Well, that is a tough pill to swallow. The Vancouver Canucks needed to win this game since before it, they were only a point behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the final wild-card spot.
The Detroit Red Wings have been struggling lately and they lost six straight games before this one. It was also Troy Stecher and Olli Juolevi’s return to Rogers Arena and they got a welcome back from P.A. announcer Al Murdoch.
For the Canucks, it was an opportunity to take two valuable points and move closer to the wild-card spot. They needed some luck of the Irish on this St. Patrick’s Day but unfortunately, luck wasn’t on their side.
There are going to be a lot of Canucks fans that are probably pouring Whiskey in the Jar after watching this game.
You just can’t base the Canucks’ performance on luck, however. It was a very frustrating game to watch. The Red Wings have also won both games against Vancouver this season with the last one being a 3-1 win in Detroit back in October.
To make things worse, it wasn’t a good night on the out-of-town scoreboard for the Canucks as well. The Golden Knights ended up beating the Florida Panthers 5-3, the Dallas Stars beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in overtime, the Los Angeles Kings beat the San Jose Sharks 3-0 and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-1. The only silver lining is that the Nashville Predators lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 in Claude Giroux’s 1000th NHL game and likely his last as a Flyer.
Talk about a double gut-punch.
Let’s just get into this post-game article, shall we?