Tuesday December 9 - Montreal Canadiens 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
On a night when the true first star of the game was Jean Beliveau's widow Elise, the Vancouver Canucks ended their seven-game road trip with a whimper, losing 3-1 to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
Here are your highlights:
The game might have been different if the Canucks had taken an early lead on Nick Bonino's great chance against Carey Price just 64 seconds into the game. Instead, the team spent most of the night back on its heels, doing its best to defend against a fired-up Montreal team that was looking to snap out of a funk.
You're not going to win many games when your period-by-period shot totals are 6-5-5, as the Canucks' were on Tuesday. Vancouver was able to limit Montreal to just 25 shots of their own—largely on the strength of 26 blocked shots—but the team was clearly exhausted as the longest road trip of the year wound to its conclusion.
We knew going in that this was going to be tough, and we certainly saw the diminishing returns as the Air Miles accumulated. Strong shutout wins in Columbus and Pittsburgh are distant memories after the embarrassment in Toronto on Saturday, followed by the late collapses in Ottawa and Montreal.
Still—this is the first time all year that the Canucks have gone winless in three games, and they did pick up a point against the Senators. The Canucks are through one of the toughest stretches of their schedule and have knocked off 18 of their 41 road games—tied for the league lead with New Jersey and San Jose, who are both below them in the standings.
The Chicago Blackhawks have surged back to the top of the Western Conference, but Vancouver remains in second place in the Pacific Division—three points back of Anaheim and two ahead of Calgary, who are on a two-game losing streak of their own. It's not time to panic just yet.
The Canucks re-assigned Nicklas Jensen and Frank Corrado to Utica on Wednesday morning. They don't play again till Saturday but that leads me to believe they'll have some healthy bodies back in the lineup by then.
Tom Sestito is close to being ready to play—he was assigned to Utica on Sunday to get some game action. My guess is that Shawn Matthias will be ready to rejoin his hot third line this weekend. No word yet on when Zack Kassian's expected to return.
But Corrado—that's interesting. Unless the Canucks are planning to carry just six defensemen for the foreseeable future, could Dan Hamhuis be closer to returning than we thought?
Though Corrado probably appreciated the NHL-size paycheque he received while he was with the Canucks for the last two and a half weeks, Corrado hasn't played since the Comets' November 19th game against the Hamilton Bulldogs. He can certainly use some game action, but even though the Canucks' upcoming schedule is quite light, the idea of carrying only six D seems surprising.
I guess we can assume that Chris Tanev is telling the truth when he told
Ben Kuzma "I'm fine," after blocking six shots against the Canadiens, including a bunch on the 5-on-3 penalty kill.
And even though Alex Burrows got roasted on the TV broadcast for losing his man on the winning goal, I'm not going to give him too hard a time. "I missed my turn and the guy blew right by me and it cost us the game. It’s me. It’s all me," Burrows chastised himself to Kuzma after the game, but the play started due to a bad pinch from Luca Sbisa, leaving Bieksa and Burrows back to try to hold the fort.
Even if the defenseman is missing from the coverage, shouldn't the centre be the next man back in this situation? Where was Burrows' third-period pivot Bo Horvat on the play?
Horvat was swapped with Nick Bonino for the second half of the game, leading us to wonder whether Bo had been moved up to the second line, or if the feisty wingers Dorsett and Hansen, who'd combined for the game's only goal, had gotten a promotion.
After a good start, Bonino has become ice cold. He had three assists against Columbus but was pointless for the other six games of the road trip, and a minus-five. The second line (and second power-play unit) are probably the biggest areas of concern for the Canucks as they settle into their long holiday homestand.
If you haven't started your Christmas shopping, here's a sobering angle: the Canucks play just four games before the big day. It's coming up fast!
Rest and practice should be the key concepts over the next three weeks, along with some holiday festivities. The Canucks are not practicing on Wednesday or Thursday. They will make their annual holiday visit to B.C. Children's Hospital on Thursday afternoon.
If there's a silver lining for the Canucks, losing to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal keeps this team under the radar with the national media. It might be better for them to keep toiling in obscurity than to face sky-high expectations—we're still 12 games away from the midpoint of the season.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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