After the Vancouver Canucks’ last game, head coach Bruce Boudreau said, “That first period might have been our worst period all year, including the games we gave up five goals.”
Against the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, the Canucks set out to prove him wrong.
The Flames, coming off an overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres the night before, came out flying, as if they were the ones with fresh, rested legs. They out-shot the Canucks 16-to-4 in the opening frame and it wasn’t just shots from the outside. High-danger chances were 7-to-1 for the Flames according to hockey analytics site Natural Stat Trick.
It was yet another terrible first period in a season that has been full of them and it had Boudreau at a complete loss.
“I can't understand it. It's not like it's a surprise to them that a team that we just beat 7-1 and lost last night is going to come out and they're going to be coming out flying,” said Boudreau. “I don’t know what it is…I think, quite frankly, it’s on yourself to get ready for the game and understand how hard you have to play and we didn’t play hard enough in the first period.”
“I don't know what do you want to me to say?” he added. “You know how I feel. I mean, without using a couple F-bombs out here — it's horrible. At this time of year, this is stuff that just cannot happen.”
Boudreau wasn’t the only one who was flummoxed at the Canucks’ complete no-show in the first period.
“If I had the answer, I don't think we would be doing this night in and night out,” said captain Bo Horvat. “We talk about it, it seems like every single game, where we have to be better and it doesn't seem to be happening. Obviously, it comes from within the room — we've got to find a way here because it's slipping away from us.
“If I knew the answer, we'd fix it right away.”
The lousy start had the Canucks down 3-0 and chasing the rest of the game. Even a strong start to the second period was quickly undone by a turnover and a 4-0 goal. When you dig yourself a hole, sometimes you delve too greedily and too deep and there’s no escaping what you awake in the darkness of Khazad-dûm — shadow, flame, and a lead from which you cannot come back.
“We're seeing it too often creep into our game where the third period means nothing,” said J.T. Miller before quickly correcting himself. “Not nothing but when you’re down by four goals, it’s inexcusable.”
“I don't have an answer,” said Boudreau. “I'd love to be sitting here and saying I've got the answers but I don't have the answers right now.”
I didn’t have any answers either after I watched this game.
- It was probably a bad sign that the Canucks gave up a 2-on-0 just two minutes into the game. On a Flames transition, Oliver Ekman-Larsson chased the puck-carrier, Blake Coleman, abandoning the middle of the ice. Calle Jarnkrok and Rasmus Andersson happily jumped into the open ice for a glorious scoring chance that Thatcher Demko thwarted.
- “It seems to be in situations like that we can't handle the speed,” said Boudreau. “Calgary came out and they were so much faster than us. And so when you can't handle the speed, it's difficult. Your gaps become really bad, so instead of being aggressive in the neutral zone, you're afraid that they're going to beat you, so you back way up. And then what happens is you don't make contact 'til the top of the circles and then they're already ready for a grade-A shot which they had tons of them in the first period.”
- Demko made some stunning saves early, so there’s a certain amount of irony that the first goal came on such a low-grade chance. Noah Hanifin jumped up the left wing with a head of steam as the Canucks were changing and got an open shot from the left faceoff circle but it’s definitely one that Demko would want to have back.
- “I don't know, maybe he's wearing down too,” said Boudreau of Demko. “He's started nine games in a row, I think. We'll have to talk to him. No matter how much rest — physical rest — there's mental wear and tear on on your body too. But we'll talk to him tonight and see how he feels.”
- Matthew Tkachuk made it 2-0 when Ekman-Larsson left him all alone in front of the net. To be fair, Ekman-Larsson had looped behind the net to play the puck. To be unfair, he played the puck directly to Mikael Backlund and took far too long to get back on Tkachuk in front as Backlund centred it, giving Tkachuk more time and space than the movie Interstellar.
- The 3-0 goal hurt. Elias Pettersson had a chance to shoot coming down the right wing but chose to cut inside to try to create a better shot. Instead, Rasmus Andersson — a right-shot, top-pairing defenceman the Flames drafted with the puck the Canucks traded them for Sven Baertschi — dove out and poked the puck off Pettersson’s stick. The Flames countered, Tkachuk dropped the puck for Andersson, and the defenceman ripped the puck bar down.
- Man, the Canucks could really use a right-shot, top-pairing defenceman like Rasmus Andersson right now. I wonder how much they’ll have to trade away to get one now?
- “Every now and again, you're gonna have a bad game, but the starts that make you chase the game the whole time, it's wearing a little thin,” said Boudreau. “Buffalo's sitting here watching them saying, 'Hey, you know what we have to do tomorrow? Let's throw everything at them in the first period and see what see what happens.’ It's not hard to see what the other team is going to do.”
- The Canucks got off to a better start in the second period but it was immediately undone by giveaway by Myers in the neutral zone and a non-existent backcheck by Miller. Myers first lost the puck, then whiffed on it as he went to pick it up. Tyler Toffoli evaded Travis Hamonic on his knees and sent Elias Lindholm in on all alone because Miller completely stopped skating. Just like that, it was 4-0.
- Demko looked exhausted as the period progressed but he made several stellar saves to keep the score at 4-0. He robbed Milan Lucic with a toe save on a chance from the slot, faced another 2-on-0 on the penalty kill, and contorted his body to make a bizarre save on a Toffoli chance in the final minute. By the end of the second, he looked spent, and the Canucks brought in Jaroslav Halak for the third.
- “It's pretty simple — I wanted to save Demmer,” said Boudreau. “The poor bugger's in there facing breakaways after breakaways, and he doesn't deserve that. He's been too good for us.”
- Halak did not seem happy about coming into the game in the third period. The Hockey Night in Canada broadcast caught his reaction on the bench and it appeared to be sprinkled with some choice language.
- Halak was busy in the third, facing 15 shots as the Flames didn’t let up in the slightest. Perhaps they were trying to get seven goals like the Canucks scored on them in their previous meeting.
- Halak gamely stopped 14 of those 15 shots but he was caught too deep on the one that got by him. On a power play where the Flames seemed to make cross-seam passes with impunity, Tkachuk sent one through the Canucks’ box to Johnny Gaudreau, who made like Pierre Poiliviere selecting his target audience and picked the far-right corner.
- The Canucks finally got a couple of goals back in the third period but it was too little and too late. The fourth line got in on the forecheck to cause a turnover, then Matthew Highmore tipped in a Juho Lammikko one-timer. Lammikko actually whiffed on the shot but that worked to Highmore’s advantage, as the fluttering puck was a lot easier to tip than a rocket would have been.
- Brock Boeser had a chance midway through the third to tuck the puck into a wide open net off a great feed from Miller. Instead, he clunked it off the post. To make it even worse, Boeser couldn’t even properly slam the bench door closed in anger. Like the puck off the post, the door kept bouncing back.
- Boeser did eventually get a goal, capitalizing on a late power play. Seemingly just realizing that Dan Vladar was in net for the Flames and not Jacob Markstrom, Elias Pettersson threw the puck on net from a tough angle to create a rebound. Vladar kicked the puck off Boeser’s skate in front and Boeser emotionlessly banged the puck into the open net.
- There was no celebrating the goal. Celebrations have been cancelled. Like coffee, celebrations are for closers. On the plus side, at least the goal annoyed Darryl Sutter.
- “I think it's easy to stay positive if you at least put a good effort on the ice,” said Miller. “When we play like that, it's very hard to stay positive. The good news is we play in a very short amount of time. We have to play better. Simple.”
- Simple.
