The Vancouver Canucks scored, but they still couldn’t win.
Three goals wasn’t quite enough in a 5-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks that was great for Vancouver if you like both draft lottery odds and entertainment.
It was the best game the Canucks have played in two weeks. They had jump, some speed and a great power play.
The Canucks, however, were let down in a couple of key arenas, including goaltending.
The loss keeps Vancouver two points out of last overall.
This is what we learned:
THE CANUCKS CAN SCORE. THEY REALLY CAN
History will have to wait.
The heavens opened, the seas parted and Vancouver Canucks scored a goal. It happened 9:12 into the first period, ensuring the Canucks did not set a franchise record for the length of time between scoring.
Nikolay Goldobin was the hero, guiding a nicely shot wrister into the top shelf. It was his fifth of the season, and it was about as close as the Canucks have come to scoring a Brock Boeser-like goal since Boeser broke a bone in his back six games ago.
It would open the floodgates as far as floodgates can be opened when it comes to Canucks scoring.
THE POWER PLAY WAS GREAT
Until now, the most depressing part of Canucks games has been watching Sam Gagner fill Boeser’s shoes.
Gagner has been in a no-win situation, asked to play in the place on the power play which will be known as The Boeser Spot for the forseeable future.
But Gagner made it work tonight. He was as active as he’s been there all season, cutting into the middle of the ice to create room. It helped him set up two power-play goals.
EDLER ENDS HIS POWER-PLAY DROUGHT
Edler is almost as famous in Vancouver for his unwillingness to waive his no-trade clause as he is for leading all defencemen in franchise history in points.
Through it all, he’s been a foundation on the Canucks’ power play. He’s spent almost this entire year on first unit too, which has been among the best in the league.
But when he scored on the power play Saturday it was his first man-advantage goal of the season.
In fact, it was his first in a calendar year.
JACOB MARKSTROM HAS BEEN GOOD LATELY
One of the more under-the-radar developments this year has been Markstrom’s progression.
This month has been among his best as a Canuck, which, let’s be real, is a low bar.
But he has now started 50 games, and if he was going to hit a wall in his first as No. 1, March would be the month.
It should also be noted that during this month, the Canucks have tightened up a bit defensively.
They were actually good again in this department Saturday but Markstrom let in a couple of questionable ones.
THE CANUCKS STILL DON’T GET THE CALLS
Somethings never change.
There was Henrik Sedin with four minutes left trying to get an explanation as to how the officials missed two obvious penalties in the final minutes.
The worst was a trip on Brandon Sutter when he had the puck. With the Canucks down 4-3, it should have led to a Vancouver power play and a chance to tie the game.
Earlier, the Sharks had two calls which were dives.
THE SECOND UNIT POWER-PLAY MIGHT BE THE MOST INTERESTING
Lost in all the hoopla when Goldobin ended the streak, was the fact the Canucks experimented with a fun second unit that didn’t have a centre.
Jake Virtanen set up the goal with a rush into the Sharks zone which was gloriously fast. The other three Canucks on the ice were Derrick Pouliot, Brendan Leipsic and Reid Boucher.
I’m not sure how many of those players will be on next year’s team, but that group is both youthful and entertaining.
Keep them together.
CLOCK TICKING ON BEN HUTTON
Given the high number of healthy scratches this calendar year, it’s fair to wonder what the Canucks plans are for Hutton in the long-term.
He missed Saturday’s game with a foot injury, which only adds more pain to a difficult season. How many games does Hutton have left as a Canuck?
Many think the Canucks will try and move Hutton in the offseason. He could probably use a fresh start with a new coach.
But he turns 25 next month, and his $2.8 million salary for next season is not going to be an easy contract to move.
Will the Canucks need to retain salary in a Hutton deal? Will they have to add a sweetener asset to get another team to take a chance on him?
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Vancouver Canucks: It may be time for Sedins to go
Vancouver Canucks: It may be time for Sedins to go by Alex Hoegler
Markus Granlund will be an RFA this summer, but his value has taken a big hit after an injury-filled and frustrating 2017-18 season. But tat doesn’t mean the Canucks should give up on ‘Granlund’.
Any Vancouver Canucks player not named Brock Boeser, Chris Tanev or something Sedin is probably not pleased with their all-around performance this season. That especially has to include centre Markus Granlund, who was supposed to build off a 19-goal 2016-17 campaign.
Consider that Granlund’s 19 goals and 32 points came in just 69 games last season, and you had to think we were looking at a potential 20-goal, 40-45 point guy.
Instead, reality set in and Granlund finished with eight goals and four assists in 53 games. His season came to an end in February when he suffered an ankle injury.
Granlund is set to become a restricted free agent, and he will be arbitration eligible (according to CapFriendly.com). Given his tough outing this season, it’s hard to envision Granlund receiving a significant raise from the $900,000 he made in 2017-18.
And though the Canucks have to overhaul a large portion of the offence, Granlund should not be one of the guys they cut loose.
Trading Granlund is probably bringing in nothing more than a third-round pick (if even that), and the Canucks would be foolish to give up on the 24-year-old so soon.
