'Find some character': Simple mistakes continue to crush Canucks in loss

LAS VEGAS — It was a road trip only the mothers could love.

Desperate for some positivity and with their moms invited along for the first time since the 2020 pandemic, the Vancouver Canucks disappointed again by losing 5-2 Wednesday against the Vegas Golden Knights after getting hammered 6-2 on Monday by the Utah Mammoth.

There was unconditional love and support nearby for Canuck players, but no points in the standings and little to brighten the gloom of one of the worst National Hockey League winters in franchise history.

Five Vancouver players head directly to the Olympics to play for their countries, but the rest will spend the NHL schedule break pondering the failure of the last six weeks — four wins in 22 games since Dec. 20.

They should be thinking about how to be better for the last-place team’s final 25 games, starting Feb. 25 against the Winnipeg Jets.

“We're not playing for nothing,” centre Teddy Blueger said. “You’ve got to have some respect and appreciation to be in this league, some respect for your teammates to play hard every night regardless of the standings. The whole idea of, like, tanking and building for the future. . . when you play meaningless games like this, no one's learning anything.

“You’ve got to dig in, try to compete and win every game. And we can't get deflated and just stop playing when things aren't going our way. I think we’ve got to find some character in our group. I know we have some good guys that want to win and know how to win and to compete and play hard, but I think we’ve got to find it as a team. Just find, you know, probably some more respect for each other, some appreciation to be in this league (and) not take that for granted, not just go through the motions because we're last in the league. You know, come in and compete.”

Speaking these strong and painfully-honest words, Blueger has the benefit of experience and the freedom of knowing he is likely to be traded before the NHL deadline on March 6.

He and linemates Liam Ohgren and Conor Garland were excellent on Wednesday, but the Canuck team again shredded itself with a three-minute collapse in the second period and one-minute lull in the third when the Golden Knights scored all of their goals.

“The story of our season,” Blueger said. “I mean, I’m kind of sick of talking about it. You know, we probably don't have enough character as a group to dig in in those moments, and we just kind of get deflated too easily. No one can change that except for us. So we’ve got to take some more responsibility, more accountability. . . for each other, you know, just play hard for each other. We're not really doing that consistently enough. And when we go against a team that knows how to win, it's even more difficult.”

After a solid first period, the Canucks had another one of those confounding, exasperating lulls that have undermined them all season, allowing three goals in 2 ½ minutes early in the second period. The only positive wrinkle is that defenceman Elias Pettersson scored one for Vancouver amid the discombobulation, so the Golden Knights’ advantage was limited during the carnage to 3-1.

Canuck centre David Kampf did the hokey-pokey and turned himself around in the defensive zone, leaving room in the slot for Knights centre Jack Eichel to collect the puck and pick his spot far-post on goalie Kevin Lankinen to make it 1-0 at 5:09 of the middle frame.

Defending on the next goal was worse, as Canuck rookies Tom Willander and Jonathan Lekkerimaki allowed Cole Reinhardt to skate away from them and in alone on Lankinen before the Knight scored easily on a deke at 6:24.

But Pettersson snatched one back at 7:11, overlapping down the left and shooting between Vegas goalie Akira Schmid’s pads after nice passes by Ohgren and Blueger.

Instead of using it to re-ignite and re-engage, Vancouver surrendered another easy goal on the next shift when Eichel picked the puck from defenceman Pierre-Olivier Joseph behind the net, catching the Canucks defensively unprepared. Alone in the slot, Ivan Barbashev made it 3-1 Vegas at 7:39.

These kinds of compounding mistakes and goals have crushed the Canucks repeatedly over the season, and especially the last six weeks, making it impossible to win some nights no matter how well they play outside of the downspells.

“I mean, we play so good and then (make) some simple mistakes,” winger Linus Karlsson said. “Like, we got two shifts in a row our line got scored on. That can’t happen. That's stuff we need to clean up. That's why we lose. We're playing really good hockey, and then easy mistakes happen. And then, yeah, the game is over.”

It wasn’t quite over Wednesday.

Blueger, Ohgren and Garland were the best line on either team. Through two periods, shots were 10-0 for Vancouver when they were on the ice, 16-9 for Vegas when they weren’t.

An outstanding shift by the trio brought the Canucks back within a goal with just 8.5 seconds left in the middle period: Ohgren and Blueger on the forecheck, Garland with a pass and Joseph with a screened wrister past Schmid from the point.

But again, instead of launching the Canucks into the third period, the goal seemed to sedate them.

After Tyler Myers lost the puck in the corner and Mitch Marner skated the puck to the Vancouver slot with nobody checking anyone, untouched Knight Pavel Dorofeyev eventually swept it into an open net at 2:33.

And 58 seconds later it was 5-2, after Pettersson was beaten wide by Keegan Kolesar, and Garland failed to block a centring pass to Alexander Holtz. The Knights outshot the Canucks 15-4 in the final period.

“We have played every second day for a while now, sometimes back-to-back,” Karlsson said. “So I mean, I think you have to reset for sure (during the break), take some days off and reset your mind. But we need to come back with new energy and just get going again. I mean, we are where we are, and we have to find a way to get out of it. Hopefully this break is going to be good for us.”

“I mean, I know what I'm going to do,” Willander said. “Probably take a few days off, but I'm getting back to work. I think we have a lot of young guys on the team, and I think there's a lot of potential. I think our guys should all be doing the same thing.”

• Coach Adam Foote said after the game he expects most injured Canucks will be available to practise when the non-Olympians reconvene in Vancouver on Feb. 17. Filip Chytil (migraine complications) did not play Wednesday, but felt better than he did after leaving Monday’s game. Foote said Brock Boeser (concussion) has started skating. Marco Rossi (lower body), Zeev Buium (facial fracture) and Nils Hoglander (undisclosed) are the other Canucks who could return after the Olympic break. Blueger (Latvia), Lankinen (Finland), centre Elias Pettersson (Sweden), Kampf and Filip Hronek (Czechia) are the Canucks headed to Italy.