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Vancouver Canucks score three but can't get the win against depleted Sharks |
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Saturday September 17 - San Jose Sharks 5 - Vancouver Canucks 3
They didn't get the win, but the Vancouver Canucks hosted a raucous and entertaining hockey game—and avoided an inauspicious record—when they fell 5-3 to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
With another season lost and nothing to play for but draft position, there has been lots of talk about how interest in the Canucks has dropped right off. But exactly one month after the last official sellout against Boston on February 17, Saturday's attendance was listed at a very respectable 18,332 fans for the St. Patrick's Day affair. And whoever came up with the idea to make the night's game sponsor Crown Royal and celebrate with drink specials on highballs probably deserves a raise. The rowdy crowd was as loud—and engaged—as I've heard them all year.
Or, maybe the energy just came from their relief at seeing some goals again?
Nikolay Goldobin was the hero that ended the streak—on the power play—at 10:48 of the first period.
I liked the smart setup on this play, with Jake Virtanen ricocheting the puck off the end boards to get things rolling as his group gained the zone. I haven't seen that before—and all the guys on the ice seemed to know how to support the play. It's moments like this which make me believe that Jake is moving along his learning curve—and that Travis has some nifty tricks up his sleeve, which we'll see more of as he gains more experience (and more talent on his roster?)
And just like that, the streak was broken!
The spirit of this tweet is what's important. The streak actually ended at 222:57, 13 seconds shy of that mark of 223:10, as Kevin Woodley points out.
Also as Kevin points out, it was almost exactly two years ago that the record was set. After Henrik Sedin scored at 12:00 of the first period in a 4-1 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche on March 16, 2016, the Canucks were then shut out on the road in Edmonton, back home against St. Louis and on the road in Winnipeg before Bo Horvat snapped that slump at the 6:52 mark of the first period of a 3-2 overtime loss in Nashville.
That's the record that'll continue to stand: 234:52. This group avoided infamy with nearly 12 minutes to spare!
After failing to score a power-play goal in their last six games, the Canucks were on fire with the man advantage on Saturday—against the team that had been leading the league in penalty killing before going 1-for-4 against the lethal Canucks.
As well as being on the second half of back-to-backs, the Sharks were also impacted by the loss of key penalty killer Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who left the game early in the second period after taking a puck up high in the head or neck area while blocking a Derrick Pouliot shot.
Melker Karlsson also kills some penalties. He was lost to the Sharks after just two shifts after blocking an Alex Edler shot with his foot. The tired visiting team was short two bodies for more than half the game—and still the Canucks couldn't eke out the win.
Goaltending wasn't great on Saturday, especially on the winner from Timo Meier, at 6:07 of the third.
As usual in these situations, Jacob Markstrom beat himself up after the game:
The Canucks do seem to have a tough time getting everybody on the same page at the same time. When the skaters weren't scoring, Markstrom played well. As a result of this disconnect, the losses keep piling up.
The losing streak is now at six games. The Canucks are now just two points out of 31st place—and have played one more game than the two teams below them, Buffalo and Arizona. They'd need to get 10 points in their final 10 games to match the 69 points they finished with last season—and they haven't gone .500 over a 10-game stretch since they went 5-5-0 between January 12 and February 6—the period that stretched around Brock Boeser's All-Star Game MVP performance.
Before this year, Markstrom had never played more than 33 games in a season. He's now at 53 and counting this year. But it doesn't look like the increased workload has been his problem. If you look at his month-by-month splits this year, his three best months have been the last three, with save percentages of .913 in January and February and .915 so far in March, even after last night's game.
The Canucks are off today. They're out on the road for another four games in six nights this week, kicking off on Tuesday in Vegas. Believe it or not, the Golden Knights have lost four straight at home since beating Vancouver back on February 26. They'll be looking to snap that streak as they host Calgary for a Sunday afternoon contest, with a 1 p.m. PT puck drop.
To wrap up, a quick dip in the prospect pool:
• As expected, Adam Gaudette's Northeastern Huskies did earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament, with the bracket announced this morning. As the third seed in the Northeast region, they'll play No. 2 Michigan next Saturday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. PT. If they win, they'll advance to play the winner of Cornell/BU on Sunday.
Some unexpected results in the regional tournaments have led to some surprising absences in this year's tournament. Perennial hockey powers like North Dakota, Minnesota and Boston College all failed to make the cut. That's particularly galling for Minnesota, since the Frozen Four will be played this year at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
• Meanwhile, CHL seasons are wrapping up on Sunday. I'll run down the status of the Canucks prospects and their playoff situations in the next blog.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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