Botchford on the meltdown in Pittsburgh
Young speed demons completely implode after building third-period lead
PITTSBURGH — At the end of yet another lingering, draining road trip, the Canucks looked as fast as they have this entire season.
Maybe in years. With speed, they walked the Penguins like they were traversing an obstacle course, jumping in and out and around tires, laid out over an ice sheet.
Bo Horvat was good. Jannik Hansen was unstoppable.
With their help, the Canucks mounted a 3-1 lead against those Pittsburgh tires, and that was with 14 minutes left.
They did it without Henrik Sedin and with Linden Vey leading all forwards in ice time. Amazing, really.
The next 10 minutes, of course, ruined everything, including Hansen’s hat trick.
“We could have had a great road trip. These are the points you have to have,” Daniel Sedin lamented.
“I didn’t think they had much, to be honest with you. But that happens.” Well, not always. It would be one thing if Evgeni Malkin wrestled the game from the Canucks’ hands, and buried Vancouver under an avalanche of rush chances and puck possession.
But that’s not what went down here. The Canucks imploded. Period. Linden Vey scored an own goal, an odd play where he actually looks like he’s shooting the puck into his own net, not trying to curl it away.
An awful line change, the kind we’ve come to expect from the Canucks in overtime, led to Pittsburgh’s tying goal.
And just like that, the rug was pulled out from this young team, nine points in six games turned into seven with a 5-4 loss.
Were there things the Canucks could have done differently? Damn straight.
However, the team did get better as the road trip wore on. Their first period against the Penguins was among the best, most dynamic they’ve played all season.
If they could play like this, as entertaining a game as we’ve seen, Canucks fans would be pretty happy, even with the inexcusable mistakes mixed in.
“Without some key people, I thought it was real promising,” Willie Desjardins said. “We have some young people in really difficult roles. Like really difficult. “I thought they battled. “I thought that was a good statement from our young guys, maybe a bit with our speed.”