ALL PAIN, NO GAIN
Canucks blow three- goal lead, lose 4- 3 in OT.
Once up three goals, the Vancouver Canucks barely had a chance on Sunday. OK, they had one chance, goalie Eddie Lack, and he was not enough.
Goalies do steal games in the National Hockey League. The Canucks, who’ve benefited from a couple of those performances by Ryan Miller this season, saw Toronto Maple Leaf Jonathan Bernier pilfer a game from them on Saturday night.
But relying so heavily on your goalie is a risky way to play, a difficult way to win. It has a short shelf life, generally lasting one game. The Canucks tried the strategy here on Sunday but failed. Their backup goalie, Lack, was outstanding against the Ottawa Senators, but still couldn’t prevent Vancouver from blowing a three- goal lead and losing 4- 3 in overtime.
The Canucks were just too undisciplined, too careless, too tired for Lack to fix everything. They were fortunate he got them a point. But that was the only point Vancouver achieved on this lost weekend.
They played well enough to beat the Maple Leafs but lost, 5- 2, as Miller was beaten four times on 14 shots before getting removed by coach Willie Desjardins. On Sunday, the Canucks had enough of a head start, up 3- 0 after 25 minutes, they should have been able to manage their mistakes and at least split the back- to- back games.
But neither their minds nor bodies worked well enough playing their sixth road game in 10 nights on the longest trip of their season. And what looked on Friday like a victory tour through the Eastern Conference, validation of the Canucks’ restoration as a team to be reckoned with, now just looks like a test of survival.
The Canucks get a day of rest today in Montreal before summoning whatever remains in their tank to play the Canadiens on Tuesday.
The Canadiens are a better team than the Senators, who had lost five straight games before Sunday. The Canucks will have to be much better than they were Sunday to finish their two- week odyssey above .500. They are 3- 2- 1.
“It’s not who we are,” Vancouver defenceman Luca Sbisa said of the sloppy, undisciplined performance. “We take a lot of pride in the way we play. I think we have strong character in this group, but tonight we didn’t show it. We turned the puck over too many times. We didn’t get it deep, and when we did we didn’t really take it to the net. We got lucky we got one point because we really didn’t deserve anything.”
Desjardins said: “They looked like they were fresher than us right from the start. I thought they had more legs. I thought we were lucky; to have 3- 0 was huge. Eddie played so well and that gave us the chance, but we couldn’t do it.”
Lack made 41 saves, a pile of them difficult as the Canucks frequently left the slot unguarded and invited the Senators to attack by giving away the puck.
“We didn’t have it in control — even the first period,” Desjardins said. “They had lots of chances. Our chances went in, but they had chances.”
“It probably wasn’t a 3- 0 game,” centre Brad Richardson said. “I don’t think we played very good at all, to be honest. They were a lot more desperate than us tonight.”
And the Senators, too, were playing on a second straight night, with travel between games, and for the third time in four days.
The game turned — or at least the score did — when the Canucks took a series of penalties in the first half of the second period. The Senators had a pair of two- man- advantages and finally put a puck past Lack on the second one, making it 3- 1 on David Legwand’s rebound goal at 10: 53. But those power plays fuelled the Senators’ momentum and tired the Canucks, and it seemed only the buzzer might save Vancouver.
“Any time you’re undisciplined against any team, power plays are good in this league,” winger Alex Burrows said. “It gave them some momentum, gave them some chances and good looks and their skill guys started feeling comfortable.”
Mika Zibanejad scored twice for Ottawa. Defenceman Erik Karlsson had the overtime winner, a short time after it looked like Canuck Daniel Sedin might skate free on a breakaway but instead pulled up in the offensive zone and passed the puck. Radim Vrbata, Kevin Bieksa and Richardson scored for Vancouver.
“I don’t think there’s any excuse,” Richardson said. “You’re up 3- 0, you should win the hockey game, for sure. But they were just the better team.”
And the better goalie couldn’t change that.