Thursday October 12 - Winnipeg Jets 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2
A strong third-period push wasn't enough for the Vancouver Canucks as they recorded their first regulation loss of the season against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
The low attendance for Thursday's game was even more troubling than the loss:
Announced at 15,589, it's reportedly the smallest crowd for a Canucks game since a 1-1 tie (a tie!) against the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 10, 2001.
Home games with under 16,000 attendance: 97/98: 11 98/99: 26 99/00: 30 00/01: 10 01/02: 4 02/03-16/17: 0 17/18: 1 so far#Canucks#DarkDays
Interestingly, the lowest-attended home game of last season was also the third of the yearâthe 2-1 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues on October 18, 2016, in front of a reported crowd of 17,568.
One of the reasons the Canucks made the move from Willie Desjardins to Travis Green was the promise of a more uptempo, fun-to-watch style of play this season. That showed up in the season opener against Edmonton, then dropped off a bit against Ottawa on Tuesday. Last night's game was like watching paint dry until the Canucks woke up after Chris Tanev pulled them within a goal with 7:17 to play in the third period.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The game started on a positive note when the Canucks scored first and the power play clicked on its first try, for just the second time this season. Daniel Sedin's goal at the 7:25 mark of the first period was a direct result of a smart shot from Brock Boeser, who drew into the lineup in place of Alex Burmistrov.
We're tied 1-1 after 20 minutes; Daniel Sedin opened the scoring with his 1st of the year. Shots: 9-9. pic.twitter.com/xJ3YuZAA8P
The goal was Daniel's first of the yearâand the 188th out of 371 in his career to be scored at GM Place/Rogers Arena. That moves him ahead of Markus Naslund into first place all time on the Canucks' current home ice. I'm impressed that he has scored nearly as much on the road as he has at home over the course of his career.
Just 1:39 later, Markstrom was handcuffed when a Josh Morrissey shot bounced past him off the skate of Michael Del Zotto. The Jets went on to build a 3-1 lead in a low-event second period off a perfect snipe from the slot by Patrik Laine, then a shorthanded goal off a 2-on-1 by hulking defenseman Tyler Myersâhis first point of the year.
The Canucks trailed early in their games against Edmonton and Ottawa but Thursday marked the first time they'd fallen behind after taking a lead. It created an even grimmer energy in the building until Chris Tanev snapped home his second of the yearâa knuckler from the blue line.
Going into the season, the Canucks talked about wanting to activate the defensemen to help generate more offense. With plenty of power-play time, Ben Hutton leads the group with eight shots in three games but it's Tanev that's boasting a 33.3 percent shooting percentage with two goals on six shotsâand is currently on pace for a 54-goal season.
Take that, Brent Burns!
In all seriousness, though, Tanev is currently tied with eight other players for the NHL's goal-scoring lead among defensemenâand he scored that game-tying beauty in Beijing during preseason, too.
In my Goal Posts column for the Westender earlier this week, I mentioned that Tanev could be a player to watch for scoring this season. I may not have been right about the Canucks being fun to watch last night, but at least the Tan-man made me look smart.
Ironic that my editor chose Alex Edler's smiling face to lead this article...he was knocked out of action late in the first period with what has been called a lower-body injury.
This video shows Edler's leg bending awkwardly as he takes Mark Scheifele into the boards.
There was no update on Edler's condition after the game and the Canucks aren't practicing today, so we'll have to wait and see whether he'll be able to play on Saturday night or if the brand-new lefty, Derrick Pouliot, will draw into the lineup. I've heard that Travis Green really likes to keep his defensemen playing on their regular sides so if Edler can't go, it seems almost certain that Pouliot would draw in rather than righty Alex Biega.
With Edler missing for more than 47 minutes of game action, fellow lefties Michael Del Zotto and Ben Hutton both shouldered heavy workloads last nightâso it's impressive that they kept the offensively powerful Jets to just 20 shots on goal. Del Zotto followed up a team-high 24:38 of ice time in 65 minutes against Ottawa with 27:46 last nightâthe most he has played in nearly two years.
Hutton logged 23:24âa huge jump from the 17ish minutes he'd played in the first two games of the year. Perhaps he was a bit tired or feeling slightly overwhelmed when he baubled the puck at the blue line with Jacob Markstrom on the bench in the waning seconds, leading to Nikolaj Ehlers' empty-net goal that sealed the deal.
Thursday's game was the first substandard effort we've seen from Markstrom this seasonâhe wasn't terrible and he flashed the leather with a couple of big around-the-world glove saves over the course of the evening, but he didn't give his team the big stops that were needed to salvage a point. Up front, the Sedins and Thomas Vanek drove the offenseâgood for them but not-so-good for the rest of the roster.
I could imagine Anders Nilsson getting his first start of the season on Saturday, when the Canucks wrap up their season-opening homestand against Jaromir Jagr (!) and the Calgary Flames. We'll definitely see him next week when the team starts a five-game road trip which includes back-to-back games in Boston and Buffalo next Thursday and Friday.
Given the modest expectations for this team coming into the season, it shouldn't be a disappointment that they're 1-1-1 after three games, although the win over the Oilers teased us that maybe we could hope for more.
Speaking of raised expectations, there's some Canucks content in my new piece over at Forbes, where I invoke the ghost of Nikita Tryamkin when pondering the damage that George McPhee could be inflicting on his team by keeping Vadim Shipachyov out of the lineup even as the Vegas Golden Knights jump out to an unexpected 3-0-0 start.
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