Sunday March 3 - Vegas Golden Knights 3 - Vancouver Canucks 0
I hope you like saves. Jacob Markstrom's 45-stop performance was about the only bright spot as the Vancouver Canucks were shut out for the ninth time this season in their Sunday matinee against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Here are your highlights:
Vegas Flu? It sure seems possible, given how overwhelmed the Canucks looked on the ice right from the opening puck drop. Marc-Andre Fleury recorded his second consecutive shutout for Vegas but only earned third-star honours in the game because Vancouver tested him with just 19 shots over 60 minutes. Vegas beat that in the second period alone, scoring all three of their goals off 22 shots on Markstrom in the game-deciding middle frame.
The Canucks' effort was so lacklustre that they weren't even able to test out the new power-play deployment that Travis Green had worked up at practice on Saturday. For just the second time this season, the Canucks didn't draw a single penalty during the game.
Not much point in dwelling more on the on-ice events. For such a young franchise, the Golden Knights seem to be pacing themselves like a veteran squad, rounding nicely into form as the playoffs draw near with a fast, aggressive playing style that overwhelms and demoralizes opponents—especially in that hostile atmosphere at T-Mobile Arena, where the energy continues to surge just as strongly as it did last season. After seeing a performance like that, Vegas' fourth-straight win since the trade deadline, it seems highly plausible that the Golden Knights could add another impressive chapter to their remarkable story with a second deep playoff run this spring.
As for Markstrom, another busy night helped tick his save percentage up another point, to .914, while his goals-against average rose slightly to 2.71. That puts him above the league average of .909 and 2.84 in both categories. According to the
Hockey Reference goalie analytics numbers, Markstrom's 29 'quality starts' this season rank him fourth in the league, behind only Freddy Andersen, Fleury and Devan Dubnyk, and he has logged just four 'really bad starts.' That gives him an overall 'quality start percentage' of .580 this season, where the league average is around .530 and anything over .600 is considered very good.
Busy as he has been, Markstrom's hot streak started on December 6, after the Canucks snapped that early losing skid. Even with the team's recent woes, Markstrom is 15-10-5 since that time, with a save percentage of .926 and a GAA of 2.31.
He's seventh in both those categories over that nearly three-month period, behind only names like Lehner, Binnington, Vasilevskiy, Murray, Price, Bishop and Rask.
As important as Elias Pettersson has been this season, we're getting to the point where there's a real argument to be made for Markstrom as the Canucks' 2018-19 MVP.
So the Canucks return home from their important three-game road trip with just a single point to show for their efforts, from their shootout loss to Colorado. After Minnesota picked up a loser point in their game against Nashville on Sunday, they moved eight points up on the Canucks in the Western Conference playoff race and have tied Dallas with 71 points. Vancouver remains 13th in the conference standings, tied with Edmonton and Chicago but ranked lower in the standings. The Oilers can put some space between the two clubs if they can pick up points in their game against Buffalo on Monday.
The Canucks are off on Monday as they return home. There's another back-to-back coming up as they host Toronto on Wednesday before visiting the Oilers on Thursday, then they'll finish out the week back at Rogers Arena against Vegas on Saturday.
Monday also marks the trade/loan deadline day for the AHL. There's some talk that the Utica Comets could be in the market for some additional defensive depth, but no word yet on a move as the 3 p.m. ET deadline draws near.
Cam Darcy had the overtime winner as the Comets knocked off Hershey on home ice last Friday before dropping a 3-1 road decision to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday. The Comets fired 39 shots on our old pal Mike McKenna, but Zack MacEwen was the only player who was able to beat him.
As the home stretch draws near, the Comets are now right on the playoff bubble—officially holding down the last postseason berth in the AHL's North Division with 67 points, tied with fifth-place Belleville but holding the edge in the tiebreaker thanks to one game in hand.
The other big story that's simmering this week is the beginning of the NCAA playoffs—particularly, Quinn Hughes watch:
The Canucks will have 13 games left in their regular-season schedule after this weekend. According to
SportsClubStats, their chances of making the playoffs dropped to just 1.3 percent after Sunday's loss in Vegas.
With little left to play for this year, it would make no sense for the Canucks not to keep Hughes below the 10-game threshold that would exempt him from needing protection in the 2021 Seattle expansion draft.
If No. 6 Michigan can upset No. 3 Minnesota this weekend, the problem will most likely be solved. The Big Ten semifinals will go March 16-17; after March 17, the Canucks will have just 10 games remaining.
Go Wolverines!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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