If the Vancouver Canucks weren’t already beaten when they stepped off the bus before their game in Winnipeg, they ensured themselves their 14th loss in 15 games within the first few minutes Thursday against the Jets.
The Canucks’ 6-2 loss was a massive and confounding step back from the competitive, sound team that had battled through its last four games, losing three of them by a total of four goals and essentially matching opponents at five-on-five.
Vancouver trailed 2-0 after four minutes and were outshot 7-0 at the start. And after Winnipeg netminder Stuart Skinner presented Liam Ohgren a gift goal at 6:51, the Canucks defended like Stonehenge — neatly spaced and immobile — when Dawson Mercer stood unchecked in the low slot between puck-watching defenders and converted Cole Perfetti’s centring pass to make it 3-1 at 14:04.
It was barely a game until that point, and never a game after it.
“Ultimately, it was a lack of effort and compete in certain. . . departments,” Canucks coach Manny Malhotra told reporters in Winnipeg. “We knew coming in that they play a very simple and direct style, and it suits them well. And we would have to be prepared and ready to compete at that level. We were on the short end of a lot of puck battles and races tonight.
“These are the types of games where you find out a lot about your group in terms of what they're capable of doing in terms of pushing back. And (the Jets) played a big, heavy game tonight, and we didn't have the pushback necessary to compete with that.”
After surviving a Canuck power play and some Vancouver pressure at the start of the second period, the Jets scored another couple of goals from the gaps in front of goalie Leevi Merilainen and led 5-1 by the 32nd minute.
This was the Winnipeg team that had just executed a miracle four-goal comeback in Montreal to end its own nine-game losing streak.
But they are always the mighty Jets when the Canucks visit. Vancouver is 5-18-1 in Winnipeg since the Jets returned to the National Hockey League in 2011, and the Canucks’ last won in Manitoba nearly five years ago.
Thursday was the Canucks’ seventh straight loss there.
They immediately went to work Thursday on extending that streak.
Unable to kill any of the three disadvantages they faced in Tuesday’s combative 5-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks in Vancouver, the Canucks took a needless penalty just 2:26 after the opening faceoff when Drew O’Connor hooked Perfetti in the neutral zone.
And, of course, they didn’t kill that penalty either, as Alex Iafallo had his stick free in front of Canuck defenceman Guillaume Brisebois to deflect in Hayden Fleury’s point shot at 3:49.
Just 14 seconds later, after defenceman Victor Mancini turned over the puck deep in Vancouver’s zone, Cole Koepke banked a shot from the right-wing boards between the pads of Merilainen, who appeared to be anticipating a pass across his crease.
“A lazy hooking penalty for no reason in the neutral zone,” Malhotra described O’Connor’s infraction. “We just seem to put ourselves at a disadvantage early for no reason, and those are the types of things that we have to clean up.”
Worse Canuck defending was to come.
On Mercer’s goal. On Neal Pionk’s rebound goal at 6:52 of the second period, when Canuck defenceman Filip Hronek (and all his teammates) seemed mesmerized by Kyle Connor’s stickhandling as the Jet easily took the puck to the goal-front. On Mark Scheifele’s goal that made it 5-1 at 11:36, when he prodded in a one-handed rebound after Jake DeBrusk lost the puck behind the Vancouver net.
As the Canucks proved during their 10-game losing streak in October, it is impossible to win playing this way. There is nothing redeeming about these kinds of lopsided losses, when the team starts badly and gives itself no chance to win.
We understand it’s a rebuild, but they simply can not play this way.
As a minimum objective, they have vowed to be competitive and difficult to play against — a team that, win or lose, fans can support during the rebuild.
The Canucks could scarcely have been easier to beat on Thursday.
It was the sixth time this season, in 18 games, that Vancouver has lost by three or more goals.
No wonder the franchise is creeping towards the worst opening quarter in the NHL’s salary-cap era.
The 2023-24 San Jose Sharks, who were 3-15-2 through 20 games of an 82-game season, actually had a better points percentage (.200) than the 3-14-1 Canucks have now (.194). With an 84-game season, Vancouver has three more games in the first quarter of their schedule, starting Saturday in Edmonton against a Stanley Cup contender in the Oilers.
“There's not going to be any easy nights in this league,” Malhotra warned. “It's only getting tougher. The hockey is only getting better. Teams are getting better systematically, structurally. Guys are waking up now and finding their game. So it's just going to get tougher as we move along here, and it’s just a wake-up call for us that we have to get sharper.”
ICE CHIPS – Hronek, the Canucks No. 1 defenceman, finished minus-four. Top forward, Elias Pettersson, posted expected-goals-for of 11.64 per cent at five-on-five. . . Improving sophomore defenceman Tom Willander skated Thursday morning in Winnipeg but missed his second straight game as he recovers from a lower-body injury. . . Veteran defenceman Luke Schenn, a one-time Jet, was healthy-scratched for the fourth time in five games. . . Minor-league callup Jacob Quillan recorded his first point with the Canucks, making a nice play to get the puck to Brock Boeser for Boeser’s pretty goal late in the third period. . . Getting extra starts due to Kevin Lankinen’s deep slump, Merilainen has lost seven of his last eight games and failed to hit the 90-per-cent save threshold in the last six. . . Vancouver was outhit 31-20. . . The Canucks are expected to practise Friday in Edmonton.
