Sunday December 11 - Washington Capitals 3 - Vancouver Canucks 0
On paper, it was a tough assignment. On the ice, the same was true. In a tough back-to-back situation, the Vancouver Canucks managed just 20 shots on goal as they were shut out by the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Here are your highlights:
Full credit to Jacob Markstrom, who pulled double duty this weekend while Ryan Miller is sidelined. Markstrom was excellent on Sunday, allowing just one goal in the first 45 minutes of action to give his team a chance to stay in it—a tricky snipe from Alex Ovechkin, who was on his game with 12 shot attempts through 60 minutes.
Markstrom was named the game's third star, stopping 26 of 28 shots (the third goal was an empty-netter). Ovechkin was the second star, and Holtby got top honours for his second shutout of the season—kind of an obligatory honour, since he didn't have to do much to earn it.
The Canucks managed just 20 shots on goal in the game, narrowing avoiding matching their season low (19 against Anaheim in that early-season back-to-back situation on October 23). Ben Hutton, Alex Biega and the team's new offensive bright light, Jack Skille, led the way with three shots each.
Thanks to three goals this week, Skille was moved up the lineup to play with Bo Horvat and Alex Burrows on Sunday, while Sven Baertschi was scratched to make room for Jannik Hansen in the lineup.
It was made clear that Baertschi was scratched because Coach didn't like his effort in recent games.
The latter. One hand on stick, blowing snow. Needs to ramp up compete level. https://t.co/D2UTzvN5C9
I wonder, though, if Baertschi is still struggling after suffering that foot injury against Arizona three weeks ago. He missed two games, then scored in his return to the lineup against Minnesota on November 29. He had just one other point, a goal, in the five games after that—and took that nasty minus-three against Florida on Saturday.
Baertschi's absence certainly didn't help the power play, which was probably the biggest black mark in Vancouver's game on Sunday. Sven has averaged 1:24 of ice time per game with the man advantage this season—sixth among forwards, so he has been a regular part of the rotation, but he has recorded just one assist with the man advantage.
Washington took five minor penalties on Sunday—and the Canucks managed just one shot on goal during those 10 minutes of odd-man opportunity. Loui Eriksson put a 46-foot slapper on target on the fifth and last opportunity, while Andre Burakovsky was serving a high-sticking penalty with the score 2-0 and 11:40 to play in the third period.
If the power play is getting pucks on net and the goalie is coming up big, that's one thing. But the way the Canucks have been going with the man advantage, we should start calling it the power outage!
Washington's penalty killing is a mediocre 11th in the league, too. Next up, the Canucks are facing the best penalty killers in the league in Carolina on Tuesday. I doubt that's going to make them look any better!
Reader manvanfan was asking yesterday about general power-play trends around the league this season, with so many teams using a four-forward setup.
There are not a lot of year-over-year league-wide stats readily available, but Hockey Reference is showing that while power-play opportunities are up to 3.21 chances a game compared to 3.11 last season, the total number of goals scored with the man advantage has been about the same. Teams are converting, on average, on 18.28 percent of their chances, compared to 18.66 percent for the last two years.
Historically, though, those numbers are pretty high. As you might expect, teams regularly converted at 20 percent or better back in the 80s, but the conversion rate dropped as low as 15 percent in the Dead Puck Era of the late 90s.
The fact that the Canucks got a generous five chances yesterday makes their inability to generate any pressure seem especially frustrating. Vancouver ranks 20th overall in the number of power-play opportunities received—87 in 29 games, or exactly three per game. But with just two power-play goals on 20 chances in their last six games, they've slid back down to 28th in the league in success, converting just 13.8 percent of their chances.
All told, Vancouver is tied with Minnesota and Boston for 26th in the league with 12 power-play goals this season. Arizona has 11 and the New York Islanders are at the bottom of the list with 10. Philadelphia is leading the league with 166 power-play opportunities and 28 goals—converting at nearly twice the rate of the Canucks at 24.1 percent.
Vancouver made three roster moves before Sunday's game, reassigning Andrey Pedan and Joseph LaBate to Utica while also sending rehabbing winger Anton Rodin to the Comets for a two-week conditioning assignment.
First report is positive!
Utica gm Pat Conacher says Anton Rodin looked good in his 1st practise, "his skating stands out." #Canucks
Rodin did look good when we saw him in preseason, so if his knee is now properly healed, he could still be a nice Christmas present for the Canucks' anemic offense when he's ready to join the team.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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