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TAKEAWAYS

 

1) It really doesn't matter how well the Canucks play right now. They just need wins. So it's of little significance that the team opened the scoring and played with the lead on Tuesday against Montreal. Nor does it mean much that they generated 39 shots on goal. They lost. Again. That's three in a row and four of the last five. The Canucks are essentially off on the shoulder of the National Hockey League standings highway trying to change a flat tire while the rest of the teams are in the passing lane zooming past them and not stopping to lend a hand. The Canucks can hope for help from other teams, but ultimately they have to help themselves and they're not doing that. Against Montreal, they went to the third period tied 1-1. It was a game there for the taking. Instead, the Canucks took a pair of penalties and the Habs struck on both power plays. In the blink of an eye, a fragile Canucks team went from a tie hockey game to a two-goal deficit. And while there was still 16:25 remaining in the third, the game basically felt like it was over. 

 

2) The Canucks have managed one goal in each of their last three home games. Only one of them has come at five-on-five. Last Tuesday against Toronto, Josh Leivo banged home a rebound while the teams skated five aside in the third period to snap Frederik Andersen's shutout bid in a game the Canucks wound up losing 4-1. On Thursday, Elias Pettersson scored a 3-on-3 goal in overtime to give the Canucks a 1-0 victory over Carolina. Against Montreal, it was Adam Gaudette pulling the trigger with the man-advantage late in the first period. If you take things back even further, JT Miller scored a 4-on-3 power play goal in overtime to lift the Canucks to a 6-5 win over Buffalo on December 7th. So of the last four goals the Canucks have scored on home ice, only one has been at 5-on-5. Special teams goals certainly matter, but the bulk of the game is played at five-on-five. Even-strength scoring has been an issue for the Canucks since the end of October and it caught up to them again on Tuesday against the Habs.

 

3) With a full complement of healthy forwards, the Canucks appear to have chosen the wrong one to sit out the last two games. As Brandon Sutter and Tyler Motte returned to the line-up after lengthy injuries, Tim Schaller found himself the odd man out in Vegas on Sunday and against the Habs on Tuesday. In those two games, the Canucks penalty kill was destroyed by its opponents for two goals in each game. The Canucks were 2/4 on the PK in Vegas and 0 for 2 against Montreal. Schaller plays a limited role for the Canucks, but one area he has had success this season is as a leading penalty killer. It's impossible to suggest the Canucks lost the last two games simply because Tim Schaller did not play. But after watching the penalty kill crumble on consecutive games without him, Schaller will likely draw back into the line-up on Thursday. The question will be: at who's expense?

 

4) Bo Horvat's having a tough go of it these days. His late goal in San Jose on Saturday snapped a nine-game drought. The captain has not scored a home goal in 16 games this season. On Tuesday against Montreal, he didn't register a single shot and had just one attempt. With Adam Gaudette establishing himself as the third line centre and Jay Beagle back from injury, Horvat is no longer required to fill a variety of roles for the Canucks. He can simply focus on being the second line centre behind Elias Pettersson. With the Canucks at home and able to dictate the match-ups, Horvat, in theory, should find himself seeing favourable deployment. That, in turn, should lead to offense. But it's not. On Tuesday, he had familiar faces Brock Boeser and Antoine Roussel on his wings, and yet the Canucks controlled just 45.8% of the even-strength shot attempts with Horvat on the ice. He's too good to be struggling as much as he is to put the puck in the net -- especially at home. But it has to start with putting pucks on net. Horvat has just three goals now in 23 games since the end of October. 

 

5) On paper, the San Jose and Montreal games seemed like the 'winnable' games staring the Canucks in the face ahead of their Christmas break. So much for that theory. While they played well for the final 40 minutes in the Bay Area on Saturday, they had nothing to show for their efforts there. Sunday -- with the quick turnaround and travel -- was always going to be a difficult game in Vegas. That's why the Montreal game was so important. And it, too, got away from the Canucks. Now the Canucks face Vegas, Pittsburgh and Edmonton -- all in the top 12 in the NHL standings. The pressure on the players, coaching staff and management will only grow with each subsequent game. The Canucks can talk all they want about learning from their mistakes and building character through adversity. The time for talk is over. It's time for action. 

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6) The Canucks are now 16-15-4 on the season. We've done this exercise before, but it bears repeating. Take away the 6-3 start and the hockey club is 10-12-4 which is 10 wins in 26 games or 24 points in those 26 outings. Furthermore, the Canucks have just four regulation wins (vs NAS, at NAS, at EDM, vs OTT) in their last 21 games. That means 17 of the last 21 teams they have faced have taken at least a point off the Canucks. That's been the case the last six games they've played.