PHILADELPHIA – If you wanted the Vancouver Canucks’ game in a GIF, all you had to do Monday was watch the five seconds that preceded Jakub Voracek’s winning goal for the Philadelphia Flyers with 8:33 remaining.
Trapped and tired at the end of a marathon shift, unable to change, Canucks winger J.T. Miller simply couldn’t move his feet and let Flyers defenceman Justin Braun just skate away uncontested with the puck down the right-wing boards.
Braun circled the net and centred to Voracek who shot post-and-in on Thatcher Demko. The goalie was about the only Canuck to show up in the final two periods when Vancouver was outshot 26-8.
We’re not picking on Miller, who also scored the Vancouver goal in the first period. But his utter inability to skate with Braun near the end of his 69-second shift was symptomatic of the leaden final 40 minutes for the Canucks, whose 2-1 loss halted the momentum they’d generated by impressively winning consecutive road games in Nashville and Washington.
“I was exhausted,” Miller, ever-accountable, told reporters. “I tried to change right before that and couldn’t get off. And then when (the puck) went to my guy, obviously he beat me down the wall. Definitely the onus is on me there. I was exhausted.
“We can look for all the excuses we want, but every team in the league has to do this stuff.”
This stuff is a six-game road trip scattered across three time zones and 12 days.
The Canucks looked spent on Monday, which is alarming because they still have two games remaining on their longest odyssey of the season.
Now 2-2 through four games, they play Wednesday in Pittsburgh and Saturday in Edmonton.
The final shots Monday were 34-17 for the Flyers, who won for just the second time in seven games. Vancouver hadn’t had fewer than 23 shots in a game this season until they expired in Philadelphia.
How little did the Canucks test Flyer goalie Carter Hart the last two periods? Consider that the Flyers, after a dullish first period, speed-bagged Vancouver with five shots in the first 80 seconds of the second period – one shot more than the Canucks managed in either of the last periods.
“We didn’t create much,” coach Travis Green understated. “We kind of hung in there tonight and probably got what we deserved. They looked a little quicker than us tonight, to be honest. When one team’s playing a little quicker, that will happen.
“I think we worked. (But) it looked like we didn’t have our legs. When you don’t have your legs, it’s hard. You can try to do it all you want, but if you don’t have your skating legs, it’s hard to push.”
Even after they fell behind for the first time on Voracek’s goal, the Canucks were unable to reverse the flow of the previous 32 minutes and sustain any pressure in the Flyers’ zone.
They looked like a tired team.
“Absolutely not,” leading scorer Elias Pettersson said after his shotless, pointless night. “It’s hockey; it’s our job. Of course it’s a long road trip, but I’m not complaining.
“I don’t know, we weren’t working and skating as much as we did the two games before this. Short memory, learn from it and get ready for the next one.”
Linemate Brock Boeser, who registered one shot, said: “They were just outcompeting us all over the ice. They were winning the puck battles. That’s not our game, and we need to be better than that. It sucks. When they took the lead, you’ve got to find that extra energy or whatever it is, get some pucks in and get some looks late. We know we need to be better.”
Miller was at the centre of all the goals. The Flyers tied the game 1-1 at 5:54 of the second period when Voracek’s centring pass looked to be on Miller’s stick, only to have the puck bounce away from the Canuck and fall to Sean Couturier directly in front of Demko.
Miller opened scoring at 10:34 of the first, shooting quickly from a sharp angle after Flyer Michael Raffl’s turnover was followed by a terrific reverse pass by Canuck Bo Horvat.
“It felt like one of those games where the whole timing was off and we were kind of making them look good,” Miller said. “They played a great game, though. I just don’t think we brought what we brought the last two games consistently enough in this one.
“We just didn’t win enough battles. They were skating better. They looked like they were really good, and we looked like we were slow. I think we know as a group that we need to be accountable and hold ourselves to a higher standard than what we showed today.”
If not energy, the Canucks will try to recover at least some execution when they practise Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Participants are expected to include previously injured players Brandon Sutter (groin) and Micheal Ferland (concussion). The team can use some fresh legs.
[relatedlinks]
