A long night of misery in Missouri
Blues scored 40 seconds into the game and sluggish Canucks never recovered
ST. LOUIS The Vancouver Canucks matched their shortest winning streak of the season — it ended at one.
All of the good that happened in Chicago on Thursday vanished in another easy win for a Canucks opponent. The St. Louis Blues scored early, just 40 seconds into the game, and often after that.
When it was over, the Canucks had lost 4-1 in a game they were never in. This is what we learned:
GAGNER CAN LOOK GOOD WITH THE SEDINS
Go all the way back to September when the Canucks rolled out a scoring line with Sam Gagner and the Sedin twins. From that point, Gagner has been dreaming of a long run with the Sedins.
He may finally get his chance. Gagner ended a 25-game goalless run scoring a second-period marker that was set up by, wait for it, the Sedin twins.
In the offensive zone, Gagner won a faceoff, and what happened next is something he’s talked about recently. His line cycled the puck, worked it through traffic, and completed some give-and-go plays.
The Canucks passed the puck 11 times before Gagner drilled it into the net.
THE SEDINS ARE STILL PRODUCTIVE
Some players walk away when they’re still producing like the Sedins. Not many.
Markus Naslund left after a 46-point season. He’s an outlier. Most are like Patrick Sharp.
At the end of the Chicago game, Sharp reached out to Henrik, but it was more about him retiring, not what he thinks will happen with the Sedins.
Sharp is making $800,000. He signed to play on a fourth line for a winner. It didn’t come together.
But this is the more common scenario with older stars. They stick it out until the bitter end. Sharp has 19 points this season. The Sedins might retire at the end of the season, but it’s going to be a difficult decision, knowing they can still produce in a significant way.
THE SEDINS’ ROLE REALLY CAN’T CHANGE MUCH
It’s long been assumed one of the deciding factors for the Sedins will be their role for next season.
But that really can’t change much.
The twins are playing about 12 even-strength minutes a game. You could maybe shave a minute off of that, but then you would be in fourth-line territory, and fourth-line players don’t usually give you 50 points. It happens, but not often.
The Sedins can be moved off the first power-play unit and that’s fine. But you’re not going to take them off the power play completely. No coach would do that.
One of the reasons people want to see them move on is to clear space for younger players. But this is a team where Brandon Sutter is averaging more than 17 minutes a game.
If the Sedins go, expect that to increase.
ARCHIBALD NEEDS TO HIT TO STAY IN THE NHL
That’s how the coach put it. Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green had Darren Archibald in Utica and he was the Comets’ MVP. But asked to assess his beefy energy forward, Green said Archibald has to throw his body around to stay in the big leagues. He hasn’t been doing much of that. His hardest hit Friday was when he missed a defender on a forecheck and crashed his back into the boards.
If he’s going to stay with the Canucks and re-sign for next season, he has to be much more impactful than this.
THIS MAY HAVE BEEN NILSSON’S LAST GAME
It’s difficult to imagine next season starting with Anders Nilsson on the Canucks.
He’s one of the bigger disappointments from a letdown free agency spending splurge the Canucks had on July 1.
None of the players the team acquired that day have impressed, including Michael Del Zotto, Gagner,
Alexander Burmistrov and Nilsson.
It didn’t start that way. The first month of the season was great. Both Canucks goalies made saves, and lots of them.
It ended with Nilsson having a .943 save percentage. He didn’t just look like a find, he looked like he could be a potential starter.
Things unravelled from there. Heading into Friday’s game, Nilsson had won just one of his past 14 starts.
The Canucks have seven games left and it’s not inconceivable that Jacob Markstrom will start them all.
THERE ARE NO MORE BACK TO BACKS
Nilsson got beat just 40 seconds into the game, the type of early goal that’s plagued the Canucks all season.
He couldn’t bail the Canucks’ power play out of trouble in the second, when he let a rolling shot slip under his right pad.
Since the start of November, Nilsson has a save percentage under .900, and that’s the type of performance that not only can get you out of a city, but can also get you out of the NHL.