A bit of line juggling from Tocc couldn’t kickstart the Canucks offense as they fell 3-1 to the Stars Thursday night. It was yet another tight, playoff-like game that could have gone either way, just not the Canucks way again. The loss takes them to 4-3-1 on their homestand, and pushes their playoff-clinching mark off for another day. If you missed it all and want to watch, here ya go:
At least it was more fun than playing the Kings.
It was a solid effort from the majority of the team – but as has been a talking point for much of the latter half of the season, their special teams let them down. The Stars scored two power play goals, the Canucks none. C'est la vie. The boys had done a much better job over the past 10 or so games in taking fewer penalties (an average of two a game), but last night they gave up five. That’s not going to cut it now, and definitely not when the playoffs roll around.
“I didn't like some of the penalties,” Tocchet said. “I thought they were careless. Like, careless penalties.”
Combine that with the blackout on their own power plays, and the chatter starts to get a bit louder around the team. Since the All Star break, the Canucks rank 29th in the league for their power play.
“Their power play, what did they get, two power-play goals tonight? And we came (out) empty” Tocc said. “We've got to make some plays. Sometimes the power play, you know, you've got to get those gritty things. You need three people to the net. Too many set plays and I think sometimes it burns us. We're trying to get guys to understand that we've got to get the puck to the net. There's got to be gritty goals on power plays; it can't be pretty.”
Tocchet runs the power play, so part of the responsibility falls to him. He called it “too mechanical”, and then added:
“We need a little bit more you know, taking pucks to the net or a backdoor play, or it’s a one timer from the point with traffic. So that’s something we were chipping away at. I thought actually the last couple weeks it’s been a little bit better.”
Better, sure, but still not good enough and they’re running out of room here to get it in shape.
JTM – the lone goal scorer last night – has really stepped up his game down the stretch here, both on the ice and as a leader of the team. He tried to shoulder some of the blame, but I don’t think many people would be picking him out of the lineup for the blame game at this point.
“At the end of the day, they were probably able to execute on their special teams a little better than we did,” Miller said after the loss. “We had our chances on the power play, too, (but) I don't think we're getting to the inside enough. For myself, I'm not really creating or driving play right now for me, so I need to be better. As a leader of the team, I hold myself to a higher standard than that. I feel like I'm one and done a lot.”
Any thoughts from him on the power play?
“Not enough momentum for the group” he said. “We’re not getting any loose pucks back. I just feel like we’re playing slow. They gave us a little different look (on the penalty kill) than the pre-scout suggested today and I just don’t think we responded very well. We had a couple of looks but we need to capitalize.”
The Canucks have a chance to steer the ship back on course on Sunday against the Ducks. Will Tocc keep blending the lines? Will Silovs get a crack in the net? Will the Canucks throw a bone to anyone else in Abby?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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