Canucks: 3 takeaways from frustrating 7-4 loss to Vegas

Special teams, costly mistakes ultimately sink the team

If only we had a dollar every time the Canucks struggled on the special teams this season.

The agony continued on Saturday night, with Vancouver once again underperforming in both departments. It seemed to be going in the opposite direction in the first period, with the team killing off two consecutive penalties while also applying consistent, dangerous pressure on their own powerplay opportunity before.

However, just like when the last time these two teams met, Vancouver’s bubble eventually burst.

The Canucks finished the night going 0-for-4 on the powerplay, bringing their overall success rate to just 15.5% on the year. Again, the team looked much more dangerous while on the man advantage, and were actually able to generate decent scoring chances in the offensive zone against Lehner, but it’s still a far cry from being a consistent threat.

Vancouver has only scored three powerplay goals in their past eight contests, with all three tallies coming against the Dallas Stars on November 7th. The truly sad part? This isn’t even their weakest special teams department.

The penalty kill continued to fall apart, surrendering two more goals on four chances.

Saturday’s outing was a little more controversial, as the home team was awarded their final man advantage opportunity on a truly horrendous call by the officials. With the game tied 4-4, and with just over 12 minutes still on the clock, the referees dinged Thatcher Demko with a delay-of-game infraction for “pushing” the net off of its moorings.

As we’ve seen too many times before, Vancouver was immediately punished from this mistake, thanks to Jonathan Marchessault’s second goal of the game which eventually stood as the game-winner.

Fans and media immediately sounded off on Twitter about the Demko infraction, with Green even commenting on the hilarity.

However, no matter what we think about the call, the blame can’t fall solely on the referees. At the end of the day, the penalty kill needs to find a way to deliver in the big moments when their team needs them most. We haven’t seen anything from the shorthanded units all year, and it’s definitely going to become a long season if they can’t turn their play around fast.

To make matters worse, Vegas continued to pour on the offence in the final moments on the third period, in large part to avoidable blunders from Miller and Myers.

When it rains, it pours – right, Canucks fans?

The team won’t have much of a break before their next test, facing off against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night to round of their three-game road trip. Puck drop is set for 5:00pm.

What are your thoughts from Saturday’s 7-4 loss in Vegas? Drop a comment below!