Saturday February 8: Toronto Maple Leafs 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
The Vancouver Canucks and their fans will have two weeks to regroup after the team's worst losing streak in more than 15 years stretched to seven games with a loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. If you'd care to relive another patented third-period collapse, here are the highlights:
As far as this losing streak goes, it certainly wasn't the worst of the losses. The Canucks outshot the Leafs 33-24, including 15-11 in the third period, and held a lead for nearly 28 minutes—almost half a hockey game. The start wasn't great thanks to two early penalties, and the end—well, we know what happened in the end.
The Canucks actually got a bit of puck-luck on Ryan Kesler's goal late in the first period and were doing a good job of containing the Leafs—until they weren't. Mason Raymond, of all people, got Toronto on the board with a snipe from inside the right circle seven minutes into the third, then the Leafs' top line of Kessel, Bozak and JVR took it from there.
What's the original source of the bad blood between Phil Kessel and Alex Burrows? The unlikely pair squared off during the game in Vancouver back in November, then nearly got in a fight towards the end of the first period last night, face-shield or not for Alex Burrows.
I'm sure Burrows' frustration must be close to a breaking point as he sits at no goals and five points in 28 games. Talk of having not scored for almost a year's a bit exaggerated, though. For the record, Burrows' last goal came on April 15, 2013—part of a 5-2 win in Nashville.
Winnipeg lost to St. Louis in the shootout on Saturday, while Dallas edged Phoenix in regulation. That means Vancouver goes into the Olympic break in 10th place in the Western Conference. The Stars and Coyotes are both now a point ahead and have two games in hand.
John Tortorella's two-week vacation during his suspension certainly didn't do anything to help this team. Hopefully the chance for many of the players' bodies to rest and heal will help to get the Canucks back on the right foot after the Olympic break.
Team AHL:
There's no rest for the youngsters, though. The Canucks announced on Sunday that Frank Corrado, Yann Sauve, Pascal Pelletier and Kellan Lain have been re-assigned to Utica. The Comets are still last in the AHL's Western Conference but despite losing so many players to call-ups, they've been playing better of late. They shut out Milwaukee 3-0 on Friday night and, unlike their parent club, are 2-2 so far in February.
I'll take a closer look at what's happening on the farm, as well as among the Canucks' top junior prospects, while we're on our Olympic break.
Olympians:
Though Henrik Sedin's on the shelf, the Canucks are still sending seven players to Sochi thanks to the addition of Swiss Olympian Raphael Diaz by trade last week. Though Yannick Weber hasn't played for the Canucks since Jan. 31 after suffering a suspected shoulder injury, Ben Kuzma
reports that Weber was cleared to play on Saturday, so he'll join his virtual twin Diaz on the Swiss blue line.
Other Canucks suiting up for their countries are:
- Dan Hamhuis - Canada
- Roberto Luongo - Canada
- Alex Edler - Sweden
- Daniel Sedin - Sweden
- Ryan Kesler - USA
The Swiss and the Swedes both play in Group C. They'll be the first Canucks to see Olympic action, on Feb. 12, when Switzerland plays Latvia and Sweden faces off against the Czechs.
The Future:
Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini joined Mike Gillis on the Canucks' latest road trip. Jason Botchford
spoke with Aquilini during the trip and says he has the impression that there's no hammer about to fall on Mike Gillis if the team misses the playoffs:
He is as upbeat as he’s ever been, and is onside the line of thinking that what we’ve seen lately is not a true representation of where the Canucks are really at.
So—don't expect to see big changes before the March 5 trade deadline.
The Last Word:
From Brad Richardson (who had a pretty good game last night, I thought.) Also via Botchford:
Is this the perfect time for the Olympic break?
Richardson: “Actually, that would have been two weeks ago”
See you tomorrow. I'm blogging speed skating in the morning so once again, I'll be posting later than usual Enjoy the new Family Day holiday!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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