Canucks: 3 takeaways from embarrassing 7-1 loss to Colorado

That was an ugly one for the Vancouver Canucks.

After seven straight contests at home, the team made their way to Denver, hoping to kick off their three-game road trip with a win against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Thursday night.

They couldn’t have been farther from achieving that.

The Canucks easily put up their worst overall performance of the season, showing zero emotion, physicality, speed or desire to win en route to a 7-1 thrashing. The team once again held Thatcher Demko out to dry between the pipes, allowing Colorado to score six goals in the first two periods, while also appearing multiple steps behind the play from their opening shift.

The team was also only able to muster three shots on goal in the first period, matching Colorado’s goal total.

With the embarrassing loss, the Canucks’ record fell to 5-7-2 over their first 14 games of the season, good for second last in the Pacific Division. Only six other teams have fewer regulation wins than Vancouver right now, including Montreal, Chicago and Arizona. Yikes.

There was very little to be happy about from Thursday night’s loss, with Canucks fans storming the streets of Twitter as early as the first period to passionately proclaim their long-brewing displeasure towards head coach Travis Green and General Manager Jim Benning.

No matter how the organization chooses to operate after this beatdown (if they decide to do anything all), the Canucks will need to find a way to regroup and re-engage before their Saturday night date with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Without further ado, here are three takeaways from Thursday’s 7-1 embarrassment against Colorado:

Another game, another painfully slow start

Not to sound like a broken record, but the Canucks need to clean up their opening act in the first period.

For the 12th time in 14 games, the Canucks weren’t able to find the back of the net first, surrendering the opening tally just 3:18 into the first period. It’s been a common theme for Vancouver, who hold a dismal record of 4-6-2 when allowing the first goal of the game. They’ve also allowed at least one first period goal in all but one game this year.

What’s worse is that the Canucks’ first period woes go beyond the opponent’s scoresheet.

In their 14 first periods this season, the Canucks have conceded 42 more shots than what they’ve generated, which is supported by their league-worst 4.3% shooting percentage. As expected, the team also hasn’t been able to provide any early offensive contributions given these analytics.

So far, Vancouver is being outscored by a margin of 16-5 in the first 20 minutes, and have been shut out on ten separate occasions in that opening frame. In addition, they’ve only had one multi-goal first period all year, which took place way back on October 19th against the Buffalo Sabres.

There’s no doubt that the Canucks still need to figure out their team identity for the remainder of the season but, at this point, they’re slowly becoming the club that will just roll over and play dead as soon as you apply some pressure after the opening faceoff.

Special teams sink even lower

Might as well talk about broken records one more time, eh?

To make matters even worse, the Canucks once again strung together a series of disastrous performances on Thursday night, further twisting the knife that is their special teams.

Let’s start with the penalty kill.

As we’ve seen far too often this year, the Canucks continued to underperform and underwhelm while down a man. The team has fortunately improved their faceoff winning percentage, thanks to the services of their captain, who once again put up strong numbers in the dot.

However, even if the Canucks were able to take control of the puck in their own end, they faced large difficulty trying to hold onto it. It also doesn’t help much when you make your way to the sin bin so early on in the contest.

The team was able to thwart off Colorado’s primary unit, led by Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar, but stumbled and fell as soon as the second unit hopped over the boards.

The blame can fall primarily on Jason Dickinson, who has not lived up to the sturdy defensive label since arriving in Vancouver. The former Dallas Star was easily beaten by rookie Alex Newhook as he charged down the flank, and was also badly out of position on the rebound, which led to an easy tap-in for Valeri Nichushkin.

Vancouver allowed one more meaningless powerplay goal in the third period to bring their success rate to just 33% on Thursday night. This marked the fifth time in six games that the Canucks surrendered two powerplay tallies, which plummeted their penalty kill success rate further down the standings. The team currently sits dead last in the league at 62.8%.

The powerplay isn’t much better.

The team has a chance to even up the score early in the first period, thanks to a tripping penalty drawn by Juho Lammikko.

You can see where we’re going with this.

The Canucks looked even more lethargic and unmotivated than their previous outings, once again unable to set up any sort of offensive opportunity or set play in their opponent’s zone. They looked slow with the puck, and weren’t able to execute their crisp, simple passes and quick shots on targets that led to their powerplay success in Dallas.

The team fired blanks on three separate opportunities, bringing their powerplay percentage down to 16.7% overall, good for 21st in the league.

The cherry on top? Vancouver also allowed their first shorthanded tally of the year, marking a new low for their so-called highly lethal units.

Aside from Thursday night, the Canucks had been performing well at 5-on-5, but will need to make serious adjustments with their special teams if they don’t want to continue to get exposed and executed, night in and night out.

Other notes:

• Demko was given a breather in the third period, after facing six goals and 24 shots in the first 40 minutes. Jaroslav Halak played in relief, but also fell victim to Colorado’s scoring touch. The Canucks will wrap up the weekend with back-to-back contests, so expect Green to roll with both netminders. Demko currently holds a record of 5-5-1 with a 2.97 GAA and .907 SV%, while Halak is still looking for his first win with his new team.
• Colorado was awarded a five-minute man advantage in the third period, courtesy of Tucker Poolman’s hockey swing to the head of Kiefer Sherwood. Poolman was assessed a match penalty, and could receive supplemental discipline from the league.
• Miller was able to notch a secondary assist in the third period, extending his point streak to six games, while Nils Höglander found the back of the net for the second time this year. Miller currently leads the team in scoring with 16 points.
• Jack Rathbone returned to the line-up on Thursday after being reassigned to Abbotsford on November 1st. Rathbone posted one hit, one takeaway and one blocked shot in just over 16 minutes of ice time, skating on the third pairing with Kyle Burroughs. Rathbone was recalled from Abbotsford prior to the road trip in relief of Travis Hamonic who was unable to travel with the team due to his current vaccination status.

The Canucks will play the second game of their current road trip on Saturday night, facing off against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. Puck drop is set for 7pm PST.

What were your thoughts from Thursday’s 7-1 disaster? Let us know in the comments!