Stars outshine sloppy hosts
Listless Canucks look ordinary as top players continue to struggle
Their stars are struggling and not surprisingly so are the Vancouver Canucks.
With the Sedins and Ryan Kesler silent, the Canucks suddenly are looking like a rather ordinary team.
They scored first Tuesday night, but couldn’t do much after that and dropped a sloppy 5- 2 decision to the Dallas Stars at Rogers Arena.
The loss was the second straight in regulation for the Canucks. That hasn’t happened since early November, when they dropped back- toback games in Minnesota and St. Louis.
The Canucks have now lost four of their last five games, which is their worst slump of the season.
Henrik Sedin has gone six games without a point, while Daniel Sedin has one point in the last six. Kesler has scored one goal in his last 13 games.
To make matters worse, the Sedins and Alex Burrows struggled on defence and were on the ice for both Dallas goals in the third period.
Coach Alain Vigneault continues to preach patience with the Sedins.
“Those guys have been the foundation of this team since I have been here and I have a lot of trust and faith in them,” he said after the game. “You have to trust that they are going to figure it out.”
The twins and Burrows were a combined minus- seven on the night.
“Their game is definitely not where they want it to be,” Vigneault said. “We can say they are getting chances, we can say all the right things, but at the end of the day they are our offensive players, they are there to produce and right now they are fighting it a little bit.”
Henrik Sedin seemed reluctant to acknowledge that he and his brother are indeed struggling.
“I thought we played a pretty good game,” Henrik said. “We made a few mistakes, but I thought we had enough chances to win the game. It seemed like the breakdowns we had turned out to be a goal for them.
“There comes a time when creating chances isn’t good enough. You have to score goals to win games and that’s where we are right now.”
The Stars, who are now 8- 1- 2 in their last 11 games and beat the Canucks in overtime last weekend in Dallas, got a big insurance goal from Jamie Benn at 4: 25 of the third period. Seconds after teammate Adam Burish had fanned on an empty net, Benn got the puck in the left circle and beat Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo to give the Stars a 3- 1 lead.
Canuck defenceman Alex Edler made it interesting at 7: 55 of the third when he skated up the middle of the ice and put a long shot over the right shoulder of Dallas goalie Richard Bachman.
But the Stars scored off the rush at 11: 11 of the third when Mike Ribeiro converted a goalmouth pass from Michael Ryder and restored their twogoal lead. Stephane Robidas added an empty- netter with four seconds remaining.
Winger Chris Higgins, who had a goal and assisted on Edler’s third- period goal, suggested the Canucks are perhaps not as motivated as some of their opposition, who like the Stars are battling for their playoff lives. The Canucks, with a huge lead in the Northwest Division, seem destined to finish either first or second in the Western Conference.
“The playoffs have started for a number of teams already,” Higgins said. “They are battling every night just for the two points in the standings. We have to find that hunger as well. We have to find that hunger to win the conference, be the best team in the Western Conference. It helped last year with the home ice [ advantage] through those first three series.”
The Canucks grabbed a 1- 0 lead at 6: 45 of the second period when Higgins beat Bachman stick side with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle. The play started when the Stars turned over the puck at the Vancouver blue- line. Dallas defenceman Alex Goligoski then blew a tire, allowing Higgins room to skate down the right wing.
But the Stars got two quick goals late in the second to grab the lead. A Trevor Daley pass hit the left skate of Loui Eriksson and got by Luongo at the 16: 44 mark. The power- play goal came with Burrows off serving a slashing minor.
Ribeiro put the Stars in front when he beat Luongo on a 2- on- 1 rush with Ryder. Ribeiro hung onto the puck and was allowed to skate in close on Luongo before snapping a shot over the left shoulder of the Canuck goalie. The goal came with 23 seconds remaining in the second period.
“This one was a tough one to assess,” Luongo said. “I really don’t know what to make of it. It was a weird game, a lot of their goals came from right in the goalmouth ... Obviously that is not the type of hockey we want to be playing. Luckily, they didn’t connect on most of them [ odd- man rushes].”
The highlight of a scoreless first period came early. Zack Kassian was awarded a penalty shot 24 seconds into the game when he was hooked from behind on a breakaway by Dallas defenceman Mark Fistric. Kassian lost the puck as he tried to move it to his backhand as he skated in on Bachman.
“To be honest I was pretty nervous,” Kassian said.
“I was gripping the stick pretty tight. It was tough, it’s always tough not to convert on those. I do that move all the time, but I was just a little nervous and the puck slid off my stick.”