VANCOUVER – Having motored close enough for the Montreal Canadiens to see them in their rear-view mirror, the Vancouver Canucks reached for the passing gear Wednesday night but instead shifted into reverse.
They blew the transmission, set the engine on fire and were last seen watching their ride burn while standing forlornly at the shoulder of the road wishing that at least they’d remembered to empty the change tray.
And, no, the Canadiens did not stop to help them. They zoomed onwards towards the horizon, honking and laughing all the way.
With a chance to move within a point of the Canadiens’ back bumper in the North Division standings – setting aside all the games in-hand Montreal has – the Canucks played a lemon, losing 5-1 at Rogers Arena in easily Vancouver’s worst game in more than a month.
The score was unfair; Montreal could have amassed 10 goals, out-chancing Vancouver 38-11 at even strength but getting robbed numerous times by Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko.
Let’s just say it was awful. In the first six minutes of the game, played almost entirely in their zone, the Canucks iced the puck three times, gave it away at least that often, and possessed it across the Canadiens’ blue line for exactly three seconds – just long enough for Brock Boeser to make a bad pass.
This was a recurring theme for Boeser and the Canucks. The next 54 minutes weren’t much better for Vancouver fans, except those who love great goaltending above all else.
The Canadiens were flying. The Canucks were skating in almond butter. Ever try to get that goop off a knife blade or skate blades?
Travis Green distilled his team’s performance down to two words, and neither started with an F: “Very poor.”
Green then added more words: “We just had a lot of players that didn’t play very well. You’ve got to be able to make a pass, you’ve got to be able to move your feet. I thought the first period, we looked extremely slow. And I didn’t think we passed the puck well all night. We had simple passes that you should be able to make at any given time that we didn’t execute.”
Well, a turnover is kind of a pass. It just goes to the other team. The Canucks had plenty of those.
The performance was jolting, coming after Vancouver’s first three-game winning streak since January.
Ordinarily, we’d call it an outlier, maybe even give the Canucks a pass because they’d actually been playing well – far better than their record showed – the previous 14 games. They’d had only one poor night during that time: a 5-2 loss in Winnipeg nine days ago.
But the unsettling part of Wednesday’s loss, and why we can’t just dismiss it, is that it was uncomfortably similar to a bunch of the Canucks’ worst games during the first four weeks of the season when the team was so careless as to be uncompetitive.
They didn’t manage the puck, didn’t take zone exits when they could, didn’t play with speed or directness, gave up a freighter of Grade-A scoring chances, including breakaways, got little from their best players and took too many penalties. The only difference on Wednesday was Demko.
This is why the Canucks’ home game Saturday against the soaring Edmonton Oilers, who have been trampling everyone in the Canadian division except the Toronto Maple Leafs since January, already feels like a kind of truth serum.
Has the Canucks’ rally from their 6-11-0 start ended already? Are they reverting to that team, or was Wednesday a one-off and the Canucks will return to sound, smart hockey and keep fighting their way back towards the playoff race?
“I think every team is going to have games like that,” Demko said after making 40 saves in a loss when he was probably the best player on either team. “We strung a couple wins together there, and we had an off-night tonight. But now it’s our job to make sure that we get back to the way that we were playing the last few games before this one, and make sure that we don’t string a couple losses together. So it’s our job to get back into the win column and give a solid effort against Edmonton.”
Top centre Elias Pettersson, however, will miss his fifth game on Saturday with an undisclosed injury. His linemates, Boeser and J.T. Miller, were as poor as anyone on Wednesday.
Boeser’s shots-for percentage was 15.4 (4-22) and his expected-goals-for was 6.7 per cent. (No, there isn’t a digit missing before the decimal). Miller’s Corsi was 19.4 per cent (6-25) and xGF was 21.7 per cent.
“They came out hungrier right from the start and they outworked us tonight,” Boeser said. “That’s all there was to it. I think everyone in the room can say they’re not happy with that performance. We know how we can play and we have expectations to play a lot better than that, and we know our standard. You know that’s unacceptable.”
Boeser scored the Canucks’ goal during a second-period power play. The Canucks trailed only 1-0 after the first period despite being outshot 16-4, and were still in the game, down 3-1, before Jeff Petry and Phillip Danault scored goals seven minutes apart near the middle of the third period.
“Am I surprised we didn’t play well?” Green said. “Yeah, I am a little bit. But you’re going to have games in the NHL where you don’t play well. Just because you play well for four or five weeks, every game is a new game. You’re going to have stinkers. It’s by no means an excuse. We had too many players not play well and we’re not a team that can bring a C- or D-game (and win). Not many teams in the NHL are. We deserved exactly what we got tonight.”
They’re empowered to earn something better on Saturday.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
