Canucks Army Post-Game: No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn

Photo Credit: Brad Penner – USA TODAY Sports

I hope you savoured tonight’s game. You might not see another like it in some time.

The Canucks weren’t just competitive. For the first in weeks, it seems, they were lucky. Alex Burrows drawing a penalty? There’s a throwback. Better still, the Canucks put away a goal with their second unit. I’d call that a throwback too, but I’m not entirely sure the Canucks scored those in their hay day either.

If there’s a checklist for pulling out a road win, I’m sure the Canucks covered most of it. And were it not for an Andrew Ladd goal bouncing in off Nikita Tryamkin in the third, the final score might reflect as much. That goal put the Islanders ahead 3-2, though they added another by the final horn.

Tonight’s loss marked the ninth straight for the Canucks, dating back to an October 22nd loss to the Los Angeles Kings. 

Canucks Head Coach Willie Desjardins has to be feeling the heat. The Canucks 4-0-0 start seems like a distant memory and all the adjustments they’ve made to their system a lost relic of that time.

It’s not for a lack of creativity, either. The Canucks are making changes. Hell, they made a few major shuffles to their lineup ahead of tonight’s contest. Jake Virtanen sat for the first time since October 18th. Virtanen’s absence and Jannik Hansen’s injury status kicked open the door for Jack Skille and Michael Chaput. Both player’s finished around the 41% mark by shot attempt share.

Still, Vancouver held its own by that same metric collectively right to the bitter end. Better still, they left the first period with a tie and even clawed back from a 2-1 deficit to draw even going back into the third. 

Then in the space of fewer than two minutes, the Islanders blew this one open. That’s all it took. There was the Ladd goal and the Cal Clutterbuck one that followed. One that cemented Loui Eriksson’s status as the league’s worst free agent addition of the summer and another to embolden the sentiment. 

Eriksson’s going to bounce back. At some point, the odd shot or two will go in. There were a few such opportunities tonight. Placed back on the Sedin line, a mostly disengaged and seemingly disinterested Eriksson almost played the role of Taylor Pyatt. There was one shift where no less than two pucks almost bounced off the maligned Swede, but no dice.

Salvaging Eriksson’s start to the season was about all the Sedins couldn’t do tonight. Daniel, a game removed from taking a dangerous blindside hit to the head, sent home the first goal of the night on an unassisted marker down the wing. 

The twins led the Canucks in Corsi For% too, nearly eclipsing the 70% mark apiece. They had zone time, possession, scoring chances and everything else. It was a vintage performance. I have no doubt that reflects in the box score with Jannik Hansen on their wing.

Not to be outdone, Ryan Miller had a shining performance of his own. The embattled netminder stopped 28 of the Islanders 32 shots on the night. He was especially brilliant in the first.

Markus Granlund scored the second Canucks’ goal on the power play, assisted by Bo Horvat and Ben Hutton. Those assists were the first of their kind for either player this season.

Halak stopped 30 of the Canucks’ 32 shots on the night.

The Canucks will face the New York Rangers tomorrow at 4PM PST. That will be the fifth of their six game road trip. If the Canucks lose that game, it will be the franchise’s first ten game losing streak since the Tom Renney era.