Canucks Army Postgame: That Could Have Gone Better

Leading up to today’s game, there were a number of exciting storylines to pay attention to: the Canucks winning-est coach Alain Vignault was returning to Vancouver; the Canucks were not able to beat the Rangers in two matchups last year; they’ve just returned home after a 7 game road trip seeing them lose the last 3 games; Derek Dorsett having his first child; new baby pictures of Prince George; and Rhys actually trusting me to watch this game and to write about it (there was no other viable option). 

Of course, this game did not go nearly as well as planned as the Canucks lost 5-1 after a staggering number of defensive lapses and odd-man rushes.

Read past the jump for tonight’s recap of the game.

I won’t lie to you, this game was
ugly right from the get go.  There were a
few chances while the score was still tied at zero, but a number of
defensive lapses, mainly coming from Kevin Bieksa, allowed three Rangers 3-on-1s and
one 2-on-1 in the first five minutes. 
New York was able to score 3 times in the first period, and the
Vancouver Canucks spent the entire game trailing.

The first goal came only 2 and a half minutes into the first
period when an offensive zone turnover allowed the Rangers to carry the puck
down the ice, with Jesper Fast leading the zone entry on a 3-on-1.  He passed the puck cross ice to Ryan McDonagh
who tipped the puck in to get the Rangers on the board.

The second goal came less than 45 seconds later in a similar
scenario.  In the offensive zone,
the Canucks defence once again turned the puck over, this time to Marty St. Louis. The Rangers vet sent the puck to Derek Stepan as he lead a 2-on-1 down the ice and entered the Vancouver zone. Spotting J.T. Miller on the far side, Stepan fired a pass across, allowing New York’s Miller to beat Vancouver’s Miller with a backhander to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

The third goal was almost the exact same situation for the
Rangers.  The play started off in the
Rangers zone with Radim Vrbata took a shot on net, and Henrik
Lundqvist kicked the puck out with his right foot to the left boards.  Derrick Brassard picked up the puck, rushed it
down the ice, entered the zone on a 3-on-1, and passed cross-ice to Mats Zuccarello
who made no mistake, giving the Rangers their third goal on as many shots.

The Canucks did have chances in the first period, and outside
of the defensive lapses the game was fairly back and forth with possession on
the Canucks side.  It’s hard to blame the
goals on Ryan Miller, but as a $6 million dollar goalie you would hope he would
bail out the defencemen on at least some of the shots against. 
The Rangers were held to only 6 shots in the first period with 5 of them
being considered grade A scoring chances, which isn’t nearly good enough team defense.  #Fancystats people sometimes say that shot quality isn’t a huge deal, but that’s only because hockey teams don’t usually catastrophically fail to the degree Vancouver did tonight.  

The second period was no better for the Canucks.  Generally it was fairly uneventful but the
end result did not appear that way.  The
majority of the period seemed to be spent in the Canucks end of the rink, but the Rangers were unable to convert that offensive zone time into many shot
attempts.  The Canucks did have a few
chances in the period but nothing dangerous was generated.

The 4th goal of the game came only 7 minutes into
the second with Lee Stempniak and Kevin Hayes fighting for the puck in the
offensive zone.  Hayes carried the puck
from behind the net along side the boards and passed to Marc Staal who one
timed it from the left point, through the crowd and into the net.  There was no one in the way of the puck and
Luca Sbisa was doing more to screen Miller than helping on the play.  Miller was not too impressed with Sbisa after
this goal, giving him the stare down.

Marty St. Louis had a breakaway in the period and was hooked
by Kevin Bieksa, leading to a penalty shot. 
St. Louis came in slow and did not do much to get Miller moving
and was easily stopped.

The fifth goal was built up right from the Rangers
defensive zone with Rick Nash and Derrick Brassard working to get the puck down
the ice.  Right in front of Miller,
Brassard passed cross-ice to Mats Zuccarello who tipped the goal past Miller, giving the Rangers an insurmountable 5-0 lead.

The third period started off with Miller in net, which really
surprised most fans.  Score effects at
this point started to take over as the Canucks were dominant in this period, but
it was too late and ultimately didn’t matter. 

The only Canucks goal of the game came 4:20 into the third
period.  Kevin Bieksa started the play
from behind the net, passed up the ice to Alex Burrows who fought against some Rangers with Jannik
Hansen to retain possession. Burrows passed to Nick Bonino at centre ice who
carried the puck in and sent a wrist shot past Lundqvist to break up the
shutout. It was nice for Bonino to finally break his goalless streak, but the goal was otherwise meaningless.

The remainder of the period was mainly in the Canucks
possession.  The Canucks did get a
powerplay halfway through the third but little was generated out of that.  The final minute of the period was spent
entirely in the Canuck’s defensive zone as the Canucks lost to the Ranger’s
5-1.  Shots on goal were 30-23 for Vancouver.

This game was ugly from the get go.  I have a hard time even pointing to their Corsi numbers and saying at least they won the possession game.  The Canucks were playing from behind the entire game so there was score effects pushing their sails.  Additionally it seemed like the entire second period was played in the defensive zone as the Rangers always had the puck, but couldn’t get a shot off.

Pretty much every single player came out with positive Corsi numbers given the score effects, and in games like this, the shot attempt battle really doesn’t tell the story. I’ll borrow something that Rhys made last year after a similar game against the Anaheim Ducks to highlight the important numbers:

Despite a Corsi% hovering near 60%, Kevin Bieksa was brutal in this game. A number of defensive lapses caused by him and Sbisa were the main reason for the turnovers that lead to those odd man rushes.  The pair left the game with negative possession numbers as well as a -3 and a -4 respectively. Both were on the ice for 4 goals against.

Some interesting other number related facts.  Should the Canucks have been shutout in this game, the last time the Canucks were shutout by 5+ goals, 2+ times in the same season was back in 1997-1998, the Keenan years.

This game was also on par for zero penalty minutes.  This was until 10:00 into the third period when the Ranger’s Ryan McDonagh tripped Daniel Sedin.  The last time the Canucks had a 0 penalty minute game?  March 13th, 1976 in the Pacific Coliseum, against the New York Rangers.

It was a pretty bad game tonight for a number of reasons.  The underlying numbers are deceiving as the Canucks spent the entire game playing from behind, so raw Corsi numbers make them look better than they have been.  A number of defensive lapses from the team lead to a large number of odd-man rushes which shouldn’t happen, and Ryan Miller simply wasn’t able to bail his team out.

The Canucks have a few days off with their next game Wednesday evening against the Dallas Stars.  With the tight race in the Western Conference and the rest of the Pacific rapidly closing ground, the Canucks have to make sure they grab every point they can.  Their last road trip saw them lose the last 3 games and fall down in the standings, and tonight didn’t help their cause.  Vancouver should halt this losing streak quickly, or else they risk falling into a dogfight with the L.A. Kings for one of the final playoff spots in the West.