that has carried the team on many nights this season just didn't seem to be there over the final 17 minutes Tuesday night. They've now dropped back to back games for the third time this season and combined with the blown lead and shootout loss in Buffalo on Saturday, the Canucks are winless in three games for the first time all season and now 1-2-2 on the first five games of this six-game road trip.

2) Travis Green has pushed almost all of the right buttons as coach this season and the team's record (10-8-2) through 20 games reflects that. But Tuesday saw some strange decisions on the part of the second-year coach. In the second of back to back games and third game in four days, Green opted to give Jacob Markstrom a ninth straight start in goal. Prior to the game, he declared Markstrom his starter and didn't see any reason to go away from a guy who looks like he could probably use a night off soon. Green also decided to go with the same 18 skaters he had used in each of the past couple of games when he had fresh legs available to him in Brendan Gaunce and Alex Biega plus an empty roster spot that could have been filled by someone in Utica. While neither Gaunce nor Biega is a game-breaker, they might have been able to bring some energy to a team that looked like it needed a boost. That point was underscored when Darren Archibald played just one shift after the first period and both Nikolay Goldobin and Tyler Motte skated less than 10 minutes on the night. Markus Granlund played a team-high and personal season-high 22:47 (his previous high was 21:05 vs MIN) while registering one shot on goal and winning one of eight face-offs. More Granlund wasn't the answer on Tuesday. There were some curious decisions, indeed, against the Islanders. 

3) The Canucks have allowed the most third period goals in the NHL this season (29) and Tuesday at Barclays Center didn't help that statistic. The team was outscored 2-0 by the Islanders over the final 20 minutes of what to that point was a one-goal game -- and has now been outscored 7-3 in third periods on this road trip. With all the tight games the Canucks find themselves in, they need to find a way to manufacture enough offense to turn some of these defeats into victories. They took a 2-1 lead to the third in Detroit and Buffalo and were tied 1-1 against the Rangers on Monday. On Tuesday, they trailed 3-2 heading to the final period but as detailed above, fatigue on the part of key players being asked to do too much in the absence of others seems to be taking a toll. Where the Canucks found ways to win tight games earlier in the season, it hasn't happened much for them out on this road trip.  

4) Elias Pettersson's first 10 games in the NHL are the stuff of legend and will be talked about for decades in Vancouver. And with that remarkable arrival on the NHL stage, the bar was set ridiculously high. There was no way he was going to continue to produce at the rate he did. And now that he's gone four games without a goal and just a late assist in Boston to show for the past week, it's clear to see how much of an impact he had on the team's early season success. Pettersson still shows glimpses of potential greatness every night out, but the points haven't followed as they did in those first 10 games. It's pretty easy to draw a direct line between his early-season production and team victories. Tuesday was certainly not the rookie's finest performance and there will be other nights like this one to come. The Canucks need Pettersson to be productive. He can't be expected to do things on his own, but in all these tight games, a Pettersson goal or even an assist would go a long way to helping the Canucks pick up points in the standings as they had done so well prior to this road trip.

5) With 13 of their first 20 games on the road -- including two trips to the East Coast in the first six weeks of the season -- the Canucks deserve credit for more than holding their own to this point in the schedule. They've played more games and more road games than any other team in the league. By comparison, St. Louis has played just four road games so far this season. Lump in all of the injuries to key players and measured against most pre-season expectations for the hockey club, the Canucks are well ahead of where many people figured they would be. Pettersson has been a terrific story and so, too, has Jake Virtanen's emergence as a goal-scorer. The Ben Hutton redemption that has played out in the first 20 games qualifies as a massive success story as does Bo Horvat's goal total (9) while taking on an enormous workload in the absence of Brandon Sutter and Jay Beagle. Add in Adam Gaudette getting a long look to learn on the job and prove he can play in the NHL and the Canucks have made good on the promise of a youth movement. Last year at the 20 game mark, Derek Dorsett (7), Thomas Vanek (5), Daniel Sedin (3) and Henrik Sedin (2) had combined for 17 goals. This year Petterson has 10, Horvat has 9, Virtanen has 8. Fans want to see young players put in positions to succeed and for the most-part that has been one of the biggest takeaways from the first 20 games of the season. On to Minnesota and the start of the next 20 game segment.