Postgame: How to Lose a Game in 8 Minutes

The Vancouver Canucks came into Sunday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets desperate for a win.

The Canucks went on a 14-3-0 hot streak but have now fallen into a tough stretch of games, going 4-6-2 since then. Sunday’s game marked the final stop of a four-game road trip, the last of its kind for the Canucks this season.

Justin Bailey received and emergency recall on Sunday morning and it left Canucks fans wondering what was going on. It seemed like Jay Beagle might be the man to miss Sunday’s game after he blocked a couple shots the night before against the Toronto Maple Leafs. That turned out to be the case, as Beagle would miss Sunday’s game and MacEwen would draw in on the fourth line to play with Brandon Sutter and Tyler Motte.

The Canucks needed a shake-up to their lineup. The team had struggled since Jacob Markstrom went down with his knee injury and Louis Domingue would make his Canucks debut between the pipes against the Blue Jackets.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are a team that had been gutted over the past little while. They are basically missing half of their opening day lineup due to injury and had only won one of their last 11 games, and that one win coming against the Ottawa Senators.

There’s a new Louis in town and the Canucks were going to have to come out buzzing as they wrap up their road trip with their third game in four days. Fire the cannon!! Or don’t.  It’s time for some Sunday hockey.

Let’s go!!

The Canucks came out with a ton of energy. Tanner Pearson rang a wrist shot off the post and during the rush the Canucks drew a penalty and 46 seconds into the game the Canucks would go to the power play.

It took no longer than 14 seconds of PP time for the Canucks to get on the board. They won the faceoff and Elias Pettersson sent a fast pass on the stick of Bo Horvat who directed it past the Blue Jackets goaltender and the Canucks go up 1-0 on Horvat’s power play goal.

Assists on the goal went to Elias Pettersson and Jimothy Timothy Miller.

The Canucks had their first lead of the road trip, which was exactly what Louis Domingue needed to help calm his nerves for his debut.

All four lines looked good early on. Even the fourth line of Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter and Zack MacEwen were able to generate a chance in the beginning stages of this game.

Shots were being fired from all angles by the Canucks and that led to another goal as Tyler Myers walked the line to open up a shooting lane and sent a shot on net that was tipped past Korpisalo by Elias Pettersson. Just under eight minutes in the game and the Canucks were up 2-0 after Pettersson’s 26th goal of the season.

JT Miller and Tyler Myers got the assists on the goal and with that Pettersson and Miller both had an quick two points in this game.

The Blue Jackets got some pucks on net and at the halfway point of the period they were able to find a way onto the scoresheet when Kevin Stenlund found a loose puck and made no mistake shooting it into open cage. 2-1 Canucks after the Stenlund goal.

Elias Pettersson was skating with an extra step tonight. He looked like he found another gear and those early two points in this game made me want to believe he was going to have a huge night.

Louis Domingue was being tested a lot early on and was able to make saves when he needed to. The goal against was a tough one and there was likely nothing he could have done to save it. The Blue Jackets were firing a lot of shots at the Canucks goaltender and he ended up making a huge save with 6:30 left in the first period.

The Blue Jackets took a penalty with 1:52 remaining in the period when Tyler Motte got a stick to the face in the Canucks zone. With that the Canucks went back to work on the powerplay at the end of the period.

The Canucks did everything but score on the power play. They moved the puck around with such ease but the Blue Jacket defenders were able to be in the shooting lanes all throughout the 1:52 of power play time.

The Canucks struck early in the period but the Blue Jackets definitely didn’t back down. They ended up getting plenty of shots on net as they outshot the Canucks 15-9 at five-on-five and 16-14 at all strengths.

The Canucks controlled the play for most of the first period and it looked like the players were ready to expand on their lead in the second.

2-1 Canucks after the first period.

Just over a minute into the period JT Miller tipped in a puck to avoid an icing call and the puck came around to Elias Pettersson, who found Miller in the slot and he ripped the one-timer past Korpisalo to make it 3-1 Canucks early on in the second period. 

Pettersson would get the only assist on the play and the Miller-Pettersson duo each had three points at this point in the game and Miller matches Pettersson while scoring his 26th goal of the season.

The Canucks would get their third power play of the game as David Savard slashed Brandon Sutter’s stick. The Canucks were given an opportunity to pull away in this game with a powerplay goal.

