Habs recover from loss to throttle hurtin' Canucks
Toffoli has five goals in two games against his former teammates
“A classic case of adaptability.”
That's how Nate Schmidt summarized a compacted schedule for the Vancouver Canucks that was further complicated at the outset when Jordie Benn and J.T. Miller were sidelined by coronavirus pandemic protocols. Miller returned to play Monday and Benn to practice the following day.
The good news didn't last long. Alex Edler and Travis Hamonic were sidelined Wednesday during a 6-5 shootout victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Edler is out with an undisclosed injury — he has a history of back problems and missed 10 games last season with a knee strain — while Hamonic is gone at least seven days after being placed on injured reserve with an upper-body ailment.
So, Schmidt may have to find another phrase to plot the latest plight. How about a classic case of attrition or adversity, because Thursday was another fright night in a 7-3 drubbing.
“Disappointed — very,” said Canucks coach Travis Green. “We weren't just giving up scoring chances, we were giving up goals. We gift-wrapped four to five goals and it wasn't a game where we were hemmed in our own zone. It was giving up breakaways and, in this league, when you give up chances and gifts, you're going to lose bad. And we did that tonight.
“I'm not going to blame it on the young guys. You win and lose as a team. We didn't have a lot of players who can say they played a solid game on both sides of the puck. Some of the mistakes were not just turnovers, but putting a bow on it.”
Brogan Rafferty drew in to pair with Schmidt in his third career
NHL regular-season game and both blue-liners had forgettable moments.
Olli Juolevi was aligned with Tyler Myers while Jalen Chatfield worked well with Quinn Hughes and continued to impress with good positioning and smart puck movement. But he suffered a first-period upper-body injury and didn't return.
Here's what we learned as the Canucks surrendered two short-handed goals and a frustrated Myers received a five-minute major and game misconduct for a check to the head:
BOTTOM FALLS OUT
The Canucks were trailing 3-2 in the second period when the roof caved in.
It wasn't so much that Josh Anderson and Jake Evans scored nine seconds apart and that Joel Armia added his second goal less than two minutes later, it was how easily they scored.
They beat a path to the goal without being challenged; nobody picked up the open man on a rebound and some puck-handling indecision by a shell-shocked Thatcher Demko led to another goal. The Canucks were outshot 16-3 in the period and didn't even muster a single even-strength shot. They were outshot 42-17 overall.
Part of it had to do with Schmidt eating up ample minutes with the injuries — 27:12 and Hughes at 21:26 — and Rafferty looking overmatched in defending situations. Brandon Sutter did manage a good drive to the slot to roof home a backhander in the third period, and Rafferty picked up his first NHL point. Brendan Gallagher closed out scoring.
TOO MUCH TOFFOLI
Tyler Toffoli doesn't get enough credit for being a good playmaker who can send short passes through traffic. The former Canucks winger is also an opportunist and a finisher and that's a deadly combination.
When Rafferty couldn't move the puck up the wall, it resulted in a turnover, a mosh pit in front of Demko and another Toffoli goal to open scoring. And when Schmidt lost the handle on a power play exit, it was Toffoli who pounced on the gift to set up an untouched Joel Armia before six minutes had elapsed.
If that wasn't bad enough, Elias Pettersson added to The Toffoli Show when he tried to feather a cross-ice blue-line pass on the power play. It was picked off by Armia and he sprung Toffoli for his second goal of the night and fifth through the first two games of this three-game set that concludes Saturday.
NOT ENOUGH PETEY
Pettersson is still searching for his first goal of the season and the frustration is showing.
He had but one shot attempt, and the best option on the first power play unit now is for Miller to find Bo Horvat. Pettersson is still getting open for his one-timer looks, but it's getting to the point where the first unit and his linemates at even strength should simply be looking to feed the Swedish centre to get him out of his funk.
Or, try him with different wingers and see what happens because this is not good. He needs a goal. He needs one badly. And the Canucks need him to return to his confident swagger as soon as possible. The longer this goes, the worse it's going to get.