The Canucks have been living on a razor’s edge all season, winning the vast majority of their games by just one goal. To maintain their balance on that proverbial blade, they’ve depending heavily on their goaltending to keep them in games. Personally, I think they should just switch to safety razors.
Unfortunately, when their goaltending falters, the Canucks simply don’t have the offensive firepower to avoid toppling off the razor’s edge to the ground below, which frankly seems like a safer place to be. Really, what’s all this business about standing on sharp blades? Bad idea altogether.
What I’m getting at is that Jacob Markstrom wasn’t very good, squandering a pretty strong performance from the rest of the team and also squandering my time when I watched this game.
- The St. Louis Blues scored the first goal of the game before their first shot. That’s how much Markstrom struggled in this one. After Kevin Shattenkirk’s wrist shot from the point went wide and hit the end boards, Magnus Paajarvi tried to pass the puck out front. Unfortunately, because Markstrom overplayed the initial shot, he was caught out of position and had the puck bank into the net off the inside of his right pad. On a technicality, it was counted as the Blues’ first shot on goal.
- With that kind of bad luck and the fact that the Canucks missed the net on their first three good scoring chances of the game, you could quickly conclude that it wasn't the Canucks' night. And it wasn't. It belongs to lovers.
- The game subverted my expectations, however, when Bo Horvat tied things up, lifting the puck upstairs like a Westerosi bride and groom. The goal came off a turnover by Jay Bouwmeester: Nikita “The Mountain That Skates” Tryamkin picked off his outlet pass at the blue line and found Horvat all alone in front with a surprisingly soft touch.
- St. Louis regained the lead before the end of the period thanks to a series of lucky bounces. First Parayko’s pass into the corner took a friendly hop, possibly off the ref’s skate, to Vladimir Tarasenko, fooling Troy Stecher, who expected it to go behind the net. Tarasenko moved out front and his shot hit Troy Stecher’s stick, leaving Jacob Markstrom out of position. Jori Lehtera found the puck and his shot appeared to hit Brandon Sutter’s stick, sending it over Markstrom’s pad. I haven’t seen that many bad bounces since my Mennonite youth group tried to have a dance party.
- The Blues should have had another goal early in the second period when Markstrom made what looked like an easy save, but had the puck roll out behind him and into the net. Fortunately for him, the ref had already blown his whistle, thinking Markstrom had the puck, just like St. Louis had the Rams.
- That blown call gave the Canucks the chance to tie it up and the Sedins came through. After current flavour-of-the-week Markus Granlund whiffed on a one-timer, he continued to pursue the puck, creating more havoc than Arnold Drake and Don Heck. He got the puck to Daniel, who made a nifty between-the-legs pass to Henrik for the goal.
- The third period got off to an awful start: Tarasenko beat Markstrom with a power play goal in the first minute, then Henrik Sedin earned a double minor for high sticking 200 feet from his own net leading directly to Alex Steen’s bad-angle shot beating a cheating Markstrom. Tryamkin was not happy about that one, slamming his stick against the end boards, which is better than if he had expressed his frustration Keith Ballard-style.
- Markstrom certainly wasn’t all bad. He made a couple stellar saves, robbing Jaden Schwartz with a flashy glove save after Luca Sbisa lost the puck in his skates in the slot, and somehow getting his toe on a Patrik Berglund deflection that seemed destined for the back of the net. But then he got caught cheating on the Blues’ third and fourth goals, allowing both to beat him on the short side. It’s hard not to afford him a portion of the blame.
- Alex Edler’s pass on the 4-3 goal was unreal. For a moment I was wondering how he had managed to finally get a shot through traffic, when he has been the king of getting his shot blocked. The key was that it wasn’t a shot at all, but a slap-pass to Brandon Sutter for the deflection. Gorgeous. Edler had a fantastic game overall, playing a game-high 26:18, with the Canucks out-shooting the Blues 12-6 while he was on the ice at even-strength.
- Unfortunately, that was all she wrote for the Canucks. After getting within one with over 13 minutes left in the game, the Canucks managed just two more shots on goal. They had no shots over the final 5:43 of the game. That creaking sound you’re hearing is either Tig Notaro pushing a stool or Jacob Markstrom slowly sliding his portion of blame back to the rest of the team.
- Finally, I just have to say that Jayson Megna is an awfully strange hill for Willie Desjardins to die on. Megna, who has four goals this season, played in place of the injured-but-playing Brandon Sutter on the first power play unit. As a result, he played 46 seconds more with the man advantage than the Canucks’ leading scorer, Bo Horvat, and 2:23 more than Jannik Hansen and Alex Burrows, because proven goalscorers are not allowed to play on the power play. Only Megna.
- Anyway, the Canucks had just one shot on goal during their two power plays.
