VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks have earned their winter holiday. Just not on Wednesday.
With the NHL all-star break and Vancouver’s bye week combining to give players seven complete days off, it looked like most of the Canucks already had one skate on the plane to Hawaii or Mexico or Vegas when they lost 5-2 Wednesday to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The dismal loss – the Canucks defended atrociously and surrendered four straight second-period goals – ended Vancouver’s pre-holiday homestand at 3-1-2. Four months ago, taking eight points out of 12 on a homestand might have earned everyone here a civic holiday.
But Vancouver’s record was a false economy heading into Wednesday’s game. The Canucks had been badly outplayed in the first 30 to 40 minutes of their previous three games. Goaltending, timely scoring and luck had allowed them to go 2-0-1.
Canucks coach Travis Green revealed after Sunday’s 3-2 escape against the Detroit Red Wings that he told his players in the second intermission he was unsure whether to yell or feel sorry for them because they were playing so badly.
They may have been worse on Wednesday. At least Green wouldn’t have been conflicted. But he may have needed throat lozenges for the third period.
Green, who was a poker player of note before he became a coach, bluffed everyone Tuesday when he deployed Jake Virtanen as an extra forward in practice. Virtanen was not healthy scratched on Wednesday, when presumably he would be fired up by his coach’s not-so-subtle message.
But Virtanen did not look fired up. He played nine minutes and was minus-two. None of the Canucks were fired up.
They were outshot 19-7 by Carolina in the first 30 minutes, bringing their territorial deficit to 78-34 in the first half of the final four games of the homestand. They didn’t move their feet, couldn’t move the puck out of their own zone and were dominated by the best Hurricanes.
Teuvo Teravainen had a goal and two assists for Carolina, Nino Niederreiter scored twice and Sebastian Aho and Dougie Hamilton had two points apiece.
Even Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom, on the greatest and most consistent two-month run of his NHL career, was powerless this time to plug the holes in his team’s defence. The third pairing of Erik Gudbranson and Derrick Pouliot looked almost unplayable.
Canucks winger Antoine Roussel, who padded his penalty minutes by taking a double-minor and 10-minute misconduct against Niederreiter with 13:30 remaining, said after the Detroit game that his team had lost its rhythm.
After playing about every second night for nearly two months, when only the Vegas Golden Knights played as often and in as many road games as the Canucks did, Vancouver’s six-game homestand was spread leisurely across 17 days.
The time between games was divided between quality practices and full days off. So, yes, the Canucks’ rhythm was disrupted. But that doesn’t sufficiently explain their lack of energy and foot speed the last week.
With six winnable games, plenty of rest and practice time to prepare for them, and the rare bonus of a fully healthy lineup, eight points was the over-under for a successful homestand. The Canucks arrived there in an unorthodox manner, and yet had a terrific chance to get 10 points.
They just needed to muster one superior performance – one inspired start and 60 minutes of crisp execution. Another win was sitting right there for them when Sven Baertschi finished a pretty passing play with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser to somehow put Vancouver ahead 2-1 at 5:14 of the second period. Then the Canucks surrendered four goals in a 10-minute span.
"I don’t think it was just the second period," Green said. "I thought we struggled against their quickness. I’m not worried about it being a wakeup call. We’ve been honest with our team all along."
Veteran centre Brandon Sutter said: "Our last three games have been the same tale: we just haven’t been our best. That second period, that 10-minute stretch just got away from us and then it was over. We just have to come back ready."
If the Canucks need to play more often in order to play well, they’ll get their wish in February. They play nine times in 15 days, seven of the game on the road, starting on Feb. 2 against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. That first Canucks practice back at altitude is going to be a doozy.
The Canucks and Avalanche hit the all-star break tied for the final wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference. Before this season, that would have seemed like a miracle on the West Coast. The Canucks have 31 games to go. But they could be out of the race by the middle of February if they don’t find their form.
"I just think we’ve got to get back to what we did when we were playing well," defenceman Alex Edler said. "It’s all little things. It starts in the D-zone. You take care of that, the offence will take care of itself. Every once in a while you just have to click the reset button and get back to playing simple, hard hockey. We need everyone every night. We say that all the time."
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