Vancouver Canucks hit snag in playoff preparations as special teams fail to execute

VANCOUVER — Against a strong, playoff team, the Vancouver Canucks didn’t quite play playoff hockey.  Which is why they’re still waiting to officially be a playoff team themselves.

The Canucks’ battled the Dallas Stars evenly at five-on-five on Thursday. But they took five penalties — the most power plays Vancouver has surrendered in a month. The penalties became a massive factor because the Canucks weren’t very successful at killing them, allowing the Stars’ power play to score twice and make the difference in Dallas’ 3-1 win at Rogers Arena.

Although there was a contentious non-call and ponderous, unsuccessful coach’s challenge after Jason Robertson appeared to contact the puck just above shoulder height prior to Dallas’ first power-play goal, taking five penalties in an intense, tight-checking way will not keep the Canucks in the playoffs long if they are equally undisciplined next month.

Consecutive losses by the Canucks against Dallas and Los Angeles, another team that smothers opponents defensively, coupled with consecutive wins by the St. Louis Blues have prevented Vancouver from making this a celebratory week by clinching a playoff berth.

Let’s be clear: the Canucks will soon be in the Stanley Cup tournament. But their erratic results during their nine-game home marathon in March is not the way they’d like to be ramping up ahead of the franchise’s most important spring in a decade.

The homestand ends Sunday afternoon against the Anaheim Ducks. The Canucks are 4-3-1 through the first eight games at Rogers Arena.

“At the end of the day, they were probably able to execute on their special teams a little better than we did,” Canuck J.T. Miller, Vancouver’s lone scorer, told reporters. “We had our chances on the power play, too, (but) I don't think we're getting to the inside enough. For myself, I'm not really creating or driving play right now for me, so I need to be better. As a leader of the team, I hold myself to a higher standard than that. I feel like I'm one and done a lot.”

It was generous of Miller to try to take the blame but he was among the least of the Canucks’ problems even if Vancouver’s power play was 0-for-3.

“I thought we. . . needed a few more guys to battle a little bit harder, I thought, in the corners,” Canuck coach Rick Tocchet said. “But overall, I thought it came down to that power-play goal at the end.”

Told about Miller’s accountability for failing to get through Dallas defenders to inside scoring areas, Tocchet said: “Some guys get inside. Some guys do. Some guys didn't. Some guys tried. I thought, you know, 1-1 game, you're looking for somebody to make that play inside or whatever. Unfortunately. . . they get the power play (and) we kind of lose coverage in the middle of the ice.”

With the score 1-1 late in the third period, Canuck Teddy Blueger’s stick rode up Wyatt Johnson and hit the Star’s face for a high-sticking penalty with 3:28 remaining.

Twenty seconds later — and without Canuck penalty-killers even touching the puck — the Stars perfectly executed a low-to-high play that allowed Jamie Benn to one-time Joe Pavelski’s pass and beat goalie Casey DeSmith from the hashmarks.

Robertson added an empty-netter, so none of the three goals Vancouver allowed was at five-on-five.

“Obviously, a tough time to take a penalty there at the end,” Blueger said. “That's probably the biggest thing. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm responsible for my stick. You could say it's unlucky but I've just got to make a better play there.

“Regardless of the calls or what we think of the calls, I think yeah, probably too many (penalties). There was a streak of games where we gave up one power play, but we kind of got away from it today, which cost us in the end.”

The Canucks had averaged two power plays against over their previous 11 games.

“I didn't like some of the penalties,” Tocchet said. “I thought they were careless. Like, careless penalties.

“Their power play, what did they get, two power-play goals tonight? And we came (out) empty. We've got to make some plays. Sometimes the power play, you know, you've got to get those gritty things. You need three people to the net. Too many set plays and I think sometimes it burns us. We're trying to get guys to understand that we've got to get the puck to the net. There's got to be gritty goals on power plays; it can't be pretty.”

Talk of grit was continuation of a theme Tocchet has been hammering for weeks as he tries to prepare for the Stanley Cup tournament a team whose core players mostly lack any genuine playoff experience.

Wall play. Grit. Simplicity. Intensity. Getting inside. 

“Yeah, for sure,” Dakota Joshua said after returning to the Canuck lineup from a broken finger that kept him out seven weeks. “That's what it comes down to in these tight games. One bounce here or there makes a difference, and that's why it has got to be consistent effort to get there — so we're getting more of those bounces.”

ICE CHIPS — Tocchet reformed his forward lines for Joshua, reuniting him with old linemates Teddy Blueger and Conor Garland, who beautifully set up Miller’s tying goal in the second period partway through a line change. Taking Garland off Elias Pettersson’s wing, Tocchet split his best forwards duo to place Brock Boeser with Pettersson while Miller skated between Sam Lafferty and Arshdeep Bains. . . With starting goalie Thatcher Demko on LTIR until at least April 6, DeSmith started his seventh straight game for the Canucks. Tocchet indicated after the morning skate that callup Arturs Silovs will start a game soon, possibly as early as Sunday.