VANCOUVER — A disheartening goal ended an awful month for the Vancouver Canucks, who played well Thursday and still managed to lose 4-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Canucks came back, then went away again, ruining a third-period comeback with some atrocious defending on William Karlsson’s shorthanded goal that won it for Vegas with 6:25 remaining. It was typical of the Canucks’ November, which was as dismal as October was encouraging for the rebuilding team.
They stagger into December on a 1-8-2 free-fall and take little consolation in outshooting the surging Knights 36-31 and deserving something better than nothing from the fast, entertaining game.
“It’s tough to lose a game that way,” Canucks coach Travis Green said. “I thought we played a helluva game. It might have been one of our better games of the year. We made a couple of mistakes on a couple of their goals that I’m not happy about, that I’d like to have back. (But) that was a step in the right direction tonight. If we play like that, we’re going to be alright.
“It’s disheartening to lose right now. But I know when we go back and watch the tape, that’s going to be one of those games were you played a good game and lost.”
The Canucks were one goal and one save short, which was an improvement on several of their recent losses.
But the manner in which they allowed the Knights’ to win was bewildering.
With a chance to win the game on their power play, the Canucks manufactured another way to lose. Vancouver forwards Markus Granlund and Brendan Leipsic did fly-bys on Vegas penalty killer Reilly Smith, who easily turned away from them to create a two-on-one, then placed the puck on tee for Karlsson to tap behind goalie Jacob Markstrom for the winning goal.
The goal came a few seconds after Canucks defenceman Ben Hutton had hustled back to knock the puck away from Smith on a partial breakaway. Leipsic and Granlund breezed past Smith, who had recovered the loose puck inside the blue line, in anticipation of a counter-attack.
“It hurts for sure,” Hutton said, abandoned by teammates on the losing goal. “We had a lot of effort coming back tonight, and then they got a shorty, a back-breaker, at the end. They get the two points, and we don’t.”
Of Karlsson’s winner, the Canuck said: “I think there was a little lack of urgency. I think we were thinking we’d have the odd-man rush after we broke up their initial chance. But they had a pretty good two-on-one there and they were able to capitalize on it.”
The third Canuck offender was Nikolay Goldobin, who also was heading out of the zone without the puck and then coasted on the backcheck instead of striding towards Karlsson.
“Not enough urgency on the play overall, to be honest,” Green said. “Not one or two, probably three guys.
“That’s a tough game to lose like that. It’s hard not to be upset about it, yet still try to be positive about the way we played. We did a lot of good things. We had a lot of good players tonight.”
Vancouver’s best players were their best players.
Two games after missing 11 with a groin injury, Brock Boeser scored twice for the Canucks. The second one tied the game 3-3 at 8:48 of the third period, five minutes after Vancouver began its comeback when Bo Horvat’s purposeful far-pad shot on Marc-Andre Fleury generated a perfect rebound for Alex Edler to whack home.
Edler, however, was later whacked by Golden Knight Ryan Reaves, who hit the Canuck defenceman from behind, causing him to hit his forehead on the ice and leave the game. The ‘collision’ — nudge, nudge, wink, wink — was similar to Knight Tomas Hyka’s hit-from-behind on Canucks winger Sven Baertschi on Oct. 24 in Vegas. Baertschi sustained a concussion and hasn’t played since.
There was no penalty called on either play.
“I am concerned about Edler,” Green said. “I thought it was a penalty.”
Edler was also injured in that Canucks shootout win five weeks ago when run hard by Max Pacioretty. Vancouver’s top defenceman missed 15 games with a sprained knee and returned to the Canuck lineup just last weekend.
Pacioretty scored twice on Thursday as Vegas, suddenly playing like Stanley Cup finalists again, won its fifth straight game. But after scoring 16 goals on 79 shots in their previous two games, the Knights managed only one shot in the first 13 ½ minutes at Rogers Arena before a bounce-in off William Carrier’s skate made it 1-1 at 14:00.
That offset Boeser’s goal at 9:46 that was spectacularly set up by rookie Elias Pettersson, who retained control of the puck after being tripped and from his knees was able to turn and hook it back into the slot to Boeser.
“He told me on the bench he just heard me yelling,” Boeser marvelled after the game. “He didn’t know where I was, so it’s a great play. I’m not surprised, though.”
Boeser led the Canucks with six shots. He was injured for the first nine Vancouver losses in November, but has felt the sting of the last two.
“I’m starting to feel it,” he said. “It’s tough.”
“No matter how you lose, it’s tough,” Hutton said. “It’s nice to play a good 60-minute game, but at the end of the night, you need the two points.”
The Canucks went 3-8-3 in November, taking just nine of 28 points.
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