Preds prey on skidding Canucks
Injury-depleted squad routed as Green opts to go with backup goalie
Optimist. Pessimist. Realist.
Travis Green is certainly the former and reluctantly the latter.
The Vancouver Canucks’ coach was talking a good game Wednesday and needed his injury-riddled and offensively depleted club to play one at Rogers Arena.
“You have to be realistic with what you have,” he preached. “I don’t want players trying to do things out of their means or something they’re not capable of doing.” Fair enough. However, it’s what his players did that was out of character that proved the difference in an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Nashville Predators. A year ago, the Canucks gave up eight goals in Carolina in season-defining fashion.
Here’s what we learned as the Canucks’ losing streak hit a seasonhigh four games and the highlight of the night was a guy threading the shootout needle from centre to win a car in the second intermission:
GREAT GOALTENDING MYSTERY
This theory was run by the coach in the morning:
Do you go back to Jacob Markstrom to get a bad game out of his system — and not let if fester — or do you defer to Anders Nilsson, who backstopped a 5-3 win in Nashville on Nov. 30? Nilsson got the call and then became a legend of the fall.
“We’re not looking for them to steal us games,” Green said of his tandem.
Well, Nilsson was both good and not so good.
You can cut any goalie some slack when he’s beaten by snooker shots. That odd P.K. Subban goal off a pinch on a failed Michael Del Zotto clear actually struck Derrick Pouliot, changed directions and beat the startled stopper to the glove side.
Bad break. But bad tracking, too. Same story on the fourth goal. Filip Forsberg looked like he was going cross ice and his pass went off Michael Chaput, changed directions and got by Nilsson. Again, bad break, Again, where was the tracking?
However, the biggest gaffe was Subban’s second goal that gave the Predators a 3-0 cushion.Subban’s shot from centre ice was going wide. Nilsson slid too far to his left and the puck went off the inside of his glove, changed directions and found net.