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Canucks suffer shutout amid bad breaks in Boston, will wrap trip vs. Wild |
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Tuesday February 4 - Boston Bruins 4 - Vancouver Canucks 0
Can't win 'em all.
The Vancouver Canucks suffered the first regulation loss of their current road trip when they were shut out by the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Here are your highlights:
I feel like the loss was sealed by two first-period moments — an unpenalized hit on Elias Pettersson along the end boards and an unsuccessful offside challenge by the Canucks on Boston's first goal.
First, the hit:
Pettersson stayed down for a bit after Matt Grzelcyk made contact. John Shorthouse pointed out that he missed a shift later in the first period, but he did stay in the game. He finished with 16:25 of ice time, including three hits of his own. That's a little low for him — he's averaging 18:32 this year — but it's not completely abnormal. For instance, he played just 16:06 in the home win over St. Louis right after the All-Star Game.
Pettersson's ice time may have been affected by the parade to the penalty box as much as anything else. The Canucks were shorthanded six times in the game, while the Bruins took three penalties of their own.
Without many positives to highlight, Travis Green chose to vent his frustration about the lack of a penalty call on the Pettersson play in his postgame comments.
Of course, the Canucks' first penalty of the game came at Green's own hand, off his unsuccessful coach's challenge for offside on Charlie Coyle's opening goal, late in the first.
The verdict shocked Green and also surprised the Canucks' TV broadcast team of John Shorthouse and John Garrett. They eventually amended their explanation when they realized the tag-up rule was in effect on the play.
That, as it turned out, was the game winner.
Jacob Markstrom kept it close with another strong performance — the Bruins didn't get their third goal until there was just 5:51 left to play in the third period. But the power play failed to deliver again — 0-for-7 in the last three games.
In the first three months of the season, the Canucks ranked fourth in the league with an efficiency rating of 26.4 percent. Since New Year's, they're fourth-last. Yes, 28th overall, with just five power-play goals and a 10.9 percent success rate in 14 games.
What happened??
I think there's always a little extra sting when the Canucks lose in Boston, where they couldn't muster a single win during the Stanley Cup Final. Giving up a shutout to Tuukka Rask adds another level of insult to injury. And it's disappointing to see Markstrom's nine-game winning streak snapped in games where he faces 40 shots or more.
Nevertheless, I've always said that I'd rather see all the bad fortune lumped together in one defeat rather than spread out over a bunch of games, leading to a series of close losses. It's also the Canucks' first regulation loss in three weeks — since January 14 in Winnipeg — and their spot in the standings wasn't impacted in any meaningful way. Arizona won on Tuesday, but Edmonton, Vegas and Calgary all lost, so Vancouver will maintain its three-point lead atop the Pacific Division standings.
For the moment, I'm still immersed in the world of women's hockey. Monday night's game in Victoria was terrific — a tightly contested 3-2 overtime win for Canada, its first in this year's Rivalry Series.
Game 4 goes Wednesday night in Vancouver — and as I wrote this morning, that's bringing back memories of the 2010 Olympics for veteran players like Hilary Knight of Team USA and Rebecca Johnston of Canada:
Tickets are still available for Wednesday's game, starting at a very reasonable $33.50. Come if you can — it'll be great!
Because I'll be busy with that tonight, I'll set up the Canucks' final road-trip game now:
Thursday February 6 - Vancouver Canucks at Minnesota Wild - 5 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Standings as of Wednesday morning:
Vancouver Canucks: 54 GP, 30-19-5, 65 pts, first in Pacific Division
Minnesota Wild: 52 GP, 22-24-6, 50 pts, seventh in Central Division
Chicago is the only Western Conference team in action on Wednesday night. The Blackhawks sit three points ahead of the Wild, tied with Nashville and Winnipeg in the Central Division.
Minnesota could be a perfect opponent for Vancouver to wrap up their road trip on Thursday. The Canucks dispatched the Wild easily by a 4-1 score last month at Xcel Energy Center, helping erase the sting of those two frustrating losses in the state of Florida. It was the only meeting between the two clubs so far this year.
Since that January 12 victory, Vancouver has gone 5-2-1. Minnesota is 4-3-0 during the same span following a 3-2 overtime win over Chicago on Tuesday. Since playing the Canucks, they've logged just one road game, in Pittsburgh, and after visiting Dallas on Friday to finish a back-to-back, they're home for another four games next week to wrap up a long stretch of 12-of-14 on home ice.
Despite the favourable schedule, they've still been inconsistent, with just one two-game winning streak so far in 2020. And their performances have been all over the map — the extremes were a 7-0 win over Dallas on January 18 and a 6-1 loss to Boston on February 1.
For the most part, Minnesota's issue this year has been keeping the puck out of the net. They're 29th overall, giving up an average of 3.31 goals per game, and their penalty kill ranks 30th overall, with a 74.2 percent success rate. With any luck, that's the kind of team that the Canucks need to play to regain their confidence and "swag," as J.T. Miller described it after Tuesday's loss. Vancouver has a big week ahead after their road trip, kicking off their six-game homestand with a crucial matchup against Calgary on Saturday before the three Sedin Week games against Nashville, Chicago and Anaheim, then rematches against the Wild and the Bruins.
Speaking of confidence and slump-busting, maybe a return visit to Minnesota will help get Brock Boeser going? The Lotto Line was reunited against Boston — but obviously failed to generate much offense against a very tough defensive team.
Boeser's current slump actually started in Minnesota last month. Since then, he has managed to collect just two assists in nine games. Maybe he can reclaim the scoring touch that he left behind in his home state in January?
I'll leave it there for now. Watch the women tonight — on TSN if not in person — and enjoy the games!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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