It’s become the story of the Vancouver Canucks season. They do some decent things, have an opportunity to win, and then watch as the penalty kill implodes. It was no different Sunday in Boston.
The Canucks opened the scoring on a greasy Tanner Pearson goal, only to have Jaroslav Halak give it right back by letting in a softy. Even then, Vancouver reclaimed the lead when a Conor Garland shot found its way through traffic and entered the third period up 2-1.
As time began to tick in the third, there began to be some false sense of optimism that the Canucks could steal one. Enter the penalty kill. Nils Höglander was called for tripping, the Bruins went to the man advantage and who else but Brad Marchand tied the game.
Well, maybe they could eek out a point right? Wrong. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who spent most of his night being bullied by Marchand threw a dangerous hit on Anton Blidh. Penalty called, puck in net, Canucks lose. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The Canucks are now 1-8-1 in their last 10, are dead last in the Pacific and haven’t won on the road in a month. If this isn’t rock bottom, it’ll probably come tomorrow if the Canucks lose to a Montreal team that just fired it’s entire front office, four months removed from going to the Stanley Cup Finals. Marc Bergevin oversaw more playoff series wins last year than Jim Benning has in eight years. But guess who still has a job?
But anyway, on to the three takeaways from the loss.
1. The defensive personnel is the biggest issue with this team
Don’t get it twisted, there are a million issues with this organization from top to bottom. But the fact that Kyle Burroughs and Luke Schenn were killing a penalty with the game on the line tells you all you need to know. Alas, Burroughs got absolutely dusted by Marchand setting up David Pastrnak for a tap-in that would stand as the game winner.
It wasn’t a personnel decision by Travis Green to do that. With Ekman-Larsson in the box, his only other option was Quinn Hughes. Two weeks ago, in a similar situation against Vegas, Green was forced to use Burroughs and Madison Bowey.
Just for a quick reminder, the Canucks depend highly on Tyler Myers and Tucker Poolman to kill penalties which is hilarious considering how bad both are defensively. But that’s the situation Vancouver is in.
It’s not like last year when Nate Schmidt came in and surprisingly played poorly. These players aren’t playing poorly, they’re playing like who they are. Fringe, bottom pairing players. Poolman didn’t forget how to defend or move the puck, he never knew how. Burroughs didn’t suddenly regress into an AHL defenseman, that’s what he’s always been. But that’s who Vancouver is running out there every night, hoping it’ll change.
The struggles of the forwards have been problematic and worrisome, but it may help just a little bit if anyone besides Quinn Hughes could consistently start a breakout. If only there was a young, borderline elite defenseman who would be tied for second on the Canucks in assists right now. Too bad.