The Canucks had some chances due to some great pressure from the first unit but were unable to score on their third power play attempt.

Halfway through the game the Canucks were being outshot 23-21 but had more than double the amount of scoring chances than the Blue Jackets.

The Blue Jackets stepped up their physical game late in the second period. Quinn Hughes and Tyler Motte took big hits but were both able to shake off the contact. The Canucks decided to get involved in the physical fun when Zack MacEwen dropped the gloves with Stefan Matteau.

MacEwen threw some huge bombs and definitely got the nod for the win as he imposed his strength on Matteau. It was good to see #TheBigFella get involved in the game as he had been pretty quiet so far in this game.

The Canucks began to take over this game late in the second period. They outshot the Blue Jackets 12-4 in the final nine minutes of the period. They would go into the second intermission with a two goal lead.

Here’s how the 5-on-5 play looked in the attempted shots department.

The score remained 3-1 for the Canucks as the second period came to a close.

The first five minutes featured some fast paced back-and-forth action. The teams didn’t get a ton of scoring chances and the Canucks would have to try to stay out of the penalty box or get on the attack to extend their two-goal lead.

With just over 13 minutes remaining in the game, Bo Horvat went down the tunnel with the Canucks medical staff. At the time it was hard to figure out why. He returned to the game just two minutes later after the mysterious run down the tunnel.

The game really ran out of scoring chances in the first 10 minutes of the period.

 

The Blue Jackets made it a close game as the cannon fired with 7:21 remaining when Riley Nash scored a goal off a great play by Zach Werenski. Nash beat Domingue on his short side and the Canucks saw their two-goal lead disappear and were now leading 3-2 after the Columbus goal.

The Canucks would take their first penalty of the game immediately after the goal. Brandon Sutter was sent to the box for tripping and the Blue Jackets had life.

The Blue Jackets took the momentum and ran with it. Zach Werenski followed up a tremendous shift with a great power play effort. The Jackets moved the puck well and it resulted in Werenski ripping a huge one-timer slapshot from the point that made it’s way through traffic and beat Louis Domingue.

The Blue Jackets went back to the power play with 3:33 remaining when Antoine Roussel took a penalty. This game looked to be locked in as a Canucks win at the mid way point of the period but now the Blue Jackets had all the momentum.

With 1:37 remaining in the game, Tyler Motte lost his stick on the penalty kill and the Blue Jackets scored their third goal in the period. With that goal they took the lead. 4-3 Blue Jackets after the powerplay goal.

The Canucks would pull their goalie with just over a minute remaining. They got a handful of shots towards the Blue Jackets net but the BJ’s were able to hit the empty net and close this game out. 5-3 after the empty net goal.

5-3 Final.

JT Miller and Elias Pettersson were good in the first 40 minutes of this game. They each had three points in this game but the way this game finished, there should be no top performers.

The first 52 minutes of this game went the Canucks way, but the final eight minutes resulted in what was probably the biggest meltdown of the season. The Canucks took two penalties and the Blue Jackets scored on both of them. The Canucks blew this game. There is no other way to say it.

Well, there is but I’m not supposed to swear in these postgame reports.

The Canucks doubled up the Blue Jackets in scoring chances by a count of 32 to 16. The confidence is lacking and this game couldn’t have gone any worse for a team that needs to now fight for a playoff spot. Two full days away from games better do wonders for this team because right now this may be the lowest point of this season.

The Canucks went into full on defend mode late in the third period. But they were dominating the Blue Jackets throughout the game. We saw the Pettersson-Miller line take less shifts than usual in the third period and it makes me wonder why you wouldn’t want them out there to extend on a two goal lead. Miller and Pettersson each had three points and they should have been out there much more than they were in the third period at even strength.

Postgame, Bo Horvat called the last eight minutes “unacceptable” and he was right. That was unacceptable for a team that wants to make the playoffs.

You can hit the panic button right now if you’d like, but this team is still in a playoff spot. We won’t reach full-on panic mode until that’s no longer the case.

The Canucks are now 4-7-2 in their last 13 games. They return to the ice at home on Wednesday where they will take on the Arizona Coyotes. They better play a full 60 minutes in that one or things are going to get really ugly in Vancouver.