VANCOUVER — In their win-of-the-season Wednesday against the Colorado Avalanche, the Vancouver Canucks proved they could succeed while allowing six goals. Once.
On Saturday, they allowed six (plus another into an empty net) in a 7-4 loss to the Utah Mammoth. A week earlier, the Canucks lost 7-3 to the Calgary Flames. A few games before that, it was 6-2 for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Vancouver is 1-8 in its last nine games and has allowed a total of 47 goals.
This latest downward spike in performance secured for the Canucks last-place overall in the National Hockey League, an ignominious achievement the franchise had managed to dodge for the last 55 years despite some abysmal seasons along the way.
Losing is hard on everyone except draftists. But it is the only outcome available to the Canucks as long as their goalies, blue line and overall team play are so routinely exposed by the opposition attack.
Goalie Nikita Tolopilo, a surprise starter due to a late-developing health issue for Kevin Lankinen that coach Adam Foote did not detail for reporters, was beaten six times on 23 Utah shots.
And although there were deflections and some of the usual Canuck luck — these factors intersected when the first of three goals by Clayton Keller ticked in off Vancouver defenceman Zeev Buium’s stick — there was also a turnover by Tolopilo on Lawson Crouse’s third-period goal, a missed backcheck by Marco Rossi on Liam O’Brien’s score, and another terrible line change and slack defending when Dylan Guenther finished into a semi-open net.
“Yeah, of course, it's been frustrating because there's been some goals that have gone in that shouldn't have gone in,” Foote said, noting Tolopilo’s misplay behind his net and Rossi being a step late on O’Brien.
“There's a lot of good things going on, but like you said, you’ve got to take care of your own net. If we're letting some in from the point — the goalies are letting them in — then we’ve got to block them. We’ve got to block them and get on their sticks and make sure we're better at that. So it's a combination of things. But, I mean, it's frustrating because there’s been too many going in. We’ve got to be better for (our goalies), but they’ve got to make sure they’re doing their job, too.”
Tolopilo wasn’t expecting to do the heavy work until he arrived at Rogers Arena and found out about two hours before the game that Lankinen wasn’t playing. Fourth-string goalie Jiri Patera was summoned from minor-league Abbotsford, an hour away, but did not appear in gear until after the warmup.
Foote explained that although Lankinen wasn’t feeling well Saturday morning, the team and goalie initially believed he’d be available for the afternoon game.
After not playing for two weeks, Tolopilo was hooked upon his return to the crease in Calgary for allowing four goals on 11 shots. But the minor-league callup, who has been with the team since Thatcher Demko went down for the season in January, stopped 34 of 38 shots in Thursday’s 5-2 road loss to the Minnesota Wild.
In eight appearances since February, Tolopilo, an undrafted 25-year-old, has allowed 32 goals on 194 shots for a ghastly save percentage of .835.
“This whole year has been a challenge,” he said. “Two weeks. . . it's a long time without games. But we still, like, put a lot of work in (to be) prepared. And it wasn't the start I wanted in Calgary. Like, weird bounces, maybe I can play a little differently on a couple. But then I bounced back against Minny. So I’m feeling good, and now today, it was tough, too. Some unlucky bounces, tips, the second one off the stick of our D-man.
“Of course, like, I want to get better. I'm looking at goals I let in, and I talk with our goalie coach about what we can do differently.”
Regardless of how much or little he plays, Tolopilo agreed it his responsibility to keep himself ready.
“That's part of my job,” he said. “Every practice, every ice session we have. . . I just go there and try to do better. Even if I'm not playing, like, work on my things and prepare for opportunities. It's part of my job to always be ready and get better.”
But the Canucks, and especially a defence that lately has featured four first- or second-year players, hasn’t offered enough help to Tolopilo or Lankinen.
“Usually, the magic number is three,” veteran winger Jake DeBrusk said of the team’s goals-against target. “Keep them to three and under and you have a chance every night. That's how I was taught and brought up. Obviously, we haven't been able to do that. Big breakdowns, bad changes, myself included, little details. We do it to ourselves sometimes. You try to slow down the damage for our goalies because it's not like they're letting everything in. They're making some pretty big saves as well. So that's on all of us as a group.”
DeBrusk’s 19th goal of the season (and 16th on the power play) shaved the Mammoth’s lead to 4-3 20 seconds into the third period.
But only 72 seconds later, Crouse scored from the slot after Tolopilo weakly rimmed the puck around the boards to Keller.
Linus Karlsson continued his strong rookie season by scoring twice for Vancouver, which outshot Utah 9-1 in the first 10 minutes and led 1-0 until a pair of turnovers late in the period allowed the visitors to take the lead.
“Like most of the games, we had some really good stretches during the game,” Karlsson said, “but then we have bad ones, too. I don't know, it feels that we play so great sometimes, and then we just fall back to the old sh--. So it's kind of frustrating.”
With only eight wins in 39 games at home this season, the Canucks will have to win Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights and a week later against the Los Angeles Kings to hit double digits in victories at Rogers Arena.
The team also has four road games remaining.
