Three takeaways from Canucks tough 3-1 loss to St. Louis Blues
By Joshua Rey
After getting a hard-earned point against the Florida Panthers, the Vancouver Canucks were looking to get back into the win column as they welcomed the St. Louis Blues to Rogers Arena. Unfortunately, the Blues ended up playing the right notes as they beat the Canucks 3-1.
It was the first meeting between these two teams since their first-round playoff series in 2020. The Canucks ended up winning the series in six games in the Edmonton Bubble.
Vancouver has been dealing with several players in the COVID-19 Protocol. The goaltenders have been affected the most as Thatcher Demko, Jaroslav Halak and now Spencer Martin are in the COVID protocol. It was very unfortunate for Martin as he played really well against the Panthers in his first start in five years.
As a result, Michael DiPietro was the Canucks’ starter against the Blues and they signed their emergency backup goaltender Rylan Toth to an amateur tryout. So Toth was the backup.
Transactions: #Canucks sign goaltender Rylan Toth to an amateur tryout agreement. Goaltender Spencer Martin and assistant coaches Scott Walker and Kyle Gustafson have been placed into the NHL’s COVID-19 Protocol.
— Canucks PR (@CanucksPR) January 24, 2022
Toth is a fourth-year arts major at UBC and he plays for the UBC Thunderbirds. He has put up good numbers with UBC with a 10-2-1 record, a 1.83 goals-against average and a .935 save percentage. Toth played in the WHL for the Red Deer Rebels and the Seattle Thunderbirds from 2014 to 2017.
Halak is expected to be back in Vancouver on Tuesday and he is feeling fine after five days of quarantine in the United States. However, he isn’t allowed to be back in Canada for ten days.
Canucks goalie situation is a mess.
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) January 23, 2022
What is more frustrating is that Halak is 100% after 5 days of quarentine in the US but he is not allowed into Canada for 10 days.
Halak is expected back in Vancouver on Tuesday.
Before the game, the Canucks honoured Bruce Boudreau for coaching his 1000th game in the NHL.
https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1485450813119946753
Boudreau received video messages from former players such as Alex Ovechkin, Corey Perry, Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa. He even received messages from Steven Carlson, who played Steve Hanson in the movie Slap Shot, (Boudreau was an extra in the movie.) as well as Canucks Vice President of Hockey Operations Stan Smyl.
Vancouver did well in terms of possession and scoring chances but the Blues snatched the victory. Here are the three takeaways.