It was a winning road trip but a losing night and, considering the Vancouver Canucks’ ongoing urgent need for points, it was difficult to tell Tuesday which of those two facts was more important.
Finishing off a four-game trip with the chance to take seven out of eight points, the Canucks were beaten 4-2 by the Nashville Predators in their final game before the National Hockey League All-Star break.
The Canucks played hard, were a little unlucky and ultimately ran short of energy at the end as they played their second game in 24 hours and for the fourth time in six nights. It was also Vancouver’s 13th road game in its last 16 contests.
The team flew home overnight with a 2-1-1 record on the trip. Big picture, that’s a win.
But Tuesday still felt a little like an opportunity lost as the Canucks — who will be playing catch up in the standings for the rest of the season — failed to bank points that were unlikely but still very available.
“You’re never feeling good when you lose,” coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters. “But you look overall, four games on the road and we’re 2-1-1, most teams in this league would accept that and would take it as a victory. You never take it as a victory when the last game is the loss because we all hate to lose. But when I wake up in two days, I’m going to say: ‘You know what? They gave it everything they had.’”
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After beating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 on Monday, the Canucks got through the first period in Nashville tied 2-2 and then outshot the Predators 14-5 in the second period. But Nashville scored the only goal of the middle frame when Filip Forsberg beautifully tipped Roman Josi’s power-play point shot past Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko to put the Predators ahead at 3:12.
Tanner Jeannot made it 4-2 at 1:28 of the third period when the rebound from Mattias Ekholm’s shot caromed to his feet directly in front of the goal.
There was no surge from the Canucks after that, even with a power play that started at 5:34 when Dante Fabbro slashed Miller.
The 0-for-2 Canucks power play was blanked for the fourth time in five games.
“You’re not always going to score on the power play, (but) it’s just creating momentum as well and taking over games somehow,” defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “So it’s not always about scoring goals. But I feel like we haven’t been able to create enough on the power play, and I think we’re trying to keep it a little bit too cute out there instead of taking it to net.”
Forsberg finished with a pair of goals and could have had more. He had help driving the attack from top centre Ryan Johansen as the best Predators had far more impact than the top Canucks forwards.
Vancouver’s goals were scored by checking winger Matthew Highmore and Ekman-Larsson, while the Canucks quartet of Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Conor Garland combined for four shots on net and a single assist by Boeser.
The other top-six forwards, Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson, combined for 10 shots.
“I like to think that at some point that we get a little more production out of them,” Boudreau said. “If we’re counting how did we fare just based on goals and assists, then obviously we weren’t as good as we’d like to be. But I mean, as far as want and will and wanting to try… I can’t ask for a lot more than what they had. That was four games in six nights in four different cities, with a lot of travel, and we played a pretty good team (tonight) that was rested. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. They were pretty fatigued, but they never quit, so that makes you feel a little bit better.”
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After a week off, the Canucks open a seven-game stretch that includes six home games. The dismal Arizona Coyotes visit Rogers Arena on Tuesday.
Monday’s win was Boudreau’s 20th game in charge, and the team is 12-4-4 under him. The Canucks need to maintain that .700 winning percentage — or something very near it — until the end of the season to make the Stanley Cup playoffs after starting 8-15-2 under previous coach Travis Green.
That’s why Tuesday felt like an opportunity missed. A 2-1-1 road trip is good, but good isn’t going to be good enough for the Canucks.
“Yeah, it’s a little bittersweet,” Highmore said of the trip. “We wanted that one tonight. But stuff’s going to happen; it’s just how we respond. So we’re going to get a good break and come back and go right back at it. We’re going to get some home cooking here when we come back, so we’ll look forward to that.”
A HOAGIE TO GO: While rookie Vasily Podkolzin got back into the lineup after being healthy-scratched by Boudreau in Chicago, sophomore Nils Hoglander took a turn in the press box in Nashville. It was the first time since he burst upon the NHL and made the Canucks at the start of last season that the 21-year-old has missed a game.
“I wanted both of them to miss one game,” Boudreau explained. “They hadn’t missed a game at all. And that was the theme behind it. I thought the veterans would be better suited for this game.”
Boudreau said on Monday he wanted Podkolzin to take a step back and learn from just watching a game, and the same reasoning applied to Hoglander.
Podkolzin had two shots and two hits in 12:15 of ice time and looked fully engaged in what was a physical game.
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