Tuesday February 6 - Florida Panthers 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
If you didn't make it home from work in time to tune into Tuesday's hockey game, don't worry about it. A shorthanded breakaway by Markus Granlund was Vancouver's only tally as the listless Canucks fell to the Florida Panthers in front of a sparse crowd that was listed at 10,758.
Here are your highlights:
Travis Green elected not to put his players on the ice for a morning skate before Tuesday's game, and that strategy may have backfired on him. Between Sunday's Super Bowl excitement and the beautiful Fort Lauderdale beaches, perhaps the boys were enjoying a little too much fun in the sun?
After a good effort against the Tampa Bay Lightning last Saturday at Rogers Arena, the Canucks came out flat, getting outshot 16-9 in the opening period. Late in the frame, Jamie McGinn opened the scoring while Alex Edler was in the box, serving a hooking penalty.
Playing in Florida, Aleksander Barkov tends to fly under the radar, but the 22-year-old—who has already played more than 300 NHL games—was the best player on the ice on Tuesday. I've been a fan since I got to watch him up close as a member of Team Finland at the 2016 IIHF World Championship in Russia so I wasn't surprised to see him earn first star honours last night with two goals and a team-leading 24:36 of ice time.
Yes, he played one second more than the Panthers' busiest defenseman, Keith Yandle. Coach Bob Boughner isn't afraid to lean on his horses—Barkov's average of 22:15 of ice time per game is the highest of any NHL forward, and his teammate Vincent Trocheck, 24, ranks fourth overall at 21:32.
Barkov's first goal of the night, late in the second period, proved to be the game winner. The play looked innocuous enough until he beat Ben Hutton one-on-one to give himself a breakaway opportunity.
Not a great look for Hutton, playing his first game in the month of February after two healthy scratches. But he was up against a beast of a man on the play.
The streaky Panthers came into the game with confident energy, riding a three-game winning streak in front of Harri Sateri—Barkov's Finnish countryman. Sateri earned second-star honours, stopping 26 shots, but it was third star Jacob Markstrom who had the more impressive outing, keeping the Canucks in the game and facing 40 shots before Barkov sealed the result with an empty-netter with 42 seconds left on the clock.
Over the course of the season, the Canucks have played some promising games under Travis Green and occasionally shown signs of improvement, but Tuesday's game isn't the first one where they've mailed it in. Even now that they're healthier, with Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter back with the team, the recent shutout losses to Buffalo and Winnipeg were also pretty grim.
Florida leads the entire NHL in shots generated with 34.6 per game, while Vancouver is tied for 29th at 29.7. But the Panthers also give up the second-most shots per game, 34.9, and the Canucks' 27 shots on Tuesday didn't even hit their season average. Though the Canucks are now 26th with 3.18 goals against per game, they're middle-of-the-pack in shots allowed, tied for 15th at 31.9.
So often, Henrik Sedin will come out after a loss and say that the Canucks played a pretty good game, or didn't get the bounces they needed. Tuesday was not one of those nights.
Not surprisingly, Travis Green has the full group on the ice for what I expect will be quite an intense practice in Tampa today.
One personnel note:
After missing one game following his injury against Chicago last week, Gagner returned to the lineup and played 12:39 on Tuesday, mostly on a line with Brandon Sutter and Markus Granlund. He was used as the extra skater when the Canucks were pressing with the goalie pulled in the dying seconds and finished the night with three shots on goal.
The Canucks and Lightning will meet for the second time in six days tomorrow night, on the first half of a back-to-back with a visit to Carolina scheduled for Friday.
Meanwhile, the days grind on to the trade deadline, and still we wait for some action anywhere in the league. Ben Hutton's name certainly seems to be in the mix now as a tradeable Canuck. And it sounds like a decision should be made soon on the future of Thomas Vanek.
Here's what Elliotte Friedman has to say about the local lay of the land in his latest
31 Thoughts:
Trevor Linden is supportive of his GM, but it’s clear ownership is waiting for…something. They asked the Sedins for some clarity about next season by the deadline, but that is unlikely. They are taking a run at re-signing Erik Gudbranson, but it will be interesting to see if both team and agent are on the same page. Among those whose value they are testing: Ben Hutton and Anders Nilsson. Hutton is due $2.8 million next year, Nilsson $300,000 less.
Nilsson made the news in Sweden this week when he was named "Hetero of the Year" for his support of the LGBTQ community.
Nilsson should get his first start in nearly three weeks as part of the upcoming back-to-back in Tampa and Raleigh.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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