Thursday February 2 - San Jose Sharks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 1
After a week of rest and relaxation, the Vancouver Canucks looked rusty as they fell behind early on their way to a 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks.
Here are your highlights:
Though the Sharks rank a mediocre 20th in the league on the power play, it took them just 15 seconds to execute on Thursday. With Troy Stecher in the penalty box after he tried to slow down Mikkel Boedker midway through the first period, Brent Burns made a smooth stretch pass that ultimately sprung Patrick Marleau for his 500th career goal.
Beauty feeds from the @SanJoseSharks helped Patrick Marleau notch career goal #500.
Just four other active NHLers have broken that 500-goal threshold—Jagr, Iginla, Ovechkin and Hossa. And it'll be awhile before a new name gets added to the list—the next-highest scorer is Rick Nash, at 407 goals, and he has just 14 goals so far this year.
Marleau was drafted in 1997 and came into the league as an 18-year-old in 1997-98, so he's one of the few players whose tenure with the team that drafted him outlasts even the Sedins. In 1,463 career games, Marleau has talled 564 assists to go with his 500 goals, for a total of 1,064 points.
As longtime rivals, the Sedins share a sort of bond with their fellow greybeards on the Sharks, Marleau and Joe Thornton.
Great #NHL moment in hallway, Thornton runs into Henrik & compliments fly both ways then quizzing on their ages. Then pic.twitter.com/RD2GPWQFsy
Plenty of Sharks fans were on hand at Rogers Arena on Thursday night, but Marleau seemed to receive a nice ovation from the entire crowd for his milestone marker.
By the end of the first period, the Sharks had outshot the Canucks 13-6 and Chris Tierney had added another goal to extend the lead to 2-0. The Canucks picked up their game in the final 40 minutes but the end result never seemed to be in doubt.
Considering how good the Sharks are, and the fact that they were last year's Western Conference representatives in the Stanley Cup Final, it's odd how little media coverage they get. We get the funny memes on Burns' and Thornton's beards, and that's about it.
It doesn't help us that the Canucks always seem to get their games against San Jose sandwiched into a small window of time near the end of the season. Last night, we saw a deep, healthy team that's deserving of its spot at the top of the Pacific Division and looks like it should be a legitimate playoff threat again this year.
On Thursday, the Sharks were playing their second game after the All-Star break. They came into Rogers Arena after a confidence-building 3-1 success against the Chicago Blackhawks and are now 8-2-0 in their last 10 games. As the last team in the league to get back in action after the break, the rust was evident for the Canucks, especially against a club that's currently firing on all cylinders.
"They came out on another level than we were. We were shocked. We got better as the game went on, but it was too late." - Larsen
Philip Larsen is a lightning rod. After everything he has been through this year, I like the fact that he's using the original theme from "Rocky" as his goal song.
But the Canucks didn't lose last night because of their sixth defenseman. As much praise as the D corps has received lately, they were all outplayed last night:
Luca Sbisa - 20:13 - even plus-minus, one shot attempt (blocked), two giveaways, three blocks
Chris Tanev - 19:02 - even plus-minus but was on the ice for Marleau's power-play goal, three shots, one missed attempt, one giveaway, two blocks
Alex Edler - 21:42 - minus-one, was on the ice with Tanev for Marleau's power-play goal, two shots, three misses, three blocks
Troy Stecher - 19:06 - minus-one, three missed shots
Philip Larsen - 16:38 - one goal, even plus-minus, one shot, three missed shots, three giveaways, one block
Nikita Tryamkin - 21:38 - one assist, even plus-minus, three shots, two missed shots
Looking at Tryamkin's stat line, the other item that stands out is just one hit, which made me notice that the Canucks recorded just seven hits for the entire night. San Jose only had 12—not exactly a "make 'em pay" kind of night.
Elsewhere in the Western Conference, the Jets beat the Stars—in regulation, thankfully—and the Blues won their first game under their new head coach, Mike Yeo. The Canucks remain three points out of the second wild-card spot but slip down one position into 11th place.
SportsClubStats says that Vancouver's playoff chances dropped by 5.7 percent last night, and are now down to just seven percent.
With that sobering number in mind, it's just as well that Trevor Linden and Jim Benning both went on the record earlier this week to assert that the Canucks will not be selling off picks or prospects at the trade deadline in an attempt to boost the team's playoff chances.
Willie Desjardins also seems accept the idea that the team will need to improve from within.
"There’s more there," Desjardins told Josh Cooper in a Puck Daddy Q&A on Thursday.
When we came back after the Christmas break we said, ‘each player has to give us five percent more.’ We needed that out of each guy. And however you’re going to get it that’s what we needed. After this break we came back and said, ‘OK, now we need five percent out of each line. Like instead of 15 percent we need another five. We have to find it through chemistry, through whatever as a combination as a line, as a defense partner.’
Since the Canucks are almost certain not to be making upgrades at specific positions, I'll pinpoint the elements of their game that need to be better if they hope to still be in the postseason hunt after the trade deadline:
Road Record - currently 6-15-3. The Canucks' 15 points on the road (in 24 games) is second-worst in the league after Arizona (14). The Canucks will play 17 of their last 31 games away from Rogers Arena and will probably need to be better than .500 to have any chance at the playoffs.
Special Teams - the Canucks were 0-for-2 on the power play and 1-for-3 on the penalty kill last night, which about as bad a night as the usually-poor special teams have had all year.
The power play currently ranks 28th at 13.9 percent and the Canucks' 21 power-play goals are tied for second-worst in the league with Colorado and the Islanders—ahead of only Detroit.
The penalty kill, which has been a strength in the past, has slipped to 23rd in the league, with a 78.8 percent success rate. The saving grace there is that the Canucks are the third-least penalized team in the league this year, so their 29 power-play goals against actually tie them with Washington for 14th in the league.
Which leads to...scoring...still an issue.
The Canucks are a respectable 16th with 2.78 goals allowed per game, but remain 27th in the league with 2.27 goals scored, ahead of only New Jersey, Arizona and Colorado. If this team really has more to give, let's hope it's on the offensive side of the puck.
That offensive acumen will be tested again on Saturday when the Canucks face the second-stingiest team in the Western Conference (behind San Jose)—the Minnesota Wild.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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