Three takeaways from Canucks tough 3-1 loss to St. Louis Blues

#3: Special teams were the difference yet again

The Canucks special teams weren’t special again.

After some improvement since Boudreau took over, the Canucks PK has crashed back to reality since the start of the five-game road trip.

The penalty kill is still last in the league and the numbers still aren’t great.

The Blues capitalized on the power play with Schenn’s second period goal. The Canucks penalty kill giving up a goal is as inevitable as a character wearing a red shirt dying in the original Star Trek TV series. The PK once again was giving the Blues easy chances and they were hurt by it.

As for the power play? It wasn’t good either.

However, they did get lots of shots on the two man advantage particularly on the first period five-on-three. Brock Boeser got some good looks and he ended up leading the Canucks in shots-on-goal with six.

“I’d like to see us score on the power play, but besides that, I thought we were good,” said Quinn Hughes.

It was nice to see the Canucks power play take some shots but those have to go in. Unfortunately, Husso was just too good.

There is no doubt that the special teams have to be better especially if the Canucks want a chance to make the postseason. Unfortunately, the special teams have let them down.

Other notes

• On Pearson’s goal, Elias Pettersson got his 100th career assist.  He did put a good effort but the bad luck seems to be still there. For instance, he got his stick stuck between the boards.

• Jason Dickinson isn’t known for scoring but he had to better with the two breakaway chances. On the second one, he went too deep and was foiled by Husso’s pad

• Boudreau expects Martin and Demko to be back on Tuesday.

Speaking of Tuesday, that’s when the Canucks play next as the Edmonton Oilers come to town. Puck drop is at 7:00 PM.