It was fun while it lasted.
Starting the month of March with a 4-1-0 record, the Vancouver Canucks picked up more points in those first eight days than they did in all of February, when they had the worst points percentage in the league with a 2-9-2 record for .231. They were 6-5-0 in January.
But the good-time train was parked on Wednesday night, when the Canadiens dominated all over the ice in a 5-1 win. The Canucks gave up 45 shots — their second-highest total of the season. They tested Carey Price only 24 times — their fourth-lowest total of the season. And while there was a brief glimmer of hope when Brock Boeser connected on the power play for his 14th of the season to narrow the deficit to 2-1 early in the second period, any serious thoughts of a comeback didn't linger for more than a few minutes.
To make matters worse, the Habs didn't do the Canucks many favours after they left town, either. With Jake Allen between the pipes on Thursday, they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Calgary Flames — behind the second and third goals of the year from Josh Leivo, of all people.
At least it wasn't a three-point game.
The win makes Calgary 1-0-0 in the Darryl Sutter era and vaults them back over Vancouver, into fifth place in the North Division. The Habs are now five points up in fourth, holding down the last playoff spot. And the "real" standings have now aligned with points percentages.
So — exactly one month out from the trade deadline, playoff hopes look dim indeed.
SportsClubStats has dropped Vancouver to 1.5 percent; over at
The Athletic, Dom Luszczyszyn offers a comparatively generous 4 percent.
Thursday was a day off for the Canucks, who will be back on the ice for practice on Friday. They'll wrap up their five-game homestand on Saturday against Edmonton, then head east for a four-in-six road trip — in Ottawa on Monday and Wednesday, then in Montreal for their last two games of the year against the Habs — back-to-backs on Friday and Saturday.
Also, a quick note on Thatcher Demko. Even though he gave up more goals on Wednesday (5) than in his previous four outings combined (4), the impact on his save percentage, in particular, was minor (.916 to .914).
So much for the platoon: Demko now ranks 10th overall in minutes played this season (1,127:50). But even though he's more than 100 minutes behind league leaders John Gibson and Connor Hellebuyck, Demko ranks second (behind Hellebuyck) in both shots faced (628) and saves made (574). But he's eighth in goals against (54), which speaks to the value that he's delivering to the Canucks in net this season.
Hellebuyck, the reigning Vezina winner, has a .911 save percentage and 2.81 goals-against average, while Demko's at .914 and 2.87.
Demko's numbers also compare quite favourably to Jordan Binnington, who's at .908 and 2.69. And if you missed it, the Blues signed Binnington to the first major contract extension of the season on Wednesday — the Markstrom contract of six years at $6 million per season, with a healthy dose of trade protection to boot according to
CapFriendly.
Obviously, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison until Demko wins a Stanley Cup. And Binnington was set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. But even though his numbers have trended downward since his breakout season, he still got paid.
I bring this up, of course, because Demko will also be in need of a new contract at season's end. He's a restricted free agent, but at 25 years old, he does have arbitration rights. He's making $1.2 million in real dollars this season (less the 10 percent salary deferral and 20 percent escrow deduction, of course).
Click here to take a look at CapFriendly's complete list of arbitration-eligible RFA goalies. Nobody has played more than Demko.
Looks like the best comparables to watch in other markets will be Igor Shesterkin, with the Rangers, and Juuse Saros in Nashville — also both projected to be long-term starters for their teams, I think. Washington's Ilya Samsonov is also worth keeping an eye on — he has played just five games this season due to Covid issues, but is also expected to be Washington's goalie of the future.
It really is incredible how many high-level goaltenders have come out of Russia over the past 10-15 years — with Andrei Vasilevskiy at the top of the heap. It'll be interesting to see how that impacts performance at the 2022 Olympics.
While I'm on the topic of goaltending, let's touch on the two other related stories.
The first is Mikey DiPietro, who has been diligently skating with the taxi squad all season, but hasn't actually gotten into any game action in more than a year.
DiPietro's last start came in a 3-1 loss to Syracuse on March 11, 2020, where he made 23 saves. All told, he was 21-11-2 in his rookie season with the Utica Comets, with a .908 save percentage and 2.79 goals-against average that ranked him among the AHL's top five rookie netminders.
It's a tricky situation.
Knock on wood, who would have thought that the Canucks would actually make it into the second half of the season without one goalie man game lost to injury? If Demko or Holtby had gone down, DiPietro is the player in the system who would be counted on to step in.
That's why it's also tough to consider sending him to Utica to get playing time. If an injury recall is required at some point, quarantine comes into play. And that would probably mean that the Canucks would be forced to turn to 19-year-old Arturs Silovs, who they have stashed away on the Manitoba Moose but who has played just one AHL game this season. He did get some ice time earlier in the year, back in his native Latvia.
At this point, I think the Canucks and DiPietro are just going to have to ride it out.
The good news is that the 21-year-old has been able to spend lots of time working with Ian Clark while he has been on the taxi squad. The bad news is that rumours are starting to swirl that Clark may be another coach on the way out. Like Travis Green and the rest of the bench staff, his contract is up at the end of this season.
Clark's work speaks for itself. He was instrumental in getting Roberto Luongo to peak form during his first stint with the Canucks. Then, he went to Columbus and helped Sergei Bobrovsky win two Vezina Trophies. Since returning to Vancouver at the beginning of the 2019-20 season, he helped Jacob Markstrom elevate his game to a new high, and is now doing the same with Demko.
It seems like a no-brainer that he should be extended. I do wonder if there's some degree of protocol involved, that a head coach should be handled first? Or even if Clark is reluctant to re-up until he has more clarity about what the coaching group will look like next season?
It's shades of the Judd Brackett affair last season — although that seemed like it was about more of a power struggle between Brackett and Jim Benning. In Clark's case, I don't think anyone is disputing the work that he's doing, or second-guessing him. But with his track record, he could be in high demand. I wonder which other clubs have their eye on him
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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