BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Having failed three times in the first four games of this road trip to win games they played well enough to win, the Vancouver Canucks had no chance on Tuesday when they played poorly enough to lose.
Sure, the calls and bounces continued to go against them. The whole team could moonlight as casino “coolers,” the guys whose natural bad luck stinks like body odour that sours any gambler it comes into contact with.
But the Canucks didn’t do nearly enough to help their own luck against the New York Islanders, when Vancouver was sloppy in the first period and disappeared in the third in a 5-2 loss at the Barclays Center.
One Islanders goal took a 90-degree bounce in off Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev and another squeezed through a “size-of-the-puck” hole that Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom left between his skate and the near post — to be filled by the shot from an acute angle by a guy named Tom Kuhnhackl, who was lying on the ice when he swept a backhand towards the net.
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And in the third period, the National Hockey League’s Toronto situation room, perhaps staffed by Canucks Nation draftists, allowed Kuhnhackl to kick the puck into the net to make it 4-2.
But this is the NHL, this is sports. Stuff happens. Deal with it.
The Canucks dealt with it by taking four third-period penalties and getting outshot 17-5 when they should have been pressing the Islanders.
“We’ve played some good hockey,” veteran defenceman Michael Del Zotto said of a road trip in which the Canucks, almost absurdly, are now 1-2-2. “But that’s the NHL. There’s some nights you can play unbelievable, have your best game of the year, and you don’t win. And there’s some nights you can be a dog’s breakfast and somehow pull out a win. I think that’s a learning curve we’re going through here with some of the young guys.”
One of those young guys, super-rookie Elias Pettersson, went pointless Tuesday for a third straight game and finished minus-3. Another, his linemate Nikolay Goldobin, drifted on the backcheck and let Islander Jordan Eberle skate past him to convert Brock Nelson’s centring pass to make it 3-1 at 14:50 of the first period.
“I was a little confused about where to go,” Goldobin said. “There was one guy in front of the net. We had a couple of goals that were unlucky bounces, and a mistake by me. It’s just frustration.”
The shocking goals by Kuhnhackl and Josh Bailey, who used Tanev as his backboard after Islander Mathew Barzal’s stickhandling mesmerized most of the Vancouver roster, came 45 seconds apart in the game’s sixth minute and erased Brendan Leipsic’s early goal for the Canucks.
Eberle’s 3-1 goal was essentially the game. By the time Kuhnhackl channelled Lionel Messi in the third period, it was just piling on.
“I still think it’s a kick,” Markstrom said. “The puck is going vertical, and then when it hits his leg it changed directions, so I think it’s a kick.
“The ref said they just can’t look (at it); it’s Toronto that makes the call there. It’s frustrating. When you look, I think it’s obvious. At the same time, I grew up playing soccer and every hockey player in here plays soccer before games, so there are pretty good soccer players these days. I don’t know if the Toronto guys are soccer fans or not. Frustrating day today overall.”
Del Zotto said: “I think that goal, after the previous ones, may have deflated our energy a little bit. It seemed like a bit of a steep hill to climb coming back. As I said, these are learning curves, learning experiences that we need to take every single night. We got off to a good start and we want to stay where we are and not let this slip.”
The Canucks tripped over the 20-game mark Tuesday at 10-8-2. They’ve lost three straight (0-2-1) for the first time in their surprising season, and with six regulars injured, including top defenceman Alex Edler and key wingers Brock Boeser and Sven Baertschi, things seem to be at a tipping point.
The Islanders game was their first poor one on the trip; they should have won Saturday in Buffalo, where the Sabres scored twice in the final 2 ½ minutes of regulation time before winning 4-3 in a shootout, and could have won Monday in Manhattan instead of losing 2-1 to the New York Rangers on another unlucky deciding goal.
Even with their solid second period here against the Islanders – Jake Virtanen scored on a power play rebound to make it 3-2 – it’s going to be a mighty challenge for the Canucks to maintain their early-season positivity if they don’t win Thursday in Minnesota before finally heading home.
“Really, really important,” Markstrom said. “I think positivity … it wears off (on others). If I’m walking around smiling, being positive, it wears off to the other guys. Vice versa, too. If I’m grumpy and hitting my stick, coming into the room not in a good mood, that wears off, too. You’ve got to stay positive.
“I know it’s hard when you feel like you want to get more points than you’ve gotten. But we’ve got to stick together as a group.”
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