By any measure other than the National Hockey League playoff race, this was a solid road trip for the Vancouver Canucks.
Undermanned and outgunned in most games, and with a couple of uncharacteristically weak goaltending performances by Kevin Lankinen, the Canucks managed to score 21 times in six games against mostly desperate teams and go 2-2-2 on a difficult trip in which Vancouver’s record did not reflect the grit with which it played.
If the team played with this level of engagement, effort and offensive resourcefulness over the previous five months, these six games at the start of spring wouldn’t feel like a failed rescue mission.
But “if” is the universal lament in professional sports (and life) and at the end of March the only measure that really matters for a hockey team is its playoff standing. And Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets left the Canucks six points adrift of the final two wild-card spots with just eight games remaining.
If it isn’t hopeless, then hopeless is banging at the front door as the Canucks return to Vancouver to open a three-game homestand Wednesday against the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Arena.
As impressive as their effort was on Sunday at the end of an 11-day final exam, the Canucks failed to seize the opportunity in front of them as the Jets scored the only two goals of the third period.
After getting Pius Suter’s 22nd goal of the season to lead 1-0 — and still tied going into the final period after Kyle Connor fooled goalie Thatcher Demko with a shot between his pads — the game was still there for the Canucks with 20 minutes to play.
But Mason Appleton had body position on Quinn Hughes and pushed in a rebound for the Jets at 6:24 before Cole Perfetti dismantled Derek Forbort one-on-one and shot over Demko’s shoulder at 12:11.
The Canucks rallied six-on-five to score in the final minute of regulation in St. Louis and New Jersey earlier in their trip, but the two-goal deficit in Game 6 in Winnipeg looked to be too much as soon as Perfetti scored. Vancouver’s notable six-on-five achievement on Sunday was getting caught with seven skaters on the ice with 1:20 remaining.
After that, coach Rick Tocchet chose not to pull Demko again so his team could skate five-on-five with an empty net, and likely give Winnipeg another goal that would count against Vancouver’s penalty killers.
“Really proud of the guys,” Tocchet told reporters after the game. “I thought that they played hard. Came down to, you know, kind of a goalmouth scramble (on Appleton’s winning goal). That’s a good hockey team that has a chance to win a Cup, but I thought we went head-to-head really well. I thought the guys played really hard tonight. Really proud of them.”
Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, a lock for the Vezina Trophy and candidate for the Hart, stopped 23 of 24 Canuck shots after getting ventilated during a 6-2 loss in Vancouver two weeks ago.
That highlight win launched the Canucks on their trip, and the team still had momentum even after losing 4-3 in overtime to St. Louis on March 20 dropped Vancouver a point behind the Blues for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
But the Blues have won five more games since then — and nine straight overall. St. Louis may never lose again, which is why the Minnesota Wild look like the more catchable team however remote the chances of the Canucks (or anyone) making up a six-point deficit in two weeks.
Vancouver may have to win out, and even then it might not be enough.
The Canucks followed the OTL in St. Louis with one of the most disappointing results of their season, somehow blundering their way to a 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers despite outshooting the home team 39-12.
Resiliently, the Canucks bounced back to beat the New Jersey Devils (4-3 in a shootout) and New York Islanders 5-2 before collecting just one of the final four points available in Columbus and Winnipeg. The Canucks’ failure to hold a two-goal, third-period lead against the Blue Jackets, who won 7-6 in a shootout on Friday, may haunt them for a while.
The Canucks have scored first in 40 of 74 games, but have won just over half of them (22-10-8).
By far the most impressive aspect of the trip was the way the Canucks’ depleted group of forwards manufactured goals.
Missing their top two centres Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil, as well as in-form winger Nils Hoglander, Suter and Kiefer Sherwood further elevated what were already breakthrough seasons for them. A pending unrestricted free agent, Suter had eight points in the six road games, and Sherwood seven.
Top wingers Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk kept contributing with five points apiece, minor-league call-up Aatu Raty scored three times in four games, top prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki had a tying goal and the shootout winner in New Jersey, and big defencemen Forbort and Tyler Myers stepped up at times with key offensive plays.
Overall, the last four games (2-1-1, 15 goals) were an interesting test case for life without Elias Pettersson, whose absence could become permanent if Canuck management decides after the season that the key to resetting this team and its leadership is trading Pettersson before the no-move clause on his $92.8-million-US contract activates on July 1.
“Guys worked really hard this road trip and we’ve got to continue that mindset,” Myers told reporters in Winnipeg. “We can’t get discouraged or get negative. We’re going back home to get some momentum in our own building and we’ve just got to keep pushing. You never know what can happen and we’ve just got to come together and focus on one game at a time.”
“You can only focus on one at a time and just battle hard and make sure the next game we get two points out there,” Suter said. “And then go from there. You can’t really think too much at this point about all the other teams. You’ve just got to win.”
