EDMONTON – It’s not more exhibition games the Vancouver Canucks need, but more shooting practice. And a couple more saves from the goalie still waiting for his first National Hockey League playoff game.
The Canucks significantly outplayed Winnipeg Jets in the first half of Wednesday’s 4-1 tuneup loss, but Vancouver had the second-best goalie as Jacob Markstrom was outplayed by Connor Hellebuyck, who made 37 saves.
The degree to which Markstrom may determine whether the Canucks succeed or fail in their Stanley Cup qualifying series against the Minnesota Wild was underscored by this: in Vancouver’s only pre-tournament warmup, Markstrom got 60 minutes and backup Thatcher Demko got none.
“It was nice to be out there,” Markstrom said after his first game since undergoing minor knee surgery on Feb. 26. “It’s been a while – since February when we played Boston at home. It was nice to be out there and I felt the longer the game went, more details and stuff like that started to fall into place. You want to win every game, but it was nice to be back and nice to feel that it got better and better the longer the game went on.
“It was nice to get the full 60 — I’m not going to lie. After two periods … I felt a little off with some detail work, and in the third period, I felt that was improving. So me playing a full game helped for sure to kind of see where my game is at and what I need to work on.”
With three days and at least a couple of practices before the Canucks open their five-game series against the Wild on Sunday, Markstrom said he has time to fine-tune his game with goaltending coach Ian Clark.
“Pretty close,” Markstrom said of his readiness. “I feel like this is a good test. Myself and Clarkie can sit down and see what we need to work a little bit extra on. We’ve got time to do that before the series against Minnesota starts. It’s going to be an important week to kind of dial my game in and hit peak form for next week.”
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Canucks coach Travis Green dressed 13 forwards Wednesday, and none of them were 18-goal scorer Jake Virtanen, who lost his third-line place during the opening week of training camp and hasn’t impressed his boss enough to get back a regular spot.
Rookie Zack MacEwen played as the additional forward against the Jets, which theoretically leaves Virtanen no higher than 14th on the depth chart as of Wednesday.
In a first-intermission interview with Sportsnet, Vancouver general manager Jim Benning cautioned against reading too much into Virtanen’s lineup omission, but his warning would be largely ignored. This was the teams’ only playoff rehearsal, vital preparation for the nearest thing the Canucks will have to playoff hockey since 2015.
The lineup was a test run for Game 1. Green and his staff now have time to reassess.
One thing that won’t be changing is Markstrom’s status. He was the Canucks’ MVP this season and remains the biggest potential advantage Vancouver has over Minnesota. But the goalie will have to play better than he did Wednesday, when his best work came with the Canucks down three goals.
Markstrom’s failure was simply that he did not make enough saves. When the Jets were sloppy, which was all through the first period, Hellebuyck saved his team. When the Canucks got sloppy in the second period, Markstrom couldn’t rescue teammates.
The Jets were up only 1-0 late in the second – on scoring chances, the Canucks could have been ahead by two or three goals at that point – when Nikolaj Ehlers and Dimitri Kulikov capitalized on Vancouver mistakes by scoring goals 85 seconds apart.
Canucks defenceman Oscar Fantenberg pressed into the middle of the ice in the neutral zone without adequate cover, leaving an open wing for Patrik Laine to skate into a 2-and-1. As Tyler Myers, Fantenberg’s defence partner, beached himself, Markstrom stopped Laine’s shot, but at full stretch couldn’t quite keep out Ehler’s rebound attempt that made it 2-0 at 14:54.
Two shifts later, Tanner Pearson’s chip out was kept in at the Vancouver blue line, leaving two Jets behind Canucks defenders. Laine dropped a pass back into the slot for trailing Kulikov, whose shot rattled in between Markstrom’s arm and torso.
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The Canucks, who dominated for stretches in the game’s first half and had a chance to tie it on Brock Boeser’s breakaway early in the second period, suddenly were down by three goals.
“I thought our team played a solid game,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said. “We outchanced them, we outshot them. I thought we did a lot of really good things. (But) we had three turnovers, and against a team like that — they’ve got elite goal-scorers and good forwards — they’re going to capitalize on it. That’s why we play an exhibition game. It’s something we can work on, something we can talk over on video and get ready for Minnesota come Sunday.”
Horvat’s line with Boeser and Pearson had a strong night going head-to-head against Mark Scheifele’s line for Winnipeg.
Boeser was the most dangerous Canuck and the best of Vancouver’s young stars. After looking dominant in training camp, defenceman Quinn Hughes didn’t stand out against the Jets the way he did against teammates the last two weeks but was still pretty good. Elias Pettersson looked especially quick and had some great moments, but couldn’t generate a goal.
The Canucks didn’t force a puck past Hellebuyck until 13:13 of the final period when Antoine Roussel jammed in the rebound from Adam Gaudette’s wraparound to make it 3-1 before Jets captain Blake Wheeler scored into an empty net.
Micheal Ferland, the surprise of Vancouver’s training camp after returning from what looked like career-threatening concussion and balance problems, started in what was once Virtanen’s spot on a line with Gaudette but failed to generate much momentum or scoring chances. This was not unique to the Canucks’ bottom-six, which is an area of concern going into the elimination series against the four-line Wild.
After two periods, no Canucks forward outside the top two lines was remotely close to 50 per cent in shooting attempts for and against.
One exhibition game after a four-month layoff is not ideal for anyone. But it’s all the Canucks have. Ready or not.
