Tuesday March 4 - San Jose Sharks 6 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Three goals on four shots in 7:45 of ice time. A goals-against average of 22.50 and a save percentage of .250. I'm pretty sure that's not how Jacob Markstrom hoped to start off his 2014-15 NHL campaign.
If you can stand it, here are the highlights from Tuesday's loss at Rogers Arena.
Injury-replacement Markstrom takes the hit for this loss, but I don't think he had much of a chance. With the Sharks coming off a big win on Monday and fighting for their playoff lives, they seemed determined to get an early jump and use a game plan similar to the one that yielded a 5-1 win for San Jose last time they visited Rogers Arena in February.
Once again, their anonymous young players like Chris Tierney, Barclay Goodrow, Melker Karlsson and Matt Nieto did most of the damage, and they took advantage of a depleted Canucks blue line that is starting to sag.
No surprise, really. In my observation, most hockey players can run off adrenaline to play above their heads for a little while in injury situations, but that rush eventually wears off—especially as they play more minutes, in tougher situations than they're used to, game after game.
The Canucks got Frank Corrado back into the lineup on Tuesday but he didn't prove to be much of an upgrade on Alex Biega. In 15:06 of ice time, lower than all other defensemen except Ryan Stanton, Corrado was a minus-three playing with Luca Sbisa—on the ice for the third and fourth San Jose goals, as well as the second empty-netter.
Yannick Weber might be the guy who is wearing down the most. He actually led all Canucks last night with 24:13 of ice time—thanks in part to 6:39 of power-play time.
Weber and partner Dan Hamhuis were the goats on the first two San Jose goals. And he was the triggerman who couldn't get the job done with the man advantage as the Canucks tried to fight their way back into the game after digging an insurmountable hole.
Realizing that Weber (14 points) and Adam Clendening (4 points with both the Canucks and Blackhawks) are currently Vancouvers' only vagely useful offensive options on the blue line had me hoping that Alex Edler will be back in action sooner rather than later.
My dream might even come true, based on Willie Desjardins' postgame comments last night:
I'm also on board with the idea of giving Markstrom the start for the Canucks next game, on Thursday in Arizona. Looking at the Canucks' schedule over the next couple of weeks, they won't play in a lower-pressure atmosphere than the sparsely-populated Gila River Arena, and the Coyotes are less threatening than ever after moving out players like Keith Yandle, Zbynek Michalek and Antoine Vermette at the trade deadline.
With Yandle and Vermette gone, the team's leading scorers are now Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Sam Gagner, who are tied with 31 points each. This *shouldn't* be an offensively dangerous team, and should give Markstrom a chance to get back into the fire and get his confidence back.
We learned last year that it's a bad idea to expect Eddie Lack to play all 19 of Vancouver's remaining games, so Markstrom has to get in somewhere. After Arizona, the Canucks' next three games are against the Sharks again, Ducks and Kings before the Toronto Maple Leafs roll into town on March 14. Now or never, I say.
Hooray for Henrik
Overshadowed last night by the dire loss, Henrik Sedin's two goals were the 900th and 901st points of his career—franchise records, obviously, and downright impressive in the annals of NHL history.
The achievement moves Henrik into the
Top 100 in all-time NHL scoring and ninth among active players. He's also the highest-scoring player who started his career in the 2000s. All the guys ahead of him are older:
5. Jaromir Jagr (1990) 1,786 pts
36. Joe Thornton (1997) 1,249 pts
44. Jarome Iginla (1995) 1,209 pts
68. Marian Hossa (1997) 1,042 pts
74. Martin St. Louis (1998) 1,025 pts
80. Patrick Elias (1995) 1,010 pts
86. Patrick Marleau (1997) 979 pts
95. Vincent Lecavalier (1998) 928 pts
100. Henrik Sedin (2000) 901 pts
Henrik's 59 points this season are also the most of any of these players. Joe Thornton is second, with 55. Henrik's currently 17th in NHL scoring, tied with Rick Nash, Steven Stamkos and Tyler Seguin. Pretty heady company.
Last night, the bad news was that the twins were the only Canucks who could generate any offense, but the real problem was on the back end. Hopefully the reinforcements will continue to return to the lineup sooner rather than later.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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