Thursday November 3 - Ottawa Senators 1 - Vancouver Canucks 0
The Vancouver Canucks outshot their opponent for the second straight night on the road but once again failed to score. One poor sequence in the second period led to Mike Hoffman's second goal of the season, which is all the Ottawa Senators would need to sweep their season series against the Vancouver Canucks.
Here are your highlights:
It's one thing to be shut out by Carey Price but it's a kick to the stomach when Mike Condon deals out the same fate one night later, in his very first game with a new team.
"We have a way of making goalies look like they are all named Carey Price," Jannik Hansen told Jason Botchford after the game, in The Provies. "It doesn’t matter who we are playing or who is in net, they have the night of their lives."
The Canucks outshot the Senators 27-24 but it's obvious that they're feeling the pressure of this scoring slump.
The most disappointing moment? Bo Horvat's breakaway. It looks like he missed the net, but he told Botchford that it hit the knob at the end of Condon's stick.
The team also pressed hard in the dying minutes after Jacob Markstrom had been pulled, but Henrik and Daniel got into one of their passing trances and ran out of time—the last shot of the game came off the stick of Loui Eriksson, with 13 seconds to go.
So—the season series against the Sens, traditionally one of the most defensively porous teams in the league, ends up scored 4-0 for Ottawa.
The team's frustration also manifested itself in a couple of first-period fights. Derek Dorsett tangled with Mark Borowiecki early in the first period, then Nikita Tryamkin took on Zack Smith in his first-ever NHL tilt.
I thought Tryamkin was a bright spot in the game. He played a steady 14:17 with Luca Sbisa, managed five shot attempts and led the Canucks with six hits, allowing the team to outhit the heavy Senators 27-26.
Did his presence help the team play a little bigger? Was Bo Horvat emboldened when he went after Erik Karlsson at the end of the first period? Was Tryamkin in the back of Ben Hutton's mind when he laid a big hit on surly Chris Neil in the second period?
Sounds like we'll be seeing more of the big Russian this weekend. Both Chris Tanev and Alex Edler are missing from practice in Toronto today.
Update from Desjardins Edler (seen at rink) day-to-day with Upper Body Tanev "little longer" (than day-to-day) Recall coming #Canucks
My guess is that Edler is broken from carrying the defense on his back through the first 11 games of the season. He has led all skaters with an average of 24:27 of ice time per game—over three minutes a game more than the next busiest players, Troy Stecher (21:22) and Ben Hutton (21:02).
Edler played 24:48 on Thursday, even without finishing the game.
#Canucks Edler didn't play final 4:32. Hurt or coach's decision?
It's expected that a defenseman will be recalled from Utica. I guess we'll get to see what Troy Stecher can do without Edler at his side—word is that he's not at practice with the Comets today.
If one more blueliner goes down, will we get to see Jordan Subban? He's off to a hot start out of the gate—tied for the AHL lead in scoring by defensemen with four goals and 10 points in eight games.
Also noteworthy—new centre acquisition Michael Chaput is not just leading the Comets in scoring, he's second overall in the AHL with 12 points in nine games. Alex Grenier has nine points in nine games, then the team's offensive numbers drop off sharply after that.
The Canucks' strength this season has been their defensive play. They're actually tied for eighth in the league with a very respectable 2.45 goals against per game. As much as I like what we've seen from Stecher and Tryamkin, I'm expecting that number will take a hit with the team's top pairing missing in action.
Not sure what's up with Dorsett. He was a little worse for wear after his first-period fight, but finished the game.
Dorsett & Sbisa out for #Canucks in final minute with goalie pulled
The final 2:58 of the game was continuous action, and Markstrom came out with just under two minutes to go. According to the NHL's time on ice chart, Dorsett's last shift of the game was a whopping 1:19. It started with 1:58 to play and ended with 39 seconds left on the clock.
A couple of other positive stats—the Canucks won 62 percent of their faceoffs on Thursday, and have given up just one power-play goal in their last five games, on 12 opposition opportunities.
But man—the lack of scoring is starting to evoke memories of the Vancouver Whitecaps' season of futility.
For all their scoring woes, the Whitecaps' worst goalless stretch was three games without scoring, back in April.
The Canucks' shutout-streak counter is now suddenly back up to 142:43 and with two goals in their last five games, offensive output through that stretch averages out to 0.40 goals per game.
Next up—a high-profile date with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»