For the first time this season, the Vancouver Canucks had Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, Thatcher Demko, and Filip Hronek in their lineup at the same time. Despite all of that, the Canucks lost 6-1 to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night, suffering one of their worst losses of the season by far.
By the time he completed his first-period hat trick, superstar winger Kyle Connor had more goals for the Jets than the Canucks had shots on goal. Neal Pionk made it 4-0 less than a minute after the start of the second period. Nino Niederreiter killed the game off at 5-0 with less than five minutes remaining in the middle stanza. Mark Scheifele added insult to injury on the power play only 1:31 into third, but at least Nils Hoglander scored his third of the year.
And in a game where they went into the first intermission with a 3-0 deficit, the Canucks came out swinging in the second period, getting outshot 20-10 by the Jets. It was actually a minor miracle that Kevin Lankinen allowed two goals in that period and not more than that.
Brock Boeser, J.T. Miller, and Pius Suter were the only three forwards to record two or more shots on goal. Connor Hellebuyck, the clear Vezina Trophy frontrunner, can only laugh at an effort like that.
The Canucks are now 19-14-10 with five more losses than wins. The Calgary Flames, who are 21-15-7, have stolen the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference away from the Canucks and lead by one point.
The five-goal loss to the Jets pushes the Canucks' goal differential down to -11 on the season, equal with the Flames and worse than the St. Louis Blues (-10) and the Utah Hockey Club (-7), two teams also within striking distance of this playoff spot.
And now the question remains: is this who the Canucks really are, and was last season a fluke?