The Warm Up

The Vancouver Canucks walked into T-Mobile Arena today 7 points out of the last wild card spot in the Western Conference and a 2.5% chance of making the playoffs, according to Sports Cub Stats. They would go on to walk back out having done themselves no favours bettering either of those unfortunate stats.
Travis Green started this game with the Big 3 split up and spread across different lines to try and even out the scoring, but that curious move quickly became a forgotten storyline as the Canucks quickly found themselves helplessly in the weeds.
This was Jacob Markstrom’s 50th start of the season, good for 3rd most in the entire NHL, while Marc-Andre Fleury was given the start for a Golden Knights fresh off two wins against Dallas and Florida.
As usual, Jeff Paterson provided tonight’s rosters via Twitter:
*heavy sigh*
I’m not even going to bother separating this by periods. To write a standard play-by-play of this miserable game would be just as miserable to read.
Anyways, here we go:

The Game

The entire game can basically be summed up as follows: The Canucks lose control of the puck. Vegas immediately has a high quality scoring chance. Markstrom makes an unbelievable save. Or five. Rinse and repeat.
The beginning of this garbage excuse of an effort by the Canucks at least gave fans the benefit of not yet knowing just how badly the following 60 minutes of hockey were about to go.
Reilly Smith started things off for Vegas by setting up William Karlsson right in front of the net. Markstrom responded with an unbelievable save and followed it up with another when Jonathan Marchessault tried to tip in a rebound, despite being tied up by Ben Hutton. This sequence would go on to play out over and over and over again in different ways.
Nikolay Goldobin, who is having a nice little hot streak of good play the last few games, managed to steal the puck early in the first and get it over to Elias Pettersson, who was sneaking around the back of the Vegas net. Pettersson dropped to his knee in the attempted slapshot, but the puck was deflected off of Fleury’s chest protector.
Tyler Motte had a few moments where he stood out. In one instance, he used a bit of speed to carry the puck into the offensive zone. He couldn’t get by a pinching Vegas defenceman, but was able to recollect his own dump in before the play was whistled dead.
Jay Beagle had a rare moment of offensive energy when he skated in from centre ice and threw a backhanded shot on net, where Motte was waiting for a possible rebound. Fleury once again managed to knock the puck away.
That was pretty much the end of any solid offensive chances the Canucks had in the game. A Roussel penalty for Roughing was assessed at 9:09 in the first, and Vancouver never really threatened Vegas after that, despite finishing that power play only having managed a single shot on net.
Once the second period began, there was a distinct “here we go again” feeling when Vegas immediately went back to work. The Canucks often looked like stones in a river; overwhelmed by the relentless, never-ending flow of the Golden Knights’ attack.
All 3 goals were scored in the middle frame, and by the halfway point of the game the shot count was already 26-9 for Las Vegas. The Canucks definitely started the game with energy, but by this point they were worn down and it showed. It was great chance after great chance for The Golden Knights, with incredible save after incredible save for Jacob Markstrom.
The third period did not feature any change in play whatsoever. If the Canucks thought that Vegas might take their foot off the gas a bit after seeing how easily they were beating the visiting team, they would be mistaken. This is a Stanley Cup contender that just added a star forward in Mark Stone at the trade deadline. They’re just getting revved up for the playoffs, and the Canucks were practice.
Other than a careless penalty for High Sticking taken by Goldobin, the game ended much as it started. The Canucks were totally overwhelmed and drowning in shots at times. Ben Hutton took a particularly nasty looking shot off the outside of his right foot, and just barely managed to get to the bench before doubling over in pain.

The Reaction

Honestly, the best way to understand how this game went is probably just to check out what was happening on social media:
And so on, and so forth. You get the idea.

The Goals

The Summary

This game sucked.
We’re talking about a 3-0 shut out where the Canucks were outshot 48-19; their lowest shot count in a game all year. They were utterly dominated. It was hard to watch, and I’m sure it was even harder to play in. It was all Vegas from the first puck drop, and it didn’t get better. There’s unfortunately not too much more that can really be said about it.
The only positive thing to come out of this albatross was the play of Jacob Markstrom, who more and more is convincing me that this isn’t just a lengthy hot streak he’s been on. If he keeps playing like this, he could potentially finish the year with career highs in wins, goals against average, and save percentage. He’s making an excellent case for himself as the Canucks MVP this season, even over Elias Pettersson, who has been slowing down as the season nears it’s end.
Markstrom was once considered the best goaltender in the world not in the NHL. He was a blue-chip prospect who was supposed to peak as an above-average starter. At the age of 29, we might just be seeing him finally reach that potential.
The more advanced data doesn’t do much more than confirm what fans saw with their own eyes this afternoon, but it still paints quite the picture:
Bottom line? Yikes. Super yikes.
Your next chance to catch the Canucks in action isn’t until Wednesday night, when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Arena. Hopefully that one won’t feature a dude wearing a full suit of armour serving the other team Krispy Kreme doughnuts off of his sword at the end of the game. Puck drop is at 6pm PST.