Monday March 10: New York Islanders 7 - Vancouver Canucks 4
For only the third time in franchise history, the Vancouver Canucks surrendered seven goals in a period on Monday. Next to the 1983 and 1985 Edmonton Oilers, add the 2014 New York Islanders to the list—the ones without John Tavares or Thomas Vanek.
It was quite a show.
When I got to the rink last night, I told a couple of the writers that I expected to see some goals, given that the Canucks were playing against the last-place offense in the league. They scoffed at me, so I looked pretty smart for two periods. Then, my wish turned terribly sour.
There was a lot to like about the first 36 minutes or so of the game. The Canucks limited the Islanders to just seven shots while getting three pucks past a shaky Evgeni Nabokov. Vancouver tallied two power-play goals and Henrik Sedin scored for the first time since December 14. Alex Burrows got a point and Nicklas Jensen tallied his first NHL point.
What troubled me during the early part of the game was the overall play of Burrows and Sedin, who were playing on a line with Jensen and on the first power play unit. Positionally, they were all over the place. They were giving pucks away. And, as Jason Botchford included in this video in his
latest edition of "The Provies," Henrik was crashing into his teammates with depressing regularity:
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Though the Islanders' scoring didn't start till the third period, the momentum shift came towards the end of the second. Henrik and Burrows handed the Islanders a scoring chance in the last minute that led linemate Nicklas Jensen to take a slashing penalty in order to prevent a point-blank scoring opportunity. It wasn't a bad decision on the rookie's part, but the carryover into the third period got the Islanders rolling with their first goal.
Jensen's second penalty, a ticky-tack holding call, was not as well thought-out, then when Kevin Bieksa added to the trouble by knocking the net off the moorings following a Kyle Okposo drive, that's where it all fell apart.
On the radio after the game, they put a lot of blame in that sequence on Eddie Lack—how, if he'd smothered that shot from Okposo instead of letting it dribble through his legs and roll wide, Bieksa wouldn't have needed to push the net off. Really??
In the first place, let's give Okposo some credit. He's not a high-profile player but he has 26 goals on the season and was thisclose to making the U.S. Olympic team. It wasn't an easy save for Lack to make.
Secondly, Bieksa's move was desperate and obvious. I like Bieksa as much as anybody but it wasn't one of his smarter plays.
And finally, it's not like the refs were out to get the Canucks in this game. The crease-crashing that led to the Canucks' third goal by Kesler could have been reviewed for possible goalie interference, and the Canucks were given four power plays during the first 40 minutes of the game—a rarity for a team that doesn't threaten enough to draw a whole lot of penalties these days.
If Vancouver was still one of the top penalty-killing teams in the league, none of this would have been an issue. But the New York Islanders—in the final period of a four-game western road swing—smelled blood and kept attacking. The Canucks collapsed, like we haven't seen—since a certain Stanley Cup Final game against Boston?
What Happens Next?
After the rumours that John Tortorella would have been fired if he'd lost Saturday's game against Calgary, there was plenty of speculation last night that Torts might not even make it to the podium to address the media.
The fact that Mike Gillis is in Florida at the General Managers' meetings seemed like it could cloud the issue, but whether or not that was a factor, a defeated Torts lives to fight another day. He had no answers, and no plan going forward beyond this:
The Canucks are practicing at noon today at Rogers Arena before flying to Winnipeg for another important Western Conference matchup. Will something happen by then, or will the status quo continue to hold?
The Canucks' own website is
trumpeting Monday's game as "Rock Bottom." Is that their new version of manufacturing hope—that things must get better from here because they can't get worse?
At this point, I think things could still conceivably get worse.
Appeasing the Fans:
Meanwhile, before the Monday meltdown, Mike Gillis sent out an email to season ticket holders, reaffirming the franchise's commitment to winning the Stanley Cup and promising them an upcoming webcast where they can ask questions after this road trip. Even the three-percent chance of making the playoffs will likely be gone by then.
I guess it's the only approach available if they're not going to make changes, but it sure feels weak.
Click here to read.
Meanwhile, the team makes another tone-deaf move by canning 1,000 Aramark concession workers at Rogers Arena.
Here's that story.
What will it take for this franchise to put just one foot right these days?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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