Canucks Fall 5-2 to the New York Islanders

The Numbers

Quick Hits

• This was one of the Canucks worst games of the season. Yeah, they’re five games into a six game road trip, and perhaps fatigue is starting to set in, but that’s no excuse for getting outplayed as much as they were tonight. Canucks head coach Travis Green said after the game that they had too many skaters at 70%. That number seems generous. The Isles amassed ten more shot attempts than the Canucks at five-on-five, in spite of holding a heavy lead for most of the hockey game. I see a bag skate in this team’s future.
• One of the worst of the Canucks’ bunch? Jake Virtanen. I’ve been in his corner, advocating for an increased role and more ice-time all season, but an effort like tonight doesn’t help that cause. Ironically enough, the 12:27 Virtanen played was the second-highest mark of his season, but I’d bet that has more to do with the score than his earning those minutes. In those 12-plus minutes, I don’t know if I’ve seen someone so lost as Virtanen was on a shift-to-shift basis. He was skating into Canucks and Isles players alike, sometimes disrupting developing plays or taking himself out of offensive ones entirely. Most of Virtanen’s passes bounced off Islanders shin pads or landed on their sticks and the ones that didn’t went into open space. There are a lot of things Virtanen does well. Even in a game that he looked wholly lost in, Virtanen had a positive on-ice shot attempt differential. For the most part, though, this was a huge step back. It won’t surprise me if he sits next game.

• Chris Tanev looked human tonight, which is uncharacteristic of him. I’m not used to mistakes from Tanev, who’s the Canucks best player when he’s on his game, which is far more often than not. A missed clearing attempt of his bounced off a Canuck and onto the Isles stick for a goal, equal parts bad luck and a bad clear. When Tanev was on the ice, the Canucks lost the five-on-five shot attempt differential score by ten. Yikes.
• This was a bad night for Boeser’s Calder hopes. Not only was Boeser pointless, but his defensive effort, if you can call it that, left much to be desired. Opposite Boeser, Barzal had an assist and was mostly effective as the key cog on the Isles second line. That gives Barzal a two-point lead on Boeser, but he’s played an additional two games, so there’s also that point to consider. They both sit at a point per game pace.
• There’s a place on this team for Alexander Burmistrov. He has legitimate utility in a third or fourth line role as a limited offensive player with upside on the penalty kill and in the defensive zone. But he doesn’t seem to have the coach’s faith, for whatever reason. That’s fine. I’m not going to go to war for a bottom-line player. But if the coach doesn’t want Burmistrov playing big minutes, and he only played eight-plus minutes at even strength, then why not give Nikolay Goldobin a shot while he’s with the team? This makes no sense to me.