December weekends can be brutal.
There’s shopping-mall gridlock and hand-to-hand combat in the stores, Christmas parties and social functions, trees and houses to decorate, and the San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights to play back-to-back.
We’re not sure about the other stuff, but the Sharks and Knights wiped out the Vancouver Canucks, who saw their weekend crumble away Sunday with a 6-3 loss in Las Vegas less than 24 hours after a 4-2 defeat in San Jose.
The Canucks could have beaten the Sharks, but really weren’t close to the Golden Knights, who outshot them 46-29 and led 4-1 with 15 minutes to go. Vancouver looked like how you feel after a busy, hectic, non-stop December weekend.
After winning three out of four games, the Canucks have now lost three out of four and that .500-hockey two-step has them dancing backward in the National Hockey League standings. They’re now four points adrift of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference and things aren’t getting much easier.
Starting Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens, the Canucks finish their pre-Christmas schedule with four games in seven nights.
Here are some takeaways from their lost weekend.
[snippet id=4743501]
CANUCKS NEED PATCH FOR THATCH
It took three games, but the Thatcher Demko effect was obvious on Sunday.
The Canucks’ backup, who went on to the injured list Thursday with a concussion suffered in practice, would have had the second start of the weekend back-to-backs. Instead, Jacob Markstrom had to play his second game in 22 hours and looked ragged.
On the Golden Knights’ opening goal just 2:22 into the game, Nick Holden’s point shot tumbled into the net off Markstrom’s glove, although both Canuck Jamie Benn and Knight Alex Tuch were screening the goalie.
But after Elias Pettersson tied it 1-1, Markstrom looked suspect again on another quick go-ahead goal for Vegas, spilling the rebound from Max Pacioretty’s shot back to the front of the net for Valentin Zykov to convert when it looked like the puck should have been swallowed or angled into the corner.
With the Golden Knights outshooting the Canucks 19-5 in the second period, Markstrom still made some tough saves but was pulled with 9:11 remaining after Pacioretty made it five goals on 39 shots for the Golden Knights.
Demko was similarly concussed at the start of last season – friendly fire off his goalie mask – and missed two months, so there is serious concern about this new injury’s implications for the 24-year-old and the Canucks. Markstrom has always been sharpest with regular resets, and focussed practice time with goaltending guru Ian Clark while his backup plays.
If Demko is out long-term, Markstrom could get run into the ground.
THE NEW DiPIETRO
When Demko was out last winter with a knee injury and Markstrom said he was unable to start after playing 12 out of 13 games, the Canucks were forced by minor-league injuries to start junior goalie Michael DiPietro in a Feb. 11 game against the Sharks.
It was a nightmare NHL debut: two goals allowed before DiPietro made a save, and seven goals against on 24 shots in a 7-2 embarrassment for the Canucks.
Nearly a year later, DiPietro is having an excellent rookie season in the AHL, building a .910 save percentage while going 8-4-1 with the Utica Comets. On Sunday, DiPietro got his first NHL action since last winter’s disaster, and stopped six of seven shots over the final nine minutes in Vegas while mopping up for Markstrom.
Before Pacioretty beat him on a last-minute power play, DiPietro made major-league saves on Mark Stone and William Carrier.
You can’t judge anything on so small a sample, but it was an interesting relief appearance with the Canucks playing every second night until Christmas and then nine times in 17 nights to start January.
MIGHTY QUINN
With top defenceman Alex Edler still out, 20-year-old rookie Quinn Hughes logged 50:12 of ice time on the weekend, including a personal-best of 27 minutes against the Sharks. He easily led Vancouver in playing time, set up a goal each night and had a shots-for percentage of 52.5, which is more impressive than it seems given the Canucks’ results and, especially, how badly they were outplayed through two periods by the Golden Knights.
The Canucks still miss Edler. But they’d be in a crisis right now without the Calder-candidate Hughes.
MOTTE’S BAM-ATO
The NHL stats crew loves themselves some hits in Las Vegas, which statistically is about the roughest place in the league. Hits spill forth like coins from the jackpot of old slot machines. But the stats still have relative meaning, which is why it was impossible to ignore the 11 hits Tyler Motte registered for the Canucks in his first game in seven weeks.
Canucks head coach Travis Green has said several times how much the fourth-liner has been missed since breaking his foot on Oct. 25 against Washington, as Motte is an excellent penalty killer and brings consistent energy, speed and physicality to his even-strength shifts. He didn’t play fourth-line minutes in Vegas, logging 17:11 of ice time. The rest of the Canucks, outmuscled by the brawny Golden Knights, combined for 16 hits, four of them by five-foot-10 defenceman Troy Stecher.
Brandon Sutter played both weekend games, primarily as a winger, after missing 13 with a groin injury.
Winger Michael Ferland, who was moved with his $3.5-million salary to the long-term injured list in order to activate Sutter and Motte, is the only forward still out. Besides Sutter and Motte, Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel have also returned to the lineup this month from significant injuries, so Green has his healthiest forward group since the season began.
The coach attributed some of the Canucks’ problems during its 3-7-2 November slump to a critical mass of injuries in the bottom six, which affected Vancouver’s style of play. Those conditions no longer exist. Any problems now sustaining a direct, physical game won’t be because of injuries; it will be because of the players.
[snippet id=4167285]
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Tim Schaller, a wonderful comeback story in October before he largely disappeared in November, was healthy-scratched to make room in the lineup for Motte. After scoring four goals in three games in late October, Schaller is pointless in his last 22 games.
Ferland’s move to LTIR saved Loui Eriksson, who has become a $6-million spare part, a probable trip through waivers and to the minors. For now.
Sven Baertschi, meanwhile, is probably done in Vancouver. Unclaimed on waivers before the season, the four-year Canuck was sent to the American Hockey League before injuries brought him back to the NHL for what amounted to a six-game last chance in November. The 27-year-old, who battled concussion and anxiety last season, was returned to the Utica Comets three weeks ago.
Canucks general manager Jim Benning tried to trade Baertschi before the roster cutdown in September, and has been trying to trade him since. But Baertschi’s $3.367-million salary is a deal killer, even with the Canucks willing to absorb a share of it.
When Baertschi’s agent, Andre Rufener, complained to The Athletic on Saturday that the Canucks didn’t give his client a fair chance in Vancouver, Benning responded by dumping Baertschi on waivers again.
Criticizing the Canucks while the team has been trying to do everything it can to find another NHL team for Baertschi was a bad look for Rufener. But a bad look for Benning is the combined current cap-hit for Baertschi, Eriksson and Schaller: nearly $10.2 million.
[relatedlinks]