Granlund has a career 12.5 shooting percentage, but just 8.6 percent of his shots went in this season. Factor in that he averaged 1:04 less time on ice per game (and he didn’t have the best of linemates), and it’s easy to understand why Granlund had a down year in 2017-18.
He’s still young and just a year removed from almost scoring 20 goals. Granlund is one of this team’s few somewhat forwards when it comes to the penalty kill and defensive part of the game. Choosing to move on from him for no reason would be a very poor decision by general manager Jim Benning.
If Benning makes the right choice and decides to change up the forward units, he’d move out Sam Gagner, explore ways of cutting ties with Loui Eriksson and rebuild the bottom-six. Keeping Granlund around for at least another season to find his true value should be a no-brainer. But you just never know what this front office will do anymore.
*Stats courtesy of Hockey Reference*
VANCOUVER – They shoot. They score. They still lose.
It had been so long since the Vancouver Canucks scored that it seemed before Saturday’s game that even one measly goal would do. Instead, they scored three against the San Jose Sharks and it still was not enough.
The Canucks overcame a two-goal deficit but lost 5-3 when Timo Meier, who was either scoring goals or taking penalties for the Sharks, broke the tie at 6:07 of the third period with a shot from the faceoff circle that fooled Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom.
Meier had time and space to use defenceman Michael Del Zotto as a screen because the Canucks were halfway through a poorly-timed line change. Tomas Hertl added an empty netter for San Jose.
So while the Canucks ended an embarrassing goalless streak of more than 3 ½ hours, their losing streak stretched to six games. The team managed to lose its final eight games last season when it crashed towards the bottom of the National Hockey League standings.
Could the Canucks lose their final 16 this year? With 10 to go, anything seems possible. On a three-game road trip this week in which they were outscored 7-0, Vancouver goaltending was excellent. The offence non-existent.
Saturday, their power-play scored three times, but Markstrom wasn’t as good as Sharks backup Aaron Dell. It’s always something with the Canucks – even just a bad line change.
“You’ve got to look at the positives: we did score tonight,” Canucks centre Bo Horvat said. “We scored three goals and our power play was clicking and we were generating a lot of opportunities in the offensive zone and drawing penalties. Overall, I thought we had a great game. Just a couple of unfortunate breakdowns that cost us.”
The Canucks outshot the Sharks 31-30, but couldn’t generate another tying goal after erasing a 3-1 deficit in the middle period. Horvat redirected Brendan Leipsic’s shot-pass off the post, Daniel Sedin had his deflection through Dell cleared off the goal-line, and the San Jose goalie made a terrific back-door save on Nikolay Goldobin.
It was loss No. 38 for the Canucks, who have stalled in the standings at 59 points – a threshold the Tampa Bay Lightning, for instance, sailed past on Jan. 2.
“We get three on the power play, and that should be a win in this league,” Sedin said. “But we’re finding ways to lose right now, even though we’re playing well. It’s frustrating, but we’ve got to realize this is how we have to play. The last 10 games and next season, it’s going to take hard work. We don’t have the big No. 1 line or something like that. We have to rely on a team effort.
“I thought we played well the whole game for sure. And if you play the right way over an 82-game season, you’ll get what you deserve. We should have scored a few goals the last three games, but they came today and we’ll build off that.”
Moral victories. We suppose those are better than moral losses. But it would be nice for the Canucks to win a game and suffer a moral loss and see how that feels. Probably better than any of the last six games.
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The Buffalo Sabres’ 5-3 win Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks nudged that dismal team within a point of the Canucks, who are 29th among 31 teams with three weeks remaining in another disastrous season on the West Coast.
Considering the Canucks hadn’t scored in their previous three games, a two-goal deficit looked insurmountable after Meier’s deflection put the Sharks ahead 3-1 1:47 into the second period.
But Vancouver’s power play, which was 0-for-9 the last six games, generated goals five minutes apart to tie it against the NHL’s top-ranked penalty-kill unit.
Sam Gagner bounced his centring pass in off Horvat at 5:23, and Alex Edler’s one-timer from 50 feet beat Dell stick-side to make it 3-3 at 11:48 after some sustained Canucks pressure.
It was the Canucks’ second power-play unit that opened scoring at 10:48 of the first period when Goldobin picked his spot and beat Dell with a short-side, top-corner wrist shot past Jake Virtanen’s screen.
The goal ended a scoreless streak of three hours, 42 minutes and 57 seconds for the Canucks – about 10 minutes shy of the frachise’s record drought.
Vancouver didn’t get much time to enjoy the novelty of a lead because San Jose tied it on Kevin Lebanc’s power-play goal at 14:58. Shots were 9-5 for the Canucks when the power play began, but advantages were 3-1 in favour of the Sharks.
The Sharks went ahead just 70 seconds later when Logan Couture established body position on Virtanen and muscled his stick free to chip Hertl’s centring pass over Markstrom’s shoulder.
“I want to win and everybody else does in this room,” Horvat said. “And losing is no fun. You’ve got to keep it collected and think positively and move on to the next game.”
That would be Tuesday in Las Vegas, where the Canucks open another difficult four-game road trip. We’re pretty sure they’ll score next week, but no one is guaranteeing a win.
