No rally for Canucks in Raleigh
This is what we learned in the third game of a rebuilding season
RALEIGH, N.C. — At some point, the reality of a what a rebuilding season really means was going to set in. Three games in, it’s fair to say we’rethere.
Game 1, a 5-2 Elias Pettersson-led thrill ride to beat the Flames. Game 2, an entertaining 7-4 loss to the those same Flames. And Game 3, a 5-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night in Raleigh, was a reinforcement of the theme.
The Canucks were good, they were pretty fun, but they had too many gaps in their game to find a win against a team that has some good, young forwards, an intriguing young defence corps and a team that most people say was better last year than the results showed.
The Canucks fell behind early, but drew back level just over five minutes later before falling behind by two. They twice pulled the game within a goal, but just couldn’t find another equalizer. Vancouver got two goals from Sven Baertschi and another from Bo Horvat in the loss, while the Hurricanes’ goals came from a trio of kids in Warren Foegele, Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, an old hand in Jordan Staal and the underrated Brett Pesce.
Here’s what we learned:
POWER PLAY POWERED
As has been said already at least twice in this space, the Canucks will go as far as their power play can take them. They got two goals Tuesday with the man advantage, Horvat off of a rush and Baertschi on a deflection in front that hit Carolina defender Justin Faulk.
OOPS
Giving up a goal 47 seconds into the game isn’t the kind of start you want, but that’s what happened to Jacob Markstrom as Staal floated the puck toward the Canucks’ net from near the blue-line and the shot somehow, someway found the twine.
Markstrom said afterwards that he’d lost sight of the puck and then misjudged the shot.
“I thought it was going to my left, but it went to my right and it’s one-nothing after 45 seconds,” he said. “That’s a goal you want back.”
Four shots and 10 1/2 minutes later, Canes defenceman Pesce managed a similar feat, as his point shot found the twine, rattling between Markstrom’s arm and body.
He had no help, though, on the game’s third goal. The fourth, well you know he’d like to put the rebound anywhere else if he had a chance at it again, as the puck landed right on the stick of Svechnikov, the Canes’ own wunderkind, who fired the puck home. Pettersson put his hand up for blame; he was in position, Svechnikov blasted him off the puck.
“I didn’t box out Svechnikov. I need to be better,” he said. “If I lock his stick before the shot comes, he’s not going to be able to shoot the puck in. I need to get used to that and do it every time.”
Goal 5 was a difficult stop to make, as Foegele’s one-timer from the right looked to possibly wobble off Chris Tanev, as Markstrom ended up trying to make the stop with his head.
The goalie admitted he was frustrated with his performance.
“We got to have better goalies, better everything,” he said.
“Today I was not good.”
BIG NIGHT FOR BAERTSCHI
The Swiss winger had a big night, scoring twice, including a beautiful deke on a breakaway that left Carolina keeper Curtis McElhinney spinning.
“I thought we played a real solid game, thought we deserved better,” Baertschi said afterwards. “A few mistakes cost us.”
He threw credit to Alex Edler for the long pass that found him at the Canes’ blueline to spring him on the breakaway. It was a tricky collection of the puck for him and Baertschi said he was nervous that he might have
put himself offside in the process, but there was no challenge or review of the play.
And the deke on McElhinney, which involved him leaving the puck behind his stick and then making a move with the puck-less stick, Nikita Kucherov-style, was all planned.
“That was a deke. Jeez. That’s a little rude,” he said with a laugh.
“I actually worked on that all summer.”
TRYING TO MAKE MORE
There has been much talk from the Canucks about the need for their defence to get more involved, to jump up into the rush more.
Did anyone have Erik Gudbranson on the list of “defencemen most likely to satisfy that need?”
A shift early in the first saw the big defenceman lead the rush — after knocking the puck down out of mid-air.
But that was perhaps forgotten not long after when Gudbranson got caught wandering on a Hurricanes rush leaving the slot wide open. A scrambling Horvat tried to cover both Micheal Ferland and Aho, but it was to no avail, as Aho made a fine finish for his team’s third goal.
Gudbranson and defence partner Derrick Pouliot both wound up behind Markstrom’s net as Aho scored.
LINE BLENDER
Going into the game, Canucks coach Travis Green had already shuffled things up, scratching Tyler Motte and replacing him with Tim Schaller, bumping Brendan Leipsic to the first line and moving Sven Baertschi to Brandon Sutter’s line.
Leipsic didn’t help Horvat and Brock Boeser move the meter any better than they had with Baertschi over the first two games.
He moved Boeser — who really looks to not be playing at 100 per cent, he just isn’t making strong moves with the puck — on to Pettersson’s line, tried Jake Virtanen and Loui Eriksson with Horvat for a couple shifts. He then put Baertschi back with Horvat, keeping Eriksson on the right.
He also mixed up his defence pairings, putting Ben Hutton with Gudbranson — a pairing Green’s predecessor Willie Desjardins tried with little success — and pairing Gudbranson’s former partner Pouliot with Troy Stecher.