DUCKS HAVE THEIR WAY WITH TANEV-LESS CANUCKS ON POND
Disneyland is just down the road. The Twilight Zone is up in Vancouver.
Want chills, thrills and spills? Forget the Happiest Place on Earth and those wild rides and try to figure why Canuck defencemen fall like leaves every fall. The latest costly loss is Chris Tanev.
The club’s best blue-liner is sidelined for the rest of this fourgame trip — and likely longer — with an upper-body injury. He blocked four shots in Calgary on Tuesday and his absence can’t readily be replaced. He was sorely missed Thursday.
Alex Edler tried to fill in against the Anaheim Ducks in a pairing with Alex Biega after missing a dozen games with a knee injury.
“At some point, you can’t get any more answers in practice and that’s where I’m at right now,” said Edler. “I feel ready.”
He might have been, but the Canucks weren’t in a sobering 4-1 loss in which they surrendered three power-play goals and mustered just 20 shots, a season low. It was disturbing because on paper, the pre-game script looked favourable.
The Ducks were missing centres Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler and are leaning on Ryan Miller to save the day while John Gibson gets over a concussion. Miller appeared to aggravate his left wrist and was replaced by Reto Berra in the third period.
Getzlaf could be out another two months after a freak deflection broke his cheekbone Oct. 29 and Kesler is sidelined until January following off-season hip surgery.
Those hard matchups that Ducks coach Randy Carlyle favours on home ice were replaced by a team effort.
After all, the Ducks were also missing injured wingers Ondrej Kase, Jared Boll and defenceman Cam Fowler while winger Patrick Eaves has an immune-system disorder.
Here’s what we learned as the Canucks were outhustled and outplayed:
MARKSTROM NOT THE STORY
It said something when Jacob Markstrom gave Edler a stick tap after it took a brilliant billiards shot to finally beat the Swedish stopper in a 15-save opening period.
After Edler slid at the top of the crease to negate a 2-on-1 scoring chance, the puck went behind the goal-line.
Hampus Lindholm somehow whipped it back and off the right skate of Markstrom.
It also said something when Markstrom didn’t lose it on the winning goal in the second period. When Brandon Montour let a power-play wrister fly from the top of the slot, it had some sizzle and beat Markstrom on the short side between his arm and body. He loathes those goals but kept his composure.
Markstrom could have really lost it early in the third period. Jakob Silfverberg struck twice in 35 seconds to put the game away.
He was left unattended on the power play and then allowed to jam home a rebound on the defenceless Markstrom.
The story wasn’t Markstrom. It was what was and wasn’t happening in front of him. No offence. Poor defending.
WORD IS OUT ON BOESER
Brock Boeser sat the first part of the second period on Tuesday in Calgary because Green thought he looked tired and then played better. You could argue the same case Thursday.
Like his teammates, the rookie winger struggled to get anything going offensively and had
all three of his shot attempts blocked.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Word is out that Boeser is the real deal and taking time and space away has become a pressing priority for the opposition.
Troy Stecher had his point shot taken away early last season and now Boeser is finding out that the NHL is not only a daily grind, finding room and seams to get his shots away is getting tougher.
SMALL SILVER LINING
When Josh Manson took a third-period run at Bo Horvat, it was Derek Dorsett who challenged the big defenceman.
It wasn’t much of a bout. They danced around and Dorsett lost his balance, but he wasn’t going to let his club be intimidated. That stuff goes a long way with the coach and players.
BIEKSA IS STILL BIEKSA
Kevin Bieksa held court after the morning skate and, as usual, had something to say.
Asked what he thought of these Canucks, the former Vancouver defenceman said: “They’re playing an uptempo type of game and Dorsett has seven goals and a lot of good things happening over there. We’re definitely respecting them, maybe more than last year. Everybody knows they’re for real this year.”
But it was Bieksa who blew up on the opening goal. He flubbed a flip-in and then put the puck right on the stick of Sven Baertschi, who beat Miller to the short side.