Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

The Vancouver Canucks don’t truly head on the road until after November 4th, but maybe they should find a way to change that. To be blunt, playing games in Rogers Arena just isn’t helping them, as proven tonight. While the team had its moments of strength, a late game unraveling lead to the Washington Capitals winning their first game in Vancouver in fifteen years, by a score of 3-2.

This scoring in this one started with a heads up rush by Jay Beagle and Jason Chimera, a sentence that has only been uttered once and will never be uttered again. Taking advantage of an errant pass in Vancouver’s zone, the two skated up and blew past Alex Edler and Matt Bartkowski, at which point Beagle sent the puck across to Chimera, who escaped Bartkowski’s poke at beat Ryan Miller.

The Canucks tied it up early in the second period, thanks to the old-is-new Sedin-Sedin-Vrbata line. Henrik, after winning a board battle, opted for a wraparound, and while he didn’t beat Braden Holtby directly, he did send the puck off of Radim Vrbata’s skate and into the net. Ten minutes later, the line connected again on the powerplay, continuing to use their options behind the net to get Henrik a pretty go-ahead goal.

The good vibes didn’t last, though. Unsatisfied with a single point, Beagle contributed on a goal that was actually finished off by Luca Sbisa, who admittedly was attempting to bail out Ryan Miller’s failed reach for the puck with a swat. With five minutes to go, both teams had an opportunity to take this game home, and unfortunately, Alexander Ovechkin got to do the thing he was attempting to do all night:

Try as they will, Vancouver was unable to equalize the game for a second time, and skated away 0-3-1 at home.

As you can see, minus a late first and late third-period push by the Canucks, this game was pretty even on the whole. Not surprising, seeing as nobody trailed by more than one goal at any point. With that said, Washington did a better job of clogging up the openings; despite the similar Corsi numbers, the Canucks were actually outshot 35-25 by the Caps.

I mean, if we’re being completely honest with ourselves, the best player in this game wore the number eight and was on the other team, but as far as Canucks go, I’m going to give this to Radim Vrbata. He found himself back with the Sedins tonight and looked right at home while doing so. Yes, his goal was, well, a bounce off his skate instigated by Henrik, but as a trio, the line looked very good. We’ll see if they stick together and if so if they continue to click.

The tweet says all that’s needed to be said, really.

Not shown is the brutal drop pass attempt by Vrbata to Ben Hutton, which is probably the one knock that I could give him tonight. But yeah, this is the definition of “not getting the bounces”.

The Canucks will try once again to pick up their first home win of the season on Saturday night, when they take on the Detroit Red Wings. It’s a 7PM start, and should make for some fun times on Hockey Night In Canada. See you then!