CanucksArmy Post-Game: Fowl
By J.D. Burke
6 years agoSome nights you can tell almost from puck drop who’s going to win the hockey game. The Canucks spent the first minute-and-a-half of tonight’s game pinned in their zone, and I felt comfortable in my assumption that it probably wasn’t going to be them.
And wouldn’t you know it, I was right! Although, to the Canucks credit, they made it look respectable on the scoreboard for most of the night — so long as you weren’t looking at the shot totals. They even had a lead! Ducks defenceman Kevin Bieksa struggled to corral a Canucks entry, and as he tried to clear the front of the net, the puck found its way to Sven Baertschi’s stick, and he made the former Canucks’ defenceman pay, scoring the game’s first goal.
The best part? Well, this… How’s that for a little karma?
That was as good as things got for the Canucks, unfortunately. And even that lead didn’t last for long. Ducks defenceman Hampus Lindholm pinches deep into the Canucks zone, gets the puck behind the net and bounces it off of Jacob Markstrom’s skate for the equalizer.
From there, it was a game of keep-away for the Ducks. The Canucks had mustered just ten shots by the end of the second period. To make matters worse, Ducks defenceman Brandon Montour added a power play goal late in the frame to put the Canucks down a goal.
The Canucks bid for a comeback never really got off the ground in the third. A Ben Hutton penalty in the last minute of the second frame meant the Canucks penalty kill went straight back to work, and wouldn’t you know it, they surrendered another goal, this time to Ducks winger Jakob Silvferberg. And then another one to him at even strength for good measure.
Derek Dorsett got into a pointless fight with Ducks defenceman Josh Manson late in the game, and that was about it for the Canucks night.
Markstrom stopped 31 of 35 Ducks shots. Ryan Miller stopped 13 of 14 Canucks shots before leaving this game late in the third period; his replacement, Reto Berra, stopped all six Canucks shots that he faced.
Stats
Quick Hits
- That’s about as bad as the Canucks have played this season period. They were flat right out of the gate and were held to 20 shots by a Randy Carlyle team with Antoine Vermette centring their first line. This is the third game in a row now that the Canucks have been handily outplayed. Is their magical run at an end?
- I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Canucks penalty kill went three-for-six in their first game of the season without Chris Tanev. According to Travis Green, Tanev is going to miss at least this road trip and maybe some time after it, too. That doesn’t bode well for the Canucks.
- The Canucks checking line tonight was, in a word, awful. And if you guessed that they were the ones pinned in their zone to start the game, then you guessed correctly. Using Brandon Sutter as a proxy, they left in the on-ice shot attempt differential battle down by ten. And you can’t use the excuse that they were playing the top line tonight. This team the Ducks iced was just loaded with AHL’ers. They’ve had their share of good games this season, certainly. Tonight’s wasn’t one of them.
- Alexander Edler returned to the Canucks lineup! And it was a night to forget. I don’t remember any especially poor plays or gaffes, but his timing seemed a bit off, and the underlying data suggests he was struggling. The Canucks were out-attempted by the Ducks 5-to-23 at even strength with Edler on the ice.
- On a positive note, Brock Boeser had a couple threatening moments tonight. The 0’s across the board for Boeser might not suggest as much, but I thought that he could’ve just as easily been rewarded an assist on the Baertschi goal. Boeser also had a nice rush in the third period of today’s game in which he just ran out of room.
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