The Canucks’ 5-4 overtime loss at home to the Kraken on Dec. 28, when they choked on a 4-1 lead with five minutes to go as they were trying to re-ignite from the holiday break, was a stark warning for what was to come for Vancouver.
Of course, the coal mine was already collapsing by then, weakened by Canuck injuries, key absences, melodrama and plain bad luck. But the way they lost to Seattle, a team going nowhere, was the kind of collapse Vancouver didn’t allow itself last season.
By January, the Canucks had already lost twice to the Nashville Predators. They would lose three times to Utah’s hockey club, two of those pointless losses coming since the February schedule break when the teams began sprinting for the National Hockey League playoffs.
During what was supposed to be Vancouver’s urgent push for a wild-card spot, the team also lost to the Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks, a second time to Seattle and, on Friday, blew a late two-goal lead to lose in Columbus in overtime.
So when the 29th-place Kraken, who sold off players at the NHL trade deadline and had lost five of six games before Wednesday, showed up at Rogers Arena and dusted the Canucks 5-0 on Wednesday, there really shouldn’t have been much surprising about it.
The Canucks competed relentlessly on a just-finished 2-2-2 road trip. But Wednesday’s regression reminded us who the Canucks have been this season, especially in the first half of the year. And especially on home ice, where they won only four of their first 14 games.
Through an avalanche of challenges, the Canucks have also been resilient and resourceful, which along with good goaltending, great penalty killing, a solid defence and a superstar named Quinn Hughes (playing hurt, naturally), kept them credibly in the playoff race until the St. Louis Blues went super-nova.
There have been a lot of good results, too, for Vancouver. Some clutch performances.
But Wednesday’s dismal loss, when the Canucks looked both mentally and physically exhausted from their weeks-long mission to save their season, was the end of hope.
It wasn’t surprising, but it sure was painful.
Many fans booed at the end.
“I’m not going to comment on, you know, guys being mentally tired or physically tired,” captain Hughes said. “I think that if you went around the league, everyone would say that they’re mentally tired. I don’t think there should be any excuses.
“I mean, it’s not tough to believe (in still making the playoffs) just because we’re in it, and it’s the reality. As far as that, obviously everyone’s looking at standings daily, and. . . you know what the percentages are and whatnot. So, yeah, we know where we’re at.”
With seven games to go, the Canucks trail the Blues and Minnesota Wild by eight points and have a game-in-hand on both. According to MoneyPuck.com, the Canucks have a six per cent chance of making the Stanley Cup tournament.
They didn’t come close to beating Seattle on Wednesday. How are they to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, or the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche next week on Vancouver’s final road trip of the year?
The Canucks play the Ducks on Saturday.
“It’s really frustrating,” defenceman Marcus Pettersson said of Wednesday’s loss, the Canucks’ most-lopsided in 2 ½ months. “I think the looks that they get, we kind of give them. We know they’re good off the rush, and they got a lot of chances off the rush. Yeah, it’s deflating. We’ve got to pick ourselves back up and get back into the fight.
“We’re going to fight right until the end. There’s a lot of fight in this room and we’re going to make sure we come back strong this weekend.”
Given the opportunity by Vancouver to use their speed to attack in transition against outnumbered defenders, the Kraken scored once in the first period and twice in the second and by the third period had destroyed the idea floated by the Canucks before the game that Wednesday would be like a Game 7.
Game 7 of what? The pre-season?
Tied with the Canucks two weeks ago, the Blues have won 10 straight. The Calgary Flames have stayed in the vapour trails of the wild-card race by winning five of their last eight. Even the suddenly vulnerable Wild managed to harvest a loser point Wednesday in New York despite being outplayed by the Rangers.
But in Vancouver, Jake DeBrusk’s neutral-zone turnover turned into a breakaway goal for Mikey Eyssimont at 16:42 of the first period.
From sharp angles on outnumbered rushes, Chandler Stephenson and Shane Wright picked the far corner on Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko in the second period, before Andre Burakovsky scored on another three-on-two counter-attack for the Kraken in the third. Adam Larsson scored the final Seattle goal into an empty net at 16:24 after Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet lifted Demko for an extra skater in a 4-0 game.
“I think that early on, I saw a lot of nervousness,” Tocchet said. “We had a couple power plays; you need some poise there. I didn’t think we had some poise, and then they got a couple of quick goals on us and you could see guys were getting nervous, chasing the game. I mean, I think we had some guys that really gave some effort, but I didn’t think we had a lot of poise tonight.”
The 0-for-3 power play was barely recognizable from the start of the season. Hughes and Conor Garland are playing hurt. Elias Pettersson is out of the lineup injured, and J.T. Miller has been gone for two months, traded to the Rangers.
But the Canucks’ defending on Wednesday also bore little resemblance to the last three months. Shots were 25-19 for Vancouver, and shot attempts were 76-40. But the quality chances the Canucks surrendered to the Kraken’s strengths were not survivable.
Just like the loss itself, in April, doesn’t feel survivable.
“I thought we were going pretty well until I passed to the wrong team,” DeBrusk said of his giveaway on the opening goal. “I feel like I’ve been making mistakes the last eight or nine games that have cost us. So it hurts. It’s frustrating, disappointing. I believe in this group; I signed here (in free agency) for a reason. But I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to help instead of hurt.”
“I mean, you’ve got to believe in yourself,” Tocchet said. “If you’re struggling as a player, you’ve got to turn your game around — just got to believe in yourself. Plus, we’ve got a bunch of young guys (and) you owe it to them to keep pushing. You just keep pushing.”
