CANUCKS BANTER     By Andrew Chernoff    November 18, 2015

Four Game Losing Streak Going Home

Vancouver and Winnipeg entered the game tonight set on changing their fortunes and ending streaks of futility: Canucks on a 3-game losing streak; and Winnipeg, winless in 6-games.

Forward Alex Grenier was recalled from the Utica Comets Tuesday night and in the game against Winnipeg for his NHL debut. And Ryan Miller was back in net after a brief rest on the road trip.

The Jets scored first in the opening period, with a power play goal by Mark Scheifele (6). Winnipeg was 0-13 on their power play before that goal. The first period ended with the Jets up 1-0. Vancouver was 0-2 on the power play in the period. The Jets out hit Vancouver 17-9, and pressed the Canucks for 5-takeaways to one for Vancouver.  The Canucks outshot Winnipeg 14-11.

The Canucks struck first in the second period with their only goal of the game, on the power play, by Daniel Sedin(7), to tie the game at 1-1. It was Vancouver’s 5th and last power play goal on the road trip. Winnipeg scored with less than three minutes in the period, on a goal by Drew Stafford(6). Winnipeg continued to out hit Vancouver, as they had 11-hits to 2-hits for Vancouver. Both teams had 5-takeaways and 2-giveaways in the middle period. Canucks out shot the Jets, 10-6.

Both teams came out in the final period with urgency, the Jets up 2-1. Each team had two power plays each, with neither team scoring with the man advantage. The Canucks had their chances but could not bury the puck for a timely goal, and began taking chances for the tying goal.

With less than three minutes left, the Jets burned the Canucks on the second goal of the game by Mark Scheifele(8), and then an empty net goal by Drew Stafford(7) for his second goal of the game, sealed Vancouver’s fate. Winnipeg out shot the Canucks in the final period, 17-6 and in the game, 34-30. Canucks out hit the Jets 5-2 in the period.

Rookie Alex Grenier had 15-shifts, and 8:52 TOI during the game (1rst: 7 shifts; 3:34 TOI; 2nd: 6 shifts;3:58 TOI); 3rd: 2 shifts; 1:20 TOI).

ROAD TRIP SUMMARY

• Goals For: 18
• Goals Against: 25
• PPG For: 5-28
• PPG Against: 9-27
• Shots For: 234
• Shots Against: 230
• Record: 1-4-2
• Short Handed Goals Against: 3
• Short Handed Goals For: 0
• Ryan Miller was held winless on the road trip in 5-games.
• Jacob Markstrom had the only Canucks victory on the road trip.

GAME REVIEW

Statistics courtesy of the NHL, and the Vancouver Canucks, with thanks.

CANUCKS BANTER     By Andrew Chernoff    November 17, 2015

Canucks Quest To End Losing Streak Continues As They Stumble Into Winnipeg

Vancouver (7-6-6) completes its 7-game road trip that is 1-3-2 with a 3-game losing streak (0-2-1) after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. The Canucks have lost 6 of their last 7 games.

Vancouver has lost 11-one goal games so far this season (0-5-6), most in the NHL. The other loss has being by 2-goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 14, by a 4-2 score.

Winnipeg (8-9-2) begins a 3-game home stand after returning home from a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Monday, the final game of a pointless 4-game road trip, that extended their losing streak to 6-games (0-5-1).

The game tonight is the first of three games between the Jets and Canucks who play two more times: March 14, 2016 in Vancouver and March 22, 2016, back in Winnipeg.

Vancouver has a stranglehold on the series with the Jets, at 12-4-1 with one tie. Canucks had won three straight and seven of eight meetings before losing  5-4 in Winnipeg on April 4 last season.

Both teams need to turn things around sooner than later as precious points are being lost, as well as they are both dropping further in the standings of their respective divisions in the Western Conference.

Both have struggling power plays and penalty kills, with Winnipeg being shorthanded 77 times this season, most in the NHL. The Jets are 3 for 22 on the power play at home and 9 for 59 overall. Canucks are 6 for 38 on the power play on the road and 11 for 63 overall. The Canucks penalty kill has allowed 7 power play goals on 34 attempts on the road. The Jets have allowed 5 power play goals on 24 attempts at home.

Both teams seem to be oh-so-close on the verge of dominating a game and sensing a win, only to be their own worst enemies, and at the end, realizing a game is 60-minutes long, and the game isn’t over ‘till it’s over.

The question on the mind of the Canucks brass entering this game has to be, what happens if Vancouver continues to go in the wrong direction—-what is management prepared to do?

