‘Can’t Name Anything Good Today’: Canucks Drop Their Third-Straight

If you ask the Vancouver Canucks how they felt about tonight’s 5–2 loss to the San Jose Sharks, the reception won’t be positive. Not only did both of their goals come from blueliners Tom Willander and Filip Hronek, but Kevin Lankinen was also pulled within the first half of the first period after allowing three goals on six shots faced. Nikita Tolopilo joined the game in relief, stopping 25 of 27 shots faced.

“I don’t think we played good anywhere today. I think pretty much every detail was bad. Can’t name anything good today,” Willander, who scored the game’s opening goal, said post-game. “Ultimately, I think at least the last few times we had results like this, I think we did a decent job in many parts of our game. But today, I thought it was awful.”

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Willander isn’t wrong. Despite scoring first, Vancouver quickly surrendered three goals within the span of five minutes, erasing their lead within a matter of seconds. The very thing Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote had called the team out on a week ago had returned — their penchant for getting down on themselves after things don’t go their way.

“We tried to do too much in the neutral zone […] kind of got off what we’re all about — getting in deep, fore-checking — and looked like we were just out of sorts for a while there, just chasing.”

As opposed to previous games, Vancouver’s effort just didn’t seem to be there tonight. They spent a good chunk of the third period hemmed in their own zone, unable to generate even a shot on net until finally being able to fully break the puck out.

With trade rumours circulating throughout the past few days, all eyes seemed to be on Evander Kane. While not necessarily just there for Kane, there were 17 scouts in Vancouver’s press box tonight, including two from the Anaheim Ducks and two from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kane did end up on the scoresheet tonight, dropping the gloves with Timothy Liljegren and taking an extra roughing penalty…