Canucks can’t buy a goal in frustrating 1-0 loss to Red Wings

Thoughts on the game

From the get-go, the Canucks had a tough time solving Alex Nedeljkovic. He has been struggling the last few months (and let’s face it, has not had a good season.) and of course, he stands on his head against the Canucks. There were plenty of shots from the point, from the slot and directly in front of Nedeljkovic but he ended up stopping all of them. The Canucks best chance was probably an Elias Pettersson redirect in the first period which was stopped by Nedeljkovic’s blocker.

While there were plenty of chances (43) on Nedeljkovic, there were a lot of shots that missed the net. It also felt like the Canucks were hesitant to shoot the puck as well. Watching the Canucks miss the net was just as annoying as people telling me to watch Euphoria. (I’ll get to it…someday.)

Brock Boeser had two golden opportunities on the power play in the second period but he ended up missing both of them. He also had a chance on a two-on-one with Bo Horvat but he couldn’t handle the pass.

The Red Wings got on the board as the second period power play expired after Horvat lost the handle of the puck and the Wings went the other way quickly. Pettersson and Quinn Hughes should have done better on the backcheck but Pius Suter was looking to make a pass back to Vladislav Namestnikov but the puck went off Hughes’ stick and through Thatcher Demko’s five-hole.

*Cue Sad Trombone*

The Canucks also spent a lot of time, particularly on the power play, passing the puck around and waiting too long to shoot. It seemed like they were waiting for a perfect opportunity to get a shot. They should of just let it rip like what they say before a Beyblade is spun.

Since it was mentioned the Red Wings have lost six straight, it is a red flag that the Canucks got outplayed by them for most of the game. That was especially evident throughout the first period as the Red Wings got 17 shots in that frame. Corsi for was 60%- 40% in favour of Detroit in the first period according to NaturalStatTrick.

The defence from the Canucks wasn’t good either particularly from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tyler Myers. The pairing had a rough game. When the two of them were on the ice, the Canucks gave up 37 shots. Myers was Vancouver’s leader in expected goals against with 1.76 with OEL right behind him with 1.75. Both of them couldn’t defend the Red Wings on the rush, turned the puck over and had trouble getting the puck out of the defensive zone.

But that was one common theme of the night, the Canucks had trouble clearing the puck out and were too careless in their own zone. They also had a tough time winning the defensive battles along the boards.

Hughes even made some poor giveaways in the first period and there were a lot of them throughout the game from the Canucks in the game.

Demko looked good in the game and he made two great saves off Lucas Raymond.

This was the first one and it surely looked liked Raymond scored. Just another day in the office for Demko, especially with no goal support.

The Canucks had a lot of missed opportunities and this game was a huge opportunity missed. Losing to and getting shutout by the Red Wings is simply unacceptable.

What was said

Boudreau was clearly frustrated with the performance.

“You can’t score on the perimeter when the goalie is playing good,” said Boudreau. “You got to find ways, and we didn’t.”

The Canucks coach also was not happy with the first period.

“Must have been the worst period we’ve played, including the games where we gave up 5 goals,” said Boudreau per Farhan Lalji of TSN. “We must have given the puck away 25 times”

Boudreau didn’t want to blame any particular player for the loss and that included Boeser.

Pettersson pretty much summed up what the Canucks need to improve on for next game. It was an obvious answer.

“We just got to find a way to get the puck in the net,” he said.

Advanced stat of the night

In terms of high-danger chances, they were 55.36% for the Red Wings. while the Canucks had 44.44%. The Canucks also had a HDCF percentage of 0 in the third period.

Ouch.

Tweet of the night

I don’t mind the Canucks green St. Patrick’s Day warm-up jerseys but adding “O” to every name is unnecessary. But it was fitting for this game since the Canucks didn’t score.

*Cue Sad Trombone again.*

Wrap-up

Overall, it was a very frustrating night for the Canucks as their offence had no fire power and the defending was woeful. If the Canucks miss the playoffs, this will be one of the games to look back on and think about what could have been.

The Canucks continue the homestand on Saturday as the Pacific Division leading Calgary Flames are in town. Puck drop is at 7:00 PM.