Vancouver capped a losing Thanksgiving weekend by giving up an early goal to St. Louis and then making other mistakes in a 5-2 loss. The Canucks lost to the Oilers 3-1 on Saturday in Edmonton.
They gave up 72 shots and six goals (plus two empty nets), while scoring three goals in two games. The Canucks' only goal from the top two lines was Brock BoserSpinning Hook Shot in Edmonton. Sherwood plays in a position that started Monday as the Canucks' fourth line.
The Canucks began the National Hockey League regular season last week full of positivity, but were fully aware that their biggest challenge would be scoring goals and that their best players collectively would have to be better than they were last season.
They weren't good enough at the weekend.
“Well, you know what? It's early in the season,” head coach Adam Foote told reporters Monday night when asked about the top players. “We're in Game 3 and we're not going to go into detail. You know, the top guys know. I'm sure they're thinking about their power play; it's been three games and they want to get things going. But we're not going to analyze it too much at this point.”
The Canuck power play, another potential source of increased scoring and a dynamite preseason, had just one failed attempt against the Blues (which speaks to how little the visitors were forced) and is now 0-for-7 through three games.
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“On every team, your first line should be your best line,” DeBrusk said. “I'm proud of that, and we didn't do that. I feel that more than anything. In saying that, we're chasing the game a lot. That means the forecheck isn't very good, and that's my responsibility, and our neutral zone and our breakouts aren't that good. It's a five-man group, to be honest.”
“I just need to find my game. You know, it's been three games now, but honestly, it's frustrating. I think at the end of the day… I have to be a threat. I feel like I haven't really been involved in anything. It's my fault, I have to be better at this and I can't let that happen anymore.”
DeBrusk, Boeser and Pettersson combined for four shots. Pettersson's ice time was 15:36.
DeBrusk wasn't the only Canuck to blame himself.
“I felt like I probably had five A (chances) and didn’t score any of them,” second-line forward Conor Garland said. “We might be talking about something different if I could bury something earlier. I feel like we're playing. It feels like we're trying to attack, trying to play with some strength forward. But it doesn't go through and they get a couple of weird chances, so it's difficult.”
Defenseman Marcus Pettersson lost goal guard on Jimmy Snuggerud, who opened the scoring for St. Louis at 8:48 of the first period, and the Canucks made a poor line change that allowed Brayden Schenn to make it 2-0 after a partial breakaway at 2:10 of the second period.
Sherwood, whose line is with Aatu Rati And Arshdeep Bains was the best among the Canucks, trying to involve Vancouver in the game. He scored on a smart pass from Ratey in traffic at 5:33 midway through the period and again on a sweet shorthanded breakaway at 12:12 that would have injured St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington.
But rather than using the goals to build momentum and their play by stringing together reliable shifts, the Canucks seemed intent on crushing the Blues before the second intermission. They made mistakes.
Elias Pettersson's penalty allowed the Blues to restore their two-goal lead at 8:13 of the second period, Snuggerud scoring one step ahead of Canuck Drew O'Connor after Tyler Myers deflected the puck into the net by Schenn.
And at 1:45 p.m., just 1:33 after what looked like Sherwood's decisive shorthanded goal, Nick Bjugstad scored on a three-on-two attack after Kane followed the puck toward the St. Louis net with a Vancouver defenseman. Quinn Hughes already in the depths.
“We get short and then we start pressing, pressing, pressing, and they get another rush,” Foote said. “There's a lot of hockey left in the game. When we get unlucky, when we fall behind eight goals early, we just have to hang in there and trust it. And sometimes we just go too far. But the good thing is they want to win. They go for it, they want to win a hockey game.”
“I just felt like we pressed too hard and we dived in. You get so fired up when you get to 3-2. They feel the energy of the crowd. We know what we're humming. We probably overdid it at that point, going for broke.”
The Canucks got hurt.
“Yeah, we're giving up a lot and we need to fix that,” Marcus Pettersson said. “Both teams were jumping early. It was a fast pace early on and then obviously we gave it up and that's on me. I let (Snuggerud) get past me there in a hurry. It kind of puts us in a hole right away and then we're chasing them. I think we kind of… try to do too much sometimes and, you know, sell the farm a little bit.”
“Loss is always painful, but it’s definitely humbling,” DeBrusk said. “Obviously we have a long way to go. Everybody's positive at the beginning, but you never want to lose two in a row, especially on home ice like we did (tonight). Obviously, they shut us down pretty well. We need to be better, that's all.”
ICE CHIPS – Reserve Kevin Lankinen made his first start of the season for Vancouver and allowed four goals on 34 shots. Defenseman Victor Mancini was also included in the lineup due to a serious injury to Derek Forbort. . . 18-year-old center Brayden Coots' line between forwards O'Connor and Jonathan Lekkerimaki was territorially broken by the Blues. When Coots was on the ice, St. Louis' shot totals at five-on-five were 22-2. . . The Canucks practice Tuesday before traveling to Dallas for a five-game road trip that begins Thursday with back-to-back games against the Stars and Chicago Blackhawks.
