VANCOUVER – The offence-starved Vancouver Canucks pumped five goals on home ice past Carey Price on Tuesday and still lost to the Montreal Canadiens by two.
It’s not forward Brock Boeser the Canucks need most, it’s goalie Roberto Luongo. A couple of defencemen like Mattias Ohlund and Ed Jovanovski wouldn’t hurt, either.
The Canucks’ 7-5 loss to the Canadiens actually represented a far better effort than Vancouver showed in 7-1 and 6-1 losses the last week against the Nashville Predators and Calgary Flames, but their goaltending and defensive play aren’t giving them a hope of winning.
The Canucks have surrendered 36 goals in the seven games they’ve played since top centre Bo Horvat left the lineup with a broken foot on Dec. 5. No wonder the team is 1-6 since then and base jumping towards the bottom of the National Hockey League’s Western Conference standings.
Canucks goalie Anders Nilsson, who appears to be duelling with Jacob Markstrom to see who’s No. 2, was beaten six times on 31 shots by the Canadiens.
Yes, there were another pile of outnumbered rushes presented by the Canucks, but that kind of save rate (.806) doesn’t win anything. It doesn’t keep you in professional hockey if it persists for long.
The Canucks wasted a hat trick by Thomas Vanek and the mental boost – and another goal – generated by the return of fan-favourite Boeser after the 20-year-old rookie left the ice injured two nights earlier.
Six goals against, plus an empty-netter? A touchdown for the Canadiens? Teams haven’t won games like that since the 1980s.
"I think it’s been frustrating for the whole team," Nilsson said. "None of us, myself included, has been playing at our best level. I think everyone in this room knows they can play better and everyone needs to play better. I think tonight, team-wise, it was a step forward. Obviously, we can get better."
It was a step forward offensively, two steps backward without the puck.
Grinder Nicolas Deslauriers led the Canadiens with a pair of goals. Fourteen of Montreal’s 18 skaters collected at least a point to help rescue Price, who was barely recognizable as a world-class netminder.
"We gave up too many goals," Vanek said. "You deserve a point when you get five goals against Carey. But… they’re quick on those outnumbered rushes. We’ve got to eliminate those. The good news is I think our effort was a lot better. But we’ve still got to clean up defensively."
And what a major cleanup it has to be.
"I feel like we’re giving up quite a few outnumbered rushes," Vancouver defenceman Derrick Pouliot said. "Teams are flying the zone with their forwards and getting behind our backcheck. When you give up I-don’t-know-how-many outnumbered rushes a game, those are quality chances. In this league, the forwards are good and make plays and, as you can see, they convert on those chances."
Nilsson allowed two long-range goals in the final three minutes of the second period. On one, he looked awful. The other, suspect. The Canucks never recovered.
Deslauriers, who had one goal in 14 games before Tuesday, scored his second of the night to break a 2-2 tie at 17:05 of the middle frame as Nilsson stumbled getting across his goalmouth and let a low, unscreened one-timer from about 45 feet go under him.
The Canucks were able to tie it again only 34 seconds later when Vanek’s pass caromed to Daniel Sedin at the side of the net after Price slid aggressively in the opposite direction.
But Vancouver defenceman Alex Biega took a cross-checking penalty at 19:09 and only four seconds after the faceoff, Jeff Petry’s point shot beat Nilsson short side.
The netminder’s best period of the last two weeks was his 18-save mop-up for Markstrom in the final 20 minutes Sunday, which began with the Flames already leading the Canucks 5-1.
He began the third period Tuesday be beaching himself stage left on a Montreal three-on-two, and was utterly unable to move back to his right before Paul Byron had time and space to score from a sharp angle into the open net as Montreal went ahead 5-3 at 1:37.
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In five starts over the last three weeks, Nilsson has allowed 24 goals on 181 shots. That’s a save percentage of .867. His save rate for the season, which was an unsustainable .942 after Nilsson’s first five starts, is down to .906.
Markstrom has been equally ventilated recently. In his four starts since Horvat’s injury created the turning point in the Canucks’ season, Markstrom has a ghastly save percentage of .848 and a goals-against average of 4.29.
His save percentage for the season, which peaked at .919, is down to .907. The NHL average – all goalies, not just starters – is .912. And the Canucks aren’t good enough to win with average goaltending.
