Tuesday December 13 - Carolina Hurricanes 8 - Vancouver Canucks 6
Through 40 minutes on Tuesday, Willie Desjardins looked like a genius. Sven Baertschi came back from his benching with three points and the Canucks held a three-goal lead over the Carolina Hurricanes.
One period later, Willie's job now looks once again like it could be on the line. The Hurricanes scored six third-period goals to send the Canucks home from their most recent road trip with a 1-4-0 record.
It was a wild one. Here are your highlights:
Sven Baertschi replied just over two minutes later, then the Hurricanes got one back on the power play to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room at the end of the first period.
With five minutes to play in the first period, Luca Sbisa fought Ron Hainsey as retaliation for a high hit on Loui Eriksson.
another angle pic.twitter.com/aYUdk1u9Cn
— Stephanie (@myregularface) December 14, 2016
No penalty on Hainsey on the play; no sign of any concussion spotters; no word that the Department of Player Safety has any interest in looking at the hit. Eriksson stayed in the game but finished with a lower-than-usual 15:33 of ice time.
Losing Sbisa for five minutes may have set the stage for the third-period collapse, though, as the other five defensemen had to take on some extra work to cover for his absence. In the second, the Canucks responded well, putting 17 shots on net and chasing Cam Ward with a four-goal outburst featuring goals from Burrows, Granlund, Hutton and Baertschi.
But just like that game against Chicago on November 19, once Vancouver's three-goal lead started to evaporate, there was no stopping the opposition's momentum. The Blackhawks took nearly 13 minutes to erase their deficit that night; the Hurricanes needed just 4:40 to regain the lead once Jeff Skinner got them rolling with his second power-play goal of the night at 1:16 of the third.
The Canucks were running on fumes at the end of a long road trip, but when I see them totally lose their compusure—again—that's a leadership problem in my book. Somebody, whether it's a member of the coaching staff or one of the on-ice leaders, needs to take charge to calm everybody down and re-set when things start to go south.
After Skinner kicked open the floodgates, Ryan Miller stopped a barrage of five shots before Ron Hainsey finally got the fourth goal past him. During the long video review that ensued to check for a high stick, there was plenty of time for SOMEBODY to take action to stop the bleeding. Instead, the Hurricanes got goals on their next two shots—chasing Ryan Miller and re-taking the lead at 6-5.
With that, Willie-watch is back on and it's poll time again.
Vancouver's schedule gets easier from here. Nine of the team's next 11 games are on home ice, and they won't play away from Western Canada again for nearly a month—until January 10 in Nashville.
But Tuesday's collapse means the team is returning home on a sour note—three points out of the NHL basement, last in the NHL with just five regulation wins in 30 games, 28th in goals-against (93) and 28th in goal-differential (-21). Last night's futile scoring outburst did move Vancouver up into a tie with San Jose for 21st in offense—so there's that. But it's not much to hang your hat on when it isn't even generating points...
One more bit of grim news before I sign off for today. Brock Boeser's out of World Juniors as he undergoes wrist surgery.
Boeser to undergo surgery, expected back in January https://t.co/8m3dcvVQtz
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDmhockey) December 14, 2016
Apparently the wrist has been bothering Boeser all season—he was playing through the injury when he put up 16 points in his first 13 games for North Dakota this year.
Just talked with U-S junior coach Bob Motzko, "losing Brock Boeser is devastating for us, it's a blow." #Canucks
— NEWS 1130 Sports (@NEWS1130Sports) December 14, 2016
Boeser had a goal and two assists in seven games as Team USA captured the bronze medal at last year's World Junior tournament. He was expected to be a leader for the Americans this year, and it's too bad for us, as fans, that we won't get to watch him play against the best players in the world in his age group.
Defenseman Guillaume Brisebois, the prospect selected by the Canucks with the third-round pick they acquired from the Hurricanes in the Eddie Lack trade, has one more round of cuts to survive in order to make the Team Canada roster.
Nine d-men left: Bean, Brisebois, Chabot, Clague, Fabbro, Girard, Juulsen, Lauzon, Myers
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) December 13, 2016
Two will likely be released tomorrow night
Team Canada takes on the Czech Republic tonight at 4 p.m. PT for the final game of the training camp period. Tournament exhibition games begin next Monday.