{"id":322433,"date":"2025-12-03T09:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/322433\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T09:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:43:11","slug":"game-of-inches-canucks-haunted-by-lost-opportunities-on-difficult-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/322433\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Game of inches’: Canucks haunted by lost opportunities on difficult road trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER \u2014 Like careful alpinists everywhere, the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> had a plan to survive the avalanche. But there is only so much you can against a force of nature.<\/p>\n

The Canucks played the mighty Colorado Avalanche<\/a> even Tuesday until a couple of mistakes cost them late in the second period as the Stanley Cup favourites beat Vancouver 3-1.<\/p>\n

Of course, the smartest way to avoid avalanches is to stay out of the mountains when they are likely, but there is no safe way around Denver for National Hockey League teams as the Avalanche extended their points streak to 14-0-3. Colorado\u2019s only regulation loss in 26 games this season came on Oct. 25.<\/p>\n

The Canucks have only three regulation wins since then, and they finished their difficult road trip at 1-2-1 \u2014 and with three straight losses.<\/p>\n

It was the Canucks\u2019 season in four games.<\/p>\n

The team worked relentlessly in all four contests, and played well enough to win any or all of the three games in California. But they left the Golden State with just three of six points and, after playing the Avalanche even for 33 minutes, eventually were overmatched by Nathan MacKinnon\u2019s team, which scored in the final minute of the first two periods and managed their two-goal lead in the third as the Canucks pushed at the beginning and the end.<\/p>\n

As the Canucks\u2019 five-on-five play tightened up during their seven-day tour, their special teams failed them at key times. They lost another key player to injury when offence-generating winger Conor Garland went home from Los Angeles, and goalie Kevin Lankinen returned from a personal leave just as minor-league callup Nikita Tolopilo required one for the birth of his child.<\/p>\n

At the start of the road trip, the Canucks were seven points out of a playoff spot and tied for the fourth-worst winning percentage in the NHL. By the end, they were five points out with the third-worst win rate.<\/p>\n

But now they have 55 games remaining instead of 59.<\/p>\n

Before Tuesday\u2019s loss,\u00a0MoneyPuck.com\u00a0gave the Canucks an 8.4 per cent chance of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs. About one-in-12.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we easily could have won San Jose, and could have won in L.A.,\u201d Canucks centre Max Sasson<\/a> said of Friday\u2019s 3-2 defeat and Saturday\u2019s 2-1 loss in overtime. \u201cTonight, I mean, they’re a really good team. Those top guys, they capitalize. It sucks because it really feels like we actually played pretty decent hockey over the last three games.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Canucks began the season with this road trip, their \u201cprocess\u201d would have been encouraging despite a squandered point or two. But as November turned to December, with desperation in Vancouver increasing by the week, this trip just felt like lost opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s what it feels like, honestly,\u201d winger Jake DeBrusk<\/a> said. \u201cI thought there were some good moments but, you know, it’s tough when you have a record like (we have). We\u2019ve just got to keep moving, try to find the next one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a couple chances tonight. We had good looks with breakaways and things, the power play, at the end of the game as well. We could have had a couple more (goals). But that’s the difference in this league sometimes when it\u2019s just going against you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linus Karlsson<\/a> opened scoring for Vancouver at 2:55 with a calm, deft finish after nice passing by Arshdeep Bains<\/a> and Aatu Raty<\/a>. But MacKinnon, easily the best player in hockey right now (although it\u2019s been a while since he was out of the top five) tied it at 19:23 when he had space in front of defenceman Pierre-Olivier Joseph to convert a rebound that bounced straight to him after Canuck goalie Kevin Lankinen had stopped Devon Toews\u2019 deflection.<\/p>\n

The game turned late in the second period when Sasson\u2019s poor backcheck, combined with Quinn Hughes<\/a>\u2019 suspect read on an outnumbered rush, left Brock Nelson alone in front of Lankinen to convert Gabe Landeskog\u2019s pass and make it 2-1 at 13:52.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can’t happen,\u201d Sasson said of the backcheck in which he coasted briefly in the neutral zone. \u201cMe and Quinn talked about it, and I take full responsibility for (Nelson) getting by me. I thought Quinn was going to back up to the middle but things happen quick and, honestly, if I don’t stop skating, I like my speed to get back on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes, who drifted wide where Landeskog was being chased by DeBrusk, said: \u201cHe made a nice play (but) I think I should, you know, hold the middle there because. . . the dangerous guy was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 34 seconds remaining in the middle period, MacKinnon found space in the high slot to rip Landeskog\u2019s feed past Lankinen\u2019s shoulder to double the Avalanche lead. In 26 games, MacKinnon has 22 goals, 46 points and is plus-32.<\/p>\n

The Canucks\u2019 scoring chances included a breakaway for Kiefer Sherwood<\/a>, a partial breakaway for DeBrusk, three chances from the slot for Elias Pettersson<\/a>, and some point-blank shots near the end by Brock Boeser<\/a> and Karlsson.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying against a good team, we\u2019ve got to make sure we get ours when we can because they capitalize on the few mistakes,\u201d Canucks coach Adam Foote told reporters. \u201cI think we had more (Grade)-A looks than they did. We were right there. We were happy with a lot of looks we had; it would be nice on one of them to bear down and get one of those in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canucks were likely to at least beat the snow out of Denver as they flew home post-game to open a four-game homestand Friday against the Utah Mammoth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re right there in a lot of these games,\u201d Sherwood said. \u201cIt’s a game of inches, obviously. Guys are fighting through it all. . . stuff we’re trying to build on.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICE CHIPS \u2014 It looked like the Canucks might have yet another serious injury when winger Evander Kane left the game late in the third period clutching his forearm after a pileup by the curved glass at the Avalanche bench. Foote said Kane was cut by a skate, but the laceration did not appear to be deep and that the winger should be OK. . . Sherwood led the Canucks with six shots and four hits. . . minor-league callup Jonathan Lekkerimaki skated on the first line with Kane and Elias Pettersson and handled himself well in difficult minutes. Lekkerimaki did not register a shot but led the Canucks with a 57-per-cent Corsi at five-on-five.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Like careful alpinists everywhere, the Vancouver Canucks had a plan to survive the avalanche. But there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-322433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}