There was a lively debate for most of the fall about whether Nilsson or Markstrom deserved to be the No. 1 goalie. Right now, neither does.
The Canucks have been a disaster in front of them at times the last two weeks. Considering the scoring chances surrendered, Vancouver would have needed a six-by-four sheet of plywood to beat Nashville and Calgary.
But real starting goalies are supposed to make a difference. It’s not good enough simply to float like a cork on the current, being carried whichever way the team is going. Markstrom and Nilsson know this.
"I wouldn’t blame the players in front of me," Nilsson said. "Me, personally, I always go to myself after every goal. I’m pretty critical of myself. Almost on every goal, I think I can do something different."
VANCOUVER – When he was general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, Brian Burke once said that the only way Brad May could help the team offensively near the end of his career was if he spent the off-season at the holy waters of Lourdes.
Brock Boeser must have made a day trip there on Monday.
The Canucks’ leading scorer and Calder Trophy candidate skated with teammates Tuesday morning and could play against the Montreal Canadiens just two nights after crawling off the ice with what appeared to be a serious injury.
With six Canucks already on the injured list, Boeser was expected to follow first-line mates Bo Horvat (fractured foot) and Sven Baertschi (broken jaw) out of the lineup after blocking Mark Giordano’s shot during Vancouver’s 6-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday.
But X-rays and a CT scan on Monday confirmed Boeser had escaped a fracture. Still, his appearance at the morning skate seemed almost miraculous.
Canucks coach Travis Green said Boeser’s status Tuesday night will be a game-time decision.
“It wasn’t like I was at church praying or anything,” Green said. “But I was happy it wasn’t a break. With the injuries we’ve been going through, we didn’t need to have Brock out.”
Not only would the Canucks find it difficult to win with Boeser joining the injured list, they might have a hard time selling a ticket without the most talented Vancouver rookie since Pavel Bure. The Canucks are 1-5 since Horvat was hurt and have been outscored 26-6 in the losses.
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“Pretty concerned when it hurts that bad and you can’t put any pressure on it for a good amount of time after the game,” Boeser, 20, said. “I didn’t want it to be broken. I was hoping for the best and that’s what happened.
“It could be a lot worse and I could be missing a lot of time, so I am really fortunate and hope it continues to get better and I can play tonight and play well.”
Boeser leads all National Hockey League rookies with 17 goals and 30 points in 31 games.
Defenceman Erik Gudbranson, who last played Nov. 22, returns to the Canucks lineup after missing 12 games. Third-year defenceman Ben Hutton is expected to be a healthy scratch for the first time in his career.
VANCOUVER -- Brock Boeser will be a game-time decision when the Vancouver Canucks play the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; SNP, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV), less than 48 hours after he crawled off the ice against the Calgary Flames.
Boeser, who leads the Canucks and NHL rookies with 17 goals and 30 points, sustained a bone bruise in his left foot blocking a Mark Giordano shot 14 seconds into the second period of a 6-1 loss Sunday. The 20-year-old forward limped to the locker room without any weight on his left leg and was on crutches with a walking boot Monday, but was on the ice skating hard Tuesday morning.
Video: CGY@VAN: Boeser leaves game with foot injury
"It's still obviously sore but us and the medical team felt I could try skating so we're going to try warmups tonight and hopefully I will be able to play," said Boeser, who found out on Monday the foot wasn't broken. "Since we ruled out the fracture, you can test it out a little bit, and it's tolerable, so hopefully I can play."
Boeser said he was relieved to get a positive diagnosis after worrying about a fracture.
"Pretty concerning when It hurts that bad and you can't put any pressure on it for a good amount of time after the game," Boeser said. "I didn't want it to be broken, I was hoping for the best and that's what happened. It could be a lot worse and I could be missing a lot of time, so I am really fortunate and hope it continues to get better and I can play tonight and play well."
Boeser started the season on the Canucks' top line with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi, but all three players are injured. Horvat fractured his foot Dec. 5 and is expected to miss another 2-4 weeks, and Baertschi broke his jaw when a clearing attempt hit him in the face during a Dec. 9 game against the Flames and is expected to miss another 3-5 weeks.
"I'm hoping he plays," coach Travis Green said of Boeser. "It wasn't like I was at church praying, but I was happy it wasn't a break. With the injuries we've been going through, we didn't need Brock out."
