What was trending as a solid road win for the Canucks took a dramatic turn in the third period, when the Wild scored 7 goals enroute to a 10-7 victory. If you’re into that thing, here are the highlights:
The good things: JTM potted a hat trick, the Canucks PP got off the schneid, and (the times it happened) for the most part the 5-on-5 play. That, generally, is it.
The Canucks haven’t been playing championship caliber hockey recently, and the bad habits are starting to show up more regularly in their game. It was spotty before last night’s game, but it all came crashing down in Minnesota. The Canucks took six penalties in the game, handing the Wild four separate 5-on-3 opportunities. I’m not sure any team can win playing like that. The Wild ended up scoring six goals in under six minutes to turn the game on its head. The Canucks were defending and playing like the version we’ve seen the past few seasons, definitely not like the league-leading team we’ve come to enjoy so far this year.
Now, the Canucks are definitely facing real, honest adversity. The pressure and chatter is turned up.
“You've got to learn how to play under pressure,” Tocchet said after the loss. “We gave them, what is it, four five-on-threes? Gave them a goal at the end of the first, and then we take a penalty after the second. These are lessons that we have to learn, how to play under pressure.”
Structure and composure have been key elements from Tocchet this season, but it seems the last few games those have been slipping more and more. The ticky-tacky penalties, the loss of composure, picking the wrong time to get retaliation… Tocc talked about the same ideas of dealing with in-game frustration after the loss to Winnipeg. And while the Canucks penalty kill has been markedly better this year, it’s self-defeating to put yourself in that position constantly.
“It's actually stupid stick penalties,” Tocchet said. “You know, you can't do it, and we've got to learn. When you play under pressure, you cannot do those things.”
Though, as mentioned earlier, the 5-on-5 play for the Canucks wasn’t terrible. They controlled a lot of the action, and ended up out-scoring Minny 6-4 at evens.
“Take away the five-on-fours or, whatever, five-on-threes, take away the stupid stick penalties, giving up the goal at the end of the first. . . the five-on-five play was good. I mean, we had a lot of possession time, we had a lot of chances,” Tocc added.
Miller would agree with that:
"This is one of those games where I think we can actually hang our hat on how we played 5-on-5," he said. "I thought we outplayed them. Kind of a weird game. They clearly got a lot of momentum, and when you're on the power play and start to feel it, they have some talented players. Unfortunately, they got a handful of looks.
"You know, I don't want to speak too much on the penalty kill, I really wasn't on it a whole lot. Penalty kill's done an unbelievable job for us this year. The good news is, we get to play again tomorrow."
Yes, they play again today, and also these problems are fixable. Hell, they fixed them from last year to this year, and have been playing the majority of the season without falling backwards. It’s up to the players and the coaches to shoulder the responsibility here, but it is very actionable. And we've seen them do it.
Let’s see if they’re able to continue their season-long record of no three game losing streaks tonight against a tough home-barn Avs team.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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