Saturday October 29 - Washington Capitals 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2
The Vancouver Canucks snapped their goalless drought as Jannik Hansen rejoined the Sedins for the first time this season, but the winless streak stretched to five games after a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
After his team was shut out on home ice for the two previous games, Willie Desjardins elected to shuffle his lines. He moved Hansen up and put Loui Eriksson on the second line with Brandon Sutter and Markus Granlund.
Jake Virtanen skated with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi and played a season-high 12:26, logging his first point of the season as he started the play that led to Bo Horvat's fourth goal of the season late in the second period—a good group effort that made the score 3-2 even though the Capitals had been skating circles around the Canucks for much of the middle frame.
Vancouver hung well with Washington through the first two-thirds of the first period and pressed hard in the third in an attempt to tie a game that often looked like it shouldn't have been close. Once T.J. Oshie sniped the 4-2 goal with 2:27 to play and Karl Alzner added an empty-netter, the final score was a bit more reflective of the reality of most of the game.
That being said, I thought the Canucks did a pretty good job of generating pressure while they were just down by one in the third. For a team on a back-to-back playing against the rested Washington Capitals, they had some chances—especially a shot by Brandon Sutter midway through the final frame that was stopped by a solid Philipp Grubauer.
Still, Vancouver ends up giving up five goals for the first time this season, Jacob Markstrom suffers his regulation first loss and the team is outshot 35-25, the largest margin since being dominated 37-19 by the Anaheim Ducks last Sunday—also on the second half of a back-to-back.
Troy Stecher continues to be an intriguing character. After failing to get his shots through in his first game against Ottawa, he's figuring it out. Stecher got five of his seven shot attempts on goal on Saturday—and those five shots were more than any other Vancouver player generated.
Stecher said he had four shots blocked the first night, so he watched some tape and realized how committed guys were to closing down lanes.
He doesn't have a point yet and the Canucks are 0-3 since his arrival, but I like a player who takes initiative. For a team that's this desperate to generate offense, I feel like his skillset is needed by the Canucks right now. I'd like to see him—and Nikita Tryamkin—both get some ice time on this road trip.
Speaking of Tryamkin, the Canucks have a day off today, and it looks like they had a little Halloween fun after the game last night:
A photo posted by ANASTASIIA TRYAMKINA (@anastasiia_shu) on
So, after their busy-but-low-travel month of October, the Canucks have collected nine points in nine games. The pace is well ahead of the 65-point preseason prediction from USA Today, but the current losing streak and sputtering offense leaves plenty of cause for concern as the team gets ready to hit the road for another six games in nine nights, starting Wednesday against the league-leading Montreal Canadiens.
The Canucks surprised the 9-0 Habs with their first loss of the year at Rogers Arena last season. Can they do it again at the Bell Centre this year? Montreal's currently 8-0-1 and will also be off until Wednesday's game.
The losing streak is also putting the heat back on coach Willie Desjardins. Though team management has publicly supported Willie, with the stated goal of making the playoffs, how long can the Canucks stick with the coach if the losses continue to pile up?
Do you think Willie's job is in immediate jeopardy?
I haven't been able to find any video of the play, but Utica defenseman Ashton Sautner was taken off the ice on a stretcher during the Comets' 4-3 road win in Hartford on Saturday.
Sautner was taken to the hospital for precautionary measures. He is alert & responsive. Will be staying overnight as the team leaves for STJ
After (Sautner) cleared the puck out of his defensive zone, he was on the receiving end of a check that sent him awkwardly into the end boards. He was alert and responsive as he left the ice, and was taken to a local hospital for precautionary reasons.
The Comets were also without Andrey Pedan on Saturday—he's listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Wacey Hamilton and Michael Carcone were also injured during the game—Carcone returned; Hamilton did not.
And an interesting tidbit from the Dallas Stars' Saturday game against Minnesota:
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»