PANE-FUL LOSS TO BLUES
The weary Canucks wrapped up their tough six-game road trip Thursday with some third-period misery in Missouri, dropping a 4-3 decision to St. Louis
It was a game and a road trip in which the Vancouver Canucks didn’t get what they earned, but probably deserved what they got.
The Canucks have clung to the vapour trails of the National Hockey League playoff race this season largely by rescuing games in the third period and manufacturing points where it seemed none were available. But while they finally strung together a bunch of decent road performances on this difficult six-game trip, they won only twice.
After leaving points on the table last week in Nashville and Boston, the Canucks on Thursday again came away with nothing in a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues, who were outplayed for stretches and benefited from some bounces and the self-confessed “awful” play of Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom.
When the Canucks embarked on their trip last Monday, they were 16-3-6 in one-goal games. Two of their road losses since were by a goal, and a third would have been except for an empty-netter.
This market correction for the Canucks is not surprising. They should have had at least six or eight points and could have registered more, but packed home only four after going 2-4-0.
The real shocker, sobering for those smug about Western Conference superiority in recent years, is that despite climbing only four points in the standings in 10 days, the Canucks didn’t fall any farther behind in the playoff race.
They started the trip with a fivepoint deficit and ended it with the same gap between them and a final wild card playoff spot, although the Los Angeles Kings were in a position later Thursday to put Vancouver six behind.
“That’s the way it has been this year,” Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said of the slug race. “It feels in the Western Conference teams are losing left and right. We’ve just got to hang in there, just keep grinding away. We just have to be in striking distance when there’s five or 10 games left.”
Defenceman Luca Sbisa said: “Going 2-4 and still being within striking distance, that’s lucky. We’re still in this playoff picture, so we’ve got to keep our heads up.
“We did deserve more (from this road trip) but that’s not going to get you into the playoffs. Points are all that matter right now. We said before the game if we won, we could make it a half-decent trip. Now with the loss, it looks so bad.
“We played some good hockey over stretches, but we just couldn’t get the points. It always seemed there was one thing missing.”
There were two things missing Thursday: goaltending and special teams. Other than those small details, the Canucks were better than the Blues, who are 7-1 since Mike Yeo replaced Ken Hitchcock as head coach on Feb. 1.
If you need an example of how things have gone for the Canucks, consider Jori Lehtera’s goal that gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead at 17:17 of an opening period in which they were outplayed.
Defenceman Alex Edler fell behind the Vancouver net, giving Lehtera a free pass to the crease where he whacked at a puck that trickled to him off Canucks defenceman Troy Stecher’s stick and sent it into the net off Vancouver forward Brandon Sutter’s twig. Markstrom didn’t look good, but looked worse on two other goals that banked in off him from sharp angles.
You couldn’t orchestrate a goal like Lehtera’s, couldn’t do it in practice. But it was representative of a road trip in which the Canucks spent points they weren’t in position to give away.
The Canucks’ penalty killing, operating at a grotesque 72.2 per cent success rate since Dec. 10, yielded power-play goals 4:02 apart early in the third period as the Blues sped away from a 2-2 tie.
Alex Steen’s goal at 5:00, which turned out to be the winner when Sutter scored at 6:49, was a groaner that Markstrom allowed short-side from an acute angle.
“The players on this team played an unreal road game and I was awful,” Markstrom said. “I was just awful today. It’s not acceptable, especially when we play such a great game and score three goals in a tough building against a tough team. We play a good game like this, and then the poor play by me is very disappointing. I let down my teammates for sure tonight.”
There was bad luck to go with the bad goaltending on two of St. Louis’s goals.
“Bad luck or good luck, whatever it is, it just can’t happen,” Markstrom said. “We can’t afford that right now. I was awful today.”
This was an opportunity lost for Markstrom because head coach Willie Desjardins easily could have come back with starter Ryan Miller, who was brilliant for two periods in Tuesday’s 4-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins — the only game on this trip in which the Canucks were overmatched.
But the whole trip, considering how well they played at times, was a last opportunity for the Canucks, who now have six fewer games remaining with which to save themselves.