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Vancouver Canucks end trip with good effort but come up short vs. Sharks

February 17, 2019, 2:24 PM ET [527 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Saturday February 16 - San Jose Sharks 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2

The entertainment value was vastly improved from five days earlier and so was the defensive play, but the Vancouver Canucks came up just short in their attempt to finish out their California road trip with a win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

Here are your highlights:



Remember that homestand before the All-Star Break, when the Canucks were getting points in games that they maybe didn't deserve to win? Not surprisingly, the hockey gods have now tipped the scale back in the other direction. Despite being at the end of a very busy stretch of games, with a lineup that's been crushed (again) by injury, Vancouver put out a very good effort in San Jose—at least, the guys who played did.

With a four-day break before his team's next game against Arizona on Thursday, Travis Green leaned hard on his top players. Jacob Markstrom made his third start in four nights and once again kept his team in the game. Brock Boeser joined the "career-high minutes" club that has been popular over the last two weeks, finishing the night with 24:05 of ice time, seven shot attempts and a plus-two as he scored his 21st goal of the year and 100th point of his NHL career.




He also won the fan appreciation award of the evening for this adorable interaction during warmup:




Comparatively speaking, Ben Hutton and Troy Stecher got off relatively easy, both playing less than 30 minutes. With Chris Tanev out, Derrick Pouliot and Alex Biega are now clearly getting the second-pairing minutes, and let's just say that's a mixed bag.

Pouliot and Biega both earned assists on Saturday—and Biega's stretch pass to Antoine Roussel to tie the game 1-1 in the first period was a beauty.




Unfortunately for Biega, fans' more lasting memory will be his inability to get the puck out of the zone on the play that turned into Joe Pavelski's third-period game winner.




That's Logan Couture who out-muscled Biega along the boards. And poor Markstrom wasn't too far away from snagging Pavelski's rebound try after Timo Meier's initial shot went off his mask.




It's too bad for him that Petey wasn't on the ice to do one of his big-time backchecks. Nikolay Goldobin and Loui Eriksson weren't exactly the staunchest defensive supporters as they drifted back into the slot while Markstrom was basically fending for himself.

As for the kids? With the Canucks chasing the lead for the entire game and a significant smattering of special-teams time on both sides, they didn't get a whole lot of action.

Guillaume Brisebois played just 7:00, all at even strength. Adam Gaudette got 9:54, including 1:46 on the power play. And Zack MacEwen had more penalty minutes than ice time. He logged just 2:34, also including 1:46 on the power play. His last shift of the game led to his fight off the faceoff with Barclay Goodrow, two seconds after Couture had given the Sharks the 2-1 lead just after the midpoint of the game.




He handled himself well, and there was no indication after the game that he'd suffered an injury.




I like his game but if this hockey thing doesn't work out, I feel like he could have an equally promising future playing bass in a metal band.

The Canucks left Vancouver in the midst of a snowstorm on Monday and come home to sunshine on Sunday, so they'll be able to take full advantage of a day off before finally getting a chance to put in some practice time over the next few days.

After Saturday's action, the Western Conference standings remained largely unchanged. The Canucks were still sitting ninth, one point behind Minnesota, but Arizona has joined the chase pack with Colorado and Chicago—all two points behind Vancouver after the Avs and Blackhawks lost but the Coyotes shut out Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs at a sold-out Gila River Arena.

Thursday's home game against Arizona is shaping up to be a big one, but the Coyotes will have a chance to leapfrog the Canucks before they get to Vancouver. They're setting off on a three-in-four through Western Canada, with visits to Calgary on Monday and Edmonton on Tuesday.

The Blackhawks, Avs and Wild will also all play twice before the next time the Canucks hit the ice. Chicago's at home to Ottawa on Monday and in Detroit on Wednesday, Colorado hosts Vegas on Monday before visiting Winnipeg on Wednesday and the Wild continue their homestand on Sunday as they try to snap St. Louis' nine-game winning streak, then host Anaheim on Tuesday.

Down on the farm, the Utica Comets recorded their fifth win in their last six games off this Cam Darcy overtime goal against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday.




The playoff race is tight in the AHL's North Division with the Belleville Senators now on a 6-0-0-4 run in their last 10 games. Just seven points now separate the first-place Syracuse Crunch from the fifth-place Senators; the Comets are currently right in the middle—third with 62 points in 53 games. They'll finish off their weekend at home against sixth-place Cleveland on Sunday.
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