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Vancouver Canucks take one step back with lackluster loss to Golden Knights |
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Thursday November 16 - Vegas Golden Knights 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2
With just two home games sandwiched in the middle of 10 games away from Rogers Arena this month, the Vancouver Canucks failed to deliver much in the way of hope or entertainment when they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion team's first regular-season visit.
Here are your highlights:
There's plenty of blame to go around but for a broad analysis of why things went wrong, I'll defer today to broadcaster Ray Ferraro. I highly recommend his weekly Pulp Hockey podcast for an insightful dose of insight into what's happening around the NHL, as well as some entertaining stories and good guests.
This week's episode is particularly rich in Canucks content, including plenty of B.C. references from former Canuck Kevin Weekes, who now works for the NHL Network. Ray also takes a question from yours truly about tough guys near the end of the show.
Earlier on, when he and host Steve Matthes are discussing the Canucks' Tuesday night comeback win over the Kings, I think Ferraro pinpoints the state of this year's team when he says that with the talent that's currently assembled, the Canucks need to play at about 90 percent of their ability to have a chance to win on any given night—and that's a hard way to win. When they pull it off, the results go their way but if that number falls by even a few percentage points, they're doomed.
Thursday was one of those nights when they were well below 90. I was going to say 75, but they did climb back to tie the game with those second-period goals from Brock and Bo. For awhile, they had a chance to win. So, maybe....82?
After Erik Gudbranson blew a tire to set up the winning goal with 13:33 left in the third, it was all downhill from there.
There's plenty of individual blame to parse out but just as this group tends to win as a team, Thursday's defeat was a team loss. Nowhere was that clearer than on the shot clock, where the Canucks' 21 shots on goal marked a new low in the Golden Knights' 18-game history. And this was a road game for Vegas, they weren't even working with their legendary home-ice advantage!
Yeah, there were early goals allowed—again. The 2-0 deficit was in place by the 13:00 mark of the first period. The Canucks picked up their game in the second period and managed to animate the late-arriving crowd at Rogers Arena. But after Bo Horvat tied the game 2-2 with 2:42 to play in the second, the Canucks didn't get another shot on goal until 5:30 into the third—and that included two minutes of power-play time. With the game on the line, the Canucks tallied just five shots in the final frame—and one of those came from Markus Granlund with six seconds to go, when the game was well out of reach.
Not the best way to take advantage of a fourth-string goalie who got shelled two nights earlier and had been dealing with injury issues...
Also worth noting:
That's one way to protect the penalty kill, but doesn't exactly scream "hard to play against." The biggest head-scratcher of the night for me was when Brayden McNabb laid a big hit on Sam Gagner in the neutral zone near the end of the second period—and Gudbranson tried to chase down nearby David Perron to avenge it?
Not surprisingly, Perron wanted nothing to do with the situation, untangling himself and skating away. Was it a case of mistaken identity by Guddy?
With the loss, the Canucks squandered their opportunity to pass the Golden Knights in the Pacific Division standings. The Kings also lost again on Thursday—their fourth straight—so Vegas is now just one point out of first place in the division, and fourth in the conference.
I can't wait to see if a legit shot at a playoff spot derails the Vegas plan to deal stars on expiring contracts like James Neal and David Perron for futures at the trade deadline.
Meanwhile, it's not going to be easy for the Canucks to curry some favour with the fanbase when they host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday before heading back out on the road for six games. The Blues have picked up where they left off after Mike Yeo took over behind the bench last February, comfortably leading the Western Conference and playing a more dynamic style that sees them tied for third overall in scoring. The new line of Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko is on fire and now with a green light to step into the offense, captain Alex Pietrangelo leads all defensemen with seven goals and is tied for the points lead among blueliners with 18 points. The Blues will be coming into town after an easy 4-1 win over Edmonton on Thursday.
The Canucks' disappointing performance and result opens the door for Travis Green to start Anders Nilsson in net on Saturday, and to work Jake Virtanen's speed and physicality back into the lineup.
The blue line could soon be getting crowded, too. Look who's back after barely a week!
Earlier this week, Travis Green said that Troy Stecher was only a few days away from returning from the knee injury that he suffered on October 22, but he is not on the ice with the group at practice today.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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