Jets 4, Canucks 0: More mistakes, more injuries, more angst
They could have used some mulligans Monday.
The Vancouver Canucks surrendered an early goal on a pair of gaffes and a do-over could have worked wonders psychologically and statistically before being blanked in a 4-0 decision by the Winnipeg Jets.
After all, the number is numbing when the Canucks cough up the first goal — a season-crushing 2-15-1 record — and are forced to chase the game, especially when the Jets smell blood and turn a low-event tilt into a runaway at Rogers Arena.
Already banged up down the middle, the Canucks didn’t have veteran centre Brandon Sutter available, even though he took the morning skate. And Bo Horvat went limping off the ice in the third period after he was hit by an Alex Edler shot and didn’t return. There were no post-game updates on either centre.
It just made the margin of error even smaller and magnified what occurred on the opening goal.
Edler got caught at the opposition blue-line on a pinch and Blake Wheeler sped away on a 2-on-1 break and squeezed a shot through Thatcher Demko midway through the period.
“I was just trying to make a read — a hockey play,” Demko said of anticipating a pass and opening the five-hole. “Good play by him.”
Demko did his part to keep the Canucks close. He got a right pad out to deny Wheeler on a give-and-go, stopped speedster Nikolaj Ehlers on a backhand-to-forehand foray after the winger zipped around Quinn Hughes. And he then kept Pierre-Luc Dubois from going short side backhand.
That second mulligan could have come in handy early in the final period.
Adam Lowry came off the wing and his shot hit the stick of Travis Hamonic and went way up and over the shoulder of Demko.
“It was a tight-checking game and we were down one going into the third and I thought we were in a pretty good spot to push and tie it up,” started Demko. “Not a lot you can do on a couple of those plays and Hammer makes a good play coming over and blocking the pass. I knew the puck went up in the air, but most times it just goes over the net or something. I tried to find it as quick as I could.”
Lowry was then left unattended at the side of the net for his second goal before Paul Stastny capped the scoring.
“I thought we had a pretty good first period, but it feels like it just flew by and there wasn’t a lot of room at times,” said centre J.T. Miller. “Couple of bounces and it could have been a different game, but we’ve got to challenge ourselves to be better and come out with a win because we know how important they are right now.”
And harder to get with Sutter and Horvat sidelined.
“We need guys to step up to the plate,” added Miller. “It’s an opportunity. As much as it sucks to lose pretty much all our centres at this point, this stuff happens. It’s the hard part of the season and we need to be the best version of ourselves right now with guys filling in these roles. We have to play very desperate right now and we’ve got to be good.”
Despite losing two more centres, Canucks coach Travis Green didn’t think the final score reflected the effort.
“I thought our team played their asses off,” he said. “It wasn’t a mistake-free game and it was going to come down to details and bounces here and there and it was exactly that. It was tight. I talked to our team after the game because sometimes when you lose 4-0, it can give you a different kind of feeling.
“I thought our guys stuck with it. I’m not saying we outplayed the other team and deserved a better fate, but I am saying it didn’t feel like (4-0) and I like a lot of things in our game.”
Here’s what else we learned as the Canucks fell back below the .500 bar at 16-17-3:
CENTRES OF ATTENTION
No Elias Pettersson. No Jay Beagle. And now no Sutter.
The measure of any NHL club is its strength down the middle and the Canucks have been strong in their resolve to replace their missing centres by moving J.T. Miller from left wing and Adam Gaudette from the right side. But when Sutter was a no-show, it forced the club to insert the recalled Tyler Graovac. He was on loan to Manitoba of the AHL and had nine points (2-7) in nine games.
In the second period, it was winger Zack MacEwen who came out of the penalty box on a 2-on-1 break, went to the toe-drag and was denied. It was
one of the few good scoring chances, the other coming in the third period when Jordie Benn hit the crossbar from the point through a maze and two other shots also found iron. But Connor Hellebuyck would face just 22 shots for the shutout.
The Jets iced a formidable trio of centres Monday in Mark Scheifele, Dubois and Lowry, and Stastny can always move to the middle to shake things up. Scheifele has eight points (2-6) in the season series and Dubois has had a three-point game (2-1) against the Canucks this season.
For the Canucks to win the centre showdown, they had to worry more about defence than offence. First deny, then do something in transition. It didn’t work.
Miller has more than met the challenge of supplanting Pettersson and has eight points (3-5) in 10 games since moving to the middle on March 4, but had just one shot Monday.
HOGLANDER MEETS WALL
It was bound to happen.
All that zipping, grinding and finishing was going to catch up to rookie Nils Hoglander. After logging 23 games in the Swedish Hockey League in the fall, and then cracking the Canucks’ roster, the winger has played 59 pro games in 2020-21 and maintaining his pace, pugnacious nature and battle level was going to be hard.
“There was a probably a stretch of six or seven games where I didn’t think he was quite as sharp and energetic as earlier in the year,” said Green. “We talked to him about it and tried to hang in there with him and he’s starting to come out of it in the last few games. I’m seeing more speed in his game and more strength in his puck battles.”
It was evident Monday with three shots and six attempts.
Hoglander had an early scoring chance on a feed from Horvat, sped past a defender and fired a shot high and just wide, but also turned the puck over twice in the first period. He also smartly moved from the wall to the net in the second period to unleash a backhander.
TESTING, TESTING, TESTING
The Canucks cleared COVID-19 testing Monday and it was more significant than other days.
With Montreal Canadiens forwards Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Joel Armia placed on the league’s protocol list with late test results Monday — and with not enough time to do proper contact tracing and determine the severity of the situation — the Monday meeting with the Edmonton Oilers at the Bell Centre was postponed.
The Canucks had an off day in Montreal on Thursday and then played Friday and Saturday. So, they could have been exposed to the virus in some manner, but Monday’s testing confirmed no positive results.
bkuzma@postmedia.com
twitter.com/benkuzma
NEXT GAME
Wednesday
Winnipeg Jets at Vancouver Canucks
7:30 p.m.,
Rogers Arena
. TV: SNP. Radio: Sportsnet 650 AM
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