SHUT OUT ONCE AGAIN
Scoreless streak continues as Canucks crash against Jets.
WINNIPEG — Well, at least the goaltending seems solid.
Unfortunately, the Vancouver Canucks don’t have much else going for them these days. Their scoreless streak reached a franchise-record 228 minutes as they were shut out for the third straight National Hockey League game Tuesday, falling 2-0 to the Winnipeg Jets at the MTS Centre.
It could have so much worse if not for the play of goalie Jacob Markstrom, who faced 48 shots and kept Vancouver in the game with several highlight-reel saves.
But if you can’t score, you can’t win, and the Canucks have now lost five in a row.
This game was much like the one Saturday at home against the St. Louis Blues, when Ryan Miller stood on his head and gave the Canucks a fighting chance.
With 10 games remaining, you wonder if this team has any wins left in it. Their schedule now gets tough. The Canucks’ next seven games are against playoff teams.
Unlike Saturday, there was no finger-pointing in the Vancouver dressing room after this game — just seemingly a resignation that, as constructed, the Canucks are in tough. They dressed three rookies on defence on Tuesday and another four up front. They had seven regulars out of the lineup.
Captain Henrik Sedin seemed resigned to the fact there will be more nights like this one before the season mercifully comes to an end on April 9.
“This is tough to go through,” he said. “We are all disappointed, there’s no question about that. But you still have to look at it as a process. It’s not going to change overnight. We need to keep doing the right things over and over, and it is going to change. There is still a couple of mistakes here and there.
“You have to realize where we are as a team and who is in the lineup. But at the same time, we can’t go through this and count games until the season is done. We have to have a good feeling here down the stretch.”
Adam Lowry scored on a wraparound at 2:30 of the third period to break a scoreless tie as the Jets completed a threegame season series sweep of the Canucks. The goal was reviewed as Markstrom and the Canucks claimed he was interfered with by Jets forward Matt Halischuk as he tried to slide across the crease to stop Lowry.
“I think first of all there was a rebound on my part, and if I can hold that, it doesn’t happen at all,” Markstrom said. “But it kind of spurts out, a couple of guys drive the net and I see it go behind the net and he is going to wrap it. (Halischuk’s) stick kind of pinned my foot against the post and I was trying to push and I couldn’t push. The second push he kind of let go, and it was too late.”
Markstrom made too many good saves to mention as he faced a career-high 48 shots. It may have been his best game as a Canuck and he has had several good ones this season. But that didn’t seem to matter. “We lost the game,” Markstrom said. “You get points by winning games. If you lose, it sucks.”
Not for everyone, mind you. Tank Nation was likely celebrating Tuesday. The Canucks continue to fall in the standings. The Jets tied them with 66 points with their win and Eastern alsorans Buffalo and Columbus both won. A top-three draft pick this summer is a real possibility.
This is only the second time in franchise history the Canucks have been shut out in three consecutive games. It first happened in January 1984.
The Canucks simply can’t buy a goal. A first-period breakaway by rookie Alex Grenier seemed to perfectly illustrate their plight.
Grenier forced a Jets turnover inside the Winnipeg blue-line and broke in alone on goalie Ondrej Pavelec. Just as he attempted a wrist shot from close range, Grenier’s stick snapped.
“We have to stick together here and it is really important for us as a group not to just count the games down,” Markstrom said.
“We have to stick to it here and play better than we are right now. We have a couple of days until the game in Nashville (on Thursday night) and that is going to be a big test. We have to show up for that game.”