Saturday March 19 - St. Louis Blues 3 - Vancouver Canucks 0
Taken on its own, losing 3-0 to a very good St. Louis Blues team as one of the league's top goalies returns from injury is not a devastating result.
But when the loss extends the Vancouver Canucks' current losing streak to four games, including back-to-back shutouts, and the home team is outshot 50-19, the picture gets a whole lot uglier.
Here are your highlights:
The Canucks have taken less shots a couple of times this year. In a three-game stretch in early December they took 16 shots in a 2-1 overtime loss to L.A., got 16 again in a 4-2 loss to Dallas and picked up 17 when they lost 4-0 to Boston. But Saturday night was the first time that shots against veered into the 50s, and the differential of 31 shots was the biggest of the season. If not for an outstanding game from Ryan Miller, the carnage could have been a lot worse.
It's not often that you hear the twins calling out their teammates for a lack of effort, but they had every right on Saturday, especially considering Daniel earned seven of his team's 19 shots, accounting for more than a third of the offense single-handedly.
"When you get outshot this badly, it's clear the effort is not there from a lot of guys. Miller did everything he could" - D. Sedin #Canucks
When things get this bad, the injury excuse is no longer enough. Nobody's pointing to the "three games in four nights" excuse either.
Willie put newly-returned Chris Higgins out with Alex Burrows and Jared McCann to start the game. McCann won the opening draw and an energized Higgins streaked down the ice for a shot on goal. A promising start, but he pretty much vanished for the rest of the game after that.
"It was a little awkward at the start, but I have a lot of good friends in this room and they welcomed me back with smiles" - Higgins
The other thing I noticed as the game went on was how casually the Blues were taking physical liberties with their opponents. Emerson Etem went down hard a couple of times thanks to accidental-on-purpose contact and Ryan Reaves was playing his role as disturber of the peace to the hilt all night.
Henrik was super-frustrated by the third period. He exchanged gloved punches with Alex Pietrangelo (he of 18 penalty minutes this season) near the St. Louis bench not long before taking a retaliatory hooking penalty on Reaves as his emotions flared up to the surface.
According to last night's stat sheet, the Canucks outhit the Blues 30-10. That is definitely not how I saw the edge in physical play unfolding on the ice.
One positive—the size and snarl of both Andrey Pedan and Nikita Tryamkin. Still green as grass, the two are making occasional mistakes, but they are growing their physical games by the day. Much needed!
Tryamkin was comfortable Friday. Tonight he looked confident. That's an upgrade. Progression in 3 games has been remarkable.
The good news—with a win by Columbus and the Canucks catching the Blue Jackets and Flames in games played, Vancouver dropped to 27th overall on Saturday night. The team is now just five points ahead of Toronto in the league cellar. The way things are going, it's very possible to drop lower over the remaining three weeks of the season.
The bad news—losing doesn't happen in a bubble. It's really starting to seem like some long-lasting damage is happening in the room and to the organization.
Why do I get the feeling the Canucks are disintegrating behind the scenes? Doesn't sound like good times in the room.
Considering that goaltending has been an organizational strength since Melanson joined he Canucks in 2010, this is worrisome news. I had heard the rumour awhile back and have wondered what it will mean for the team although I wasn't terribly surprised. Melanson is one of the last holdovers in the organization from the Gillis/AV era; it's been pretty clear that the current management group prefers to sink or swim with their own guys.
Although...
OK, one more “lastly," before everyone piles on Canucks management, there is also a personal component to leaving Vancouver for Melanson
Woodley suggests that Alex Auld could be a front-runner for the job. He lives in town and worked quite closely with Eddie Lack during his time with the Canucks. Development coach Dan Cloutier could also get moved up from Utica. He had a big hand in successfully reshaping Jacob Markstrom's game but word is that he's happy where he is. So this will be a story to follow going forward.
I'm sure everyone is grateful for a team day off today. The group will reconvene for practice here in Vancouver on Monday before taking off for a three-games-in-four-nights road trip, in Winnipeg on Tuesday followed by back-to-backs against Nashville on Thursday and a follow-up date with the Blues on Friday.
So, the saga will continue on Monday. Enjoy your day off and hey—let's cheer for wins for the Jets, Flames and Oilers on the NHL schedule today. Go Canada!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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