At some point the Vancouver Canucks are going to break out of their slump, but it will not be against the Ottawa Senators.
For the second time in a week, the Senators shut out the Canucks, but for Vancouver that is becoming par for the course. They have been shut out four times in their past five games and that has to be becoming a little old.
The focus was on Mike Condon, who was making his Senators debut after being acquired a day earlier and his arrival allowing some confidence that Craig Anderson could take his leave of absence knowing there was at least some NHL experiece in his wake.
The Senators also did their job defensively as the offensively challenged Canucks had some chances but Ottawa blocked 25 shots and only allowed 27 to get on goal, which meets their daily goal of under 30.
Offensively it was a different story as they couldn't get much in terms of quality chances, and their power play was atrocious. An opportunistic Mike Hoffman picking off a clearing attempt by Carter Hutton and Jacob Markstrom putting himself out of position on an attempted poke check that was the difference. With Markstrom ending up between the hash marks, Hoffman had an empty net at which he spun around and fired past a sprawling Erik Gudbranson for the game's only goal. A bit of a gift but the Sentaors will take it as much as they would take a Kyle Turris laser to the top corner like they got in overtime on Tuesday night for the win.
There are a lot of cliches that I could spout about winning the ones you should win, playing the team in front of you, making hay while the sun shines and banking early season points, but the fact is the Senators are in a stretch where they are playing non-playoff teams (from last year) and they are winning those games.
The Canucks probably deserved a better fate and had on the whole the better chances, but the only thing that matters is the final result and Ottawa continues to put points in the standings that will benefit them in the long run.
They will get another opportunity to do so when the struggling (4-4-2) Buffalo Sabres come to Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday night.