CANUCKS JOTTINGS

• Jannik Hansen leads the Canucks in +/- with a +9, while Radim Vrbata is the worst Canuck at -11
• Rookie Jared McCann scored his first power play goal, 6th goal of the season on Monday night.
• McCann is tied for 3rd most goals by a rookie; and is tied for top sniper on the Canucks with Daniel Sedin with his 6 goals.
• Ryan Miller is 0-4-1 with a 3.46 GAA over a five-game stretch in which he’s surrendered three goals or more each time
• Miller has a 27-12-6 record against Montreal.
• In 4 games on the road trip, Miller has allowed 14 goals on 115 shots, a save percentage of .878.
• Vancouver’s Jannik Hansen had no points Monday night but has 4 goals and 3 assists over his last 8 games.
• The Canucks have at least one power-play goal in their last 3 games
• Canucks C Brandon Sutter (lower body) did not practise Sunday and missed his third straight game on Monday.
• Both D Luca Sbisa (foot) and LW Brandon Prust (ankle) rejoined the team in Toronto and practised.
• Hunter Shinkaruk called up from Utica Comets in the AHL made his NHL debut against the Canadians. He had 13 shifts and 9:35 minutes/seconds in playing time.
• Jake Virtanen leads the team and all NHL rookies in hits with 44. Ben Hutton and Jared McCann are tied for 41rst with 10-hits each.
• Daniel Sedin has 14 points (5-9-14) in his last 15 games.
• Ben Hutton ranks t-second on the team and second among NHL rookies in assists (8). Hutton has 4 assists in the last 8
  games and had a career-high three game point/assist streak from Nov. 7-10/15. He also ranks t-third among rookies in blocked shots
  with 21.
• Ryan Miller ranks first in a number of statistical categories this season including games played/started (16), TOI (966:31) and shots
  against (452).
• Alex Edler leads VAN in time on ice (24:46) and has led the team in that category in 17 of 18 games he’s played, including nine games where he’s led all skaters in TOI. He currently ranks 12th in the NHL in TOI/GP. Last season, Edler ranked first on the team in average ice time per game (23:58) and led the team in TOI on 59 separate occasions including 26 games where led all skaters in TOI
•  McCann and Ben Hutton are tied for 11th in rookie points with 8-points each. Jake Virtanen has 4-points.
• Jared McCann and Ben Hutton have the 8th and 9th most shots among rookies with 31 and 29 respectively.  Jake Virtanen has 22-shots.
• Ben Hutton is 10th among all rookies in TOI, averaging 17:36-minutes/seconds per game. McCann is 56th at 11:27-minutes/seconds per game; Virtanen is 69th at 9:58-minutes/seconds per game
• Jared McCann is 6th in face-offs won among all rookies with 46 on 128 attempts.
• Ben Hutton has two power play assists.
• The Canucks have had 18 different goal scorers this season, t-second most in the League with St. Louis and Boston; Nashville has
  had 19 different goal scorers
• The Canucks are tied for 8th in the League with 2.84 goals for per game; their 54 goals on the year are tied for 5th most in the NHL.
• The Canucks have 1-shutout and have yet to be shutout after 19-games.
• VANCOUVER’S 2015.16 RECORD:
  • Scoring First: 5-1-4
  • Opponent scoring first: 2-5-2
  • Leading after 1 period: 4-0-2
  • Trailing after 1 period: 0-4-2
  • Leading after 2 periods: 5-1-4
  • Trailing after 2 periods: 0-5-0
  • Tied after 2 periods: 2-0-2
  • 1-Goal Games: 2-5-6
  • 2-Goal Games: 1-1
  • 3-Goal Games: 4-0
  • Score 2 or fewer goals: 1-5-3
  • Outshooting Opponent: 4-4-4
  • Outshot by Opponent: 3-2-2
  • Even Shots: 0-0-0
  • SHG Given Up: 4
  • SHG Scored: 1
  • Score 4+ Goals: 5-0-0
    Score 3 Goals or Less: 2-6-6
    Allow 4+ Goals: 0-2-3
    Allow 3 Goals or Less: 7-4-3
    On 0 Days Rest: 2-0-1
    On 1 Day Rest: 2-3-4
    On 2 Days Rest: 2-2-1
    On 3+ Days Rest: 0-1-1
    Score a PPG: 2-3-4
    Give up a PPG: 2-4-3
  • 25+ Shots on Goal: 6-5-5
  • Less than 25 shots: 1-1-1
    20+ Shots on Goal: 7-6-6
    Less than 20 shots:

SEASON SNAPSHOT

PLAYER STATS

CANUCKS AT A GLANCE

Statistics courtesy of the NHL, Vancouver Canucks and SportingCharts, with thanks.