Any time the Boston Bruins come to town, it jogs memories -- mostly repressed -- of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. Hard to believe that was just four years ago. Especially after a Canucks performance like this. This team looked light years away from their 2011 counterparts. In a marquee game they absolutely needed, the Canucks let the Bruins push them around the building all night in a 4-0 loss.
Actually, come to think of it, that's what the 2011 team did too, right down to the score. Maybe this group's not that far off after all. I watched this game.
- Willie Desjardins spoke before this game about how important it was for his team to have a good showing. He called it a "must" game. Not a must-win. Just... must. Well, the Canucks seemed pretty musty to me. He's really getting through to the guys, I think.
- While we're talking about Willie, a word on his deployment strategy: Adam Cracknell had six offensive-zone faceoffs tonight. Six. The Canucks only had twenty in the game, and Willie gave six to Adam Cracknell. The Bruins played a neutral zone trap all night, and the Canucks were completely unable to get through it. But you don't have to get through the neutral zone with the puck if you win an offensive zone draw. So why, in a game where gaining the zone was nigh impossible, is Willie throwing away potential offensive situations by feeding them to Cracknell's line? Why does Cracknell, who plays with Derek Dorsett and Brandon Prust, get more offensive-zone draws than Bo Horvat and Jared McCann combined? Willie was sending the Cracknell line out for faceoffs after Boston icing calls. This is a tired team playing their third game in four nights, down to five defencemen, and now their players are unable to change, and you send out Adam flipping Cracknell? What an absolute waste of an opportunity.
- It's hard to highlight individual performances in this game the way we normally do. No one stood out. The Canucks looked uniformly sluggish. They looked uniformly unable to complete a pass. They looked uniformly incapable of taking the puck through the neutral zone without bobbling it. They botched zone entries as a team, they generated just five shots in the first, seven in the second, and five again in the third period as a team, they failed to generate shots and scoring chances as a team, they sleepwalked through this game as a team. Really, it was one of their most complete team games of the season. It's just that they're a bad team.
- Jacob Markstrom was the surprise starter in this game, but don't worry, there's no goaltending controversy. There could have been, though. The coach's decision to start Markstrom over Miller in a game he himself admitted the Canucks needed was the first sign of one, or maybe the second, what with Markstrom's excellent play his last time out. But Markstrom was terrible in his chance to make things interesting in the Canucks' crease, getting beaten for two goals on his first four shots in the first period, then surrendering a third goal on a wrister from Landon Ferraro midway through the second. That one was the toughest to stomach, since it led to seeing something I never wanted to see: Ray Ferraro, Landon's dad, celebrating a Bruins goal at Rogers Arena.
- I think I'd have pulled Markstrom after that goal. He just never looked comfortable in the net. And at times, he looked small, like George Shrinks. But I would have preferred George Shrinks. He may only be three inches tall, but according to his theme song, George always seems to find a way to make his dreams come true each day. The Canucks could use some of that. Instead, they just keep finding ways to lose.
- Zac Rinaldo's an idiot, eh?
- Jared McCann finished this game a minus-3, and it was mostly earned. On the Bruins' first goal, he drifts around the top of the zone as Patrice Bergeron skates down the wall and Brad Marchand glides down the other wing totally unmarked. Had McCann come down lower, there would have been no passing lane. But McCann was watching the puck. And on the Bruins' fourth goal, McCann gets walked around in the corner as the Bruins bring the puck to the net. I know everyone desires more icetime for McCann, especially when you see what he can do with the puck, but if you watch him without the puck from time to time, that desire dissipates in a hurry.
- There was one lone bright spot to this game: in the dying moments, Brandon Prust speared Brad Marchand in the bits, or as Marchand called it, his "fun spot". Now, spearing is dirty and cheap and Prust deserves whatever's coming to him from the department of player safety, but I'm stll pretty happy I got to see Marchand take one to the lower horn. Asked if anything led up to it, Marchand said no, but that's nonsense. Prior to playing for the Canucks, Prust played for the Montreal Canadiens. He's seen enough of Brad Marchand to know Marchand's entire life led up to it.
- That said, Prust's spear was the only emotion the Canucks showed all flippin' night. When the Boston Bruins come into Rogers Arena on a Saturday night and replicate Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final right down to the score and the only pushback the Canucks can muster is to poke Brad Marchand in the weiner on their way out, one questions this team's heart. Not to mention Prust's abilities as a so-called enforcer. Thus far, his toughest moments have been a tweet and a groin jab. The son of Apollo Creed he is not.
- I'll admit I sort of prefer this, though. At the beginning of the season, I lamented Prust's acquisition because I didn't think the Canucks needed two fighters. I didn't think they needed one. I think fighting is stupid and does long-term brain damage and there's no logical defence for it. So I'm all for an NHL where the team's enforcers don't throw punches -- they just send mean tweets and go around poking one another in the fun spots.
