That was ugly. The Canucks lost 6-1 Tuesday night to the Winnipeg Jets, with a late goal from Hoglander being the only thing to stave off a shutout. Kyle Connor scored his third goal of the first before the Canucks even had three shots. Ugly game from an inconsistent team. If you wanna see:
That was a solid team effort to lose that game. The Canucks finished their road trip 1-2-2 for a possible 4 of 10 points. They’d be great one game, and then shoddy the next. This team is the opposite of last year’s team, for whatever reasons. Consistently inconsistent.
Honestly there’s not much to say about that drubbing. Lankinen looked human in net, JT Miller was again on the lower end for ice time (maybe he’s nursing an injury), Hronek came back to the lineup and that was his welcoming party…
“Three major blunders, and I didn’t actually mind our first period, but three mistakes and it’s in the net,” lamented Tocchet. “It’s a good hockey club over there and everybody on our club had a tough night.
“It’s hard to be consistent and do the right things all the time, and go through people, hard to re-load and get pucks out and take them to the net. You can’t do it once in a while if you want to be a good team. It’s my job. I’ve got to get some guys committed and it’s on me.”
The team didn’t really speak much after the game, either. People weren’t too happy.
“Obviously, a disappointing result and too early to process all of it,” said Hughes. “Nobody played well.”
“Obviously we didn’t play well, but we didn’t have guys quitting,” Vancouver forward Conor Garland said. “You’re down to a good team, we fought back. They’re not going to give you much. They have some great defensemen and some really good defensive forwards that are going to be above you all night. You’ve got to fight to score against that team. That’s why they’re one of the top of the standings. You just can’t give it to them like that; three (goals) right off the bat.”
The Canucks only mustered 24 shots against one of the NHL’s best goalies and best teams. There’s a reason the Jets are at the top of the table… they’re good. The Canucks on the other hand, they’re having some trouble all over the ice. The lack of shots and goals this year is troubling, especially for a team with this much supposed firepower. They’re 31st in shots per game at just 25.1 and 19th in goals at 2.93 per. They were also 0-2 on the PP last night with just two shots, and have slipped to 22nd overall at 22.2 per cent.
There’s something off with this team – construction, locker room, leadership, coaching, messaging – and with the team on it’s way home for a three game homestand, you have to wonder if something is going to get changed.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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