Vancouver Canucks

Kids score, Vancouver Canucks improve draft lottery odds in loss to Coyotes
April 7, 2017, 1:12 PM ET [278 Comments]
Carol Schram
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Thursday April 6 - Arizona Coyotes 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3

The Sedins looked alive, and Brock Boeser and Nikolay Goldobin both scored, but the Vancouver Canucks were able to collect a regulation loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday, moving them down to 29th place in the NHL standings.

Here are your highlights:



In a game that featured 26 minutes in penalties, Nikolay Goldobin looked increasingly confident in his 14:07 of ice time with the Sedin twins. He consistently found his way to good scoring areas and logged six shot attempts in the game. Two of those attempts found the goal—and this one found the back of the net, tying the game 1-1 at the 7:51 mark of the first period.




Goldobin's presence also seemed to light a fire under the Sedins, who had their first multi-point games in ages. Henrik finished the night with three assists while Daniel had a goal and two assists—and both were plus-two for the night.

The points were Daniel's first since his two-point night in Chicago back on March 21—eight games ago. Henrik also had two points that night, then scored in the next game in St. Louis, but was riding a seven-game pointless streak of his own.

The Canucks' third goal also came with both twins on the ice, when Brock Boeser picked up his third as a Canuck in his seventh NHL game, on a third-period power play.




The Canucks were undone primarily by their penalty kill on Thursday—the Coyotes went 2-for-3 on their power play. Arizona dramatically outplayed Vancouver in the second period, outscoring the Canucks 3-0 while outshooting them 10-5.

Remarkably, the Canucks' losing streak has now extended to six games even though the team has stopped bleeding shots. For the fourth straight game, Vancouver has outshot the opponent, this time by a 29-22 margin, and recorded less than 30 shots against. They now sit 23rd overall with an average of 31.6 shots allowed per game, bunched in a group that includes good teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh as well as fellow bad teams like New Jersey and Colorado.

The Canucks also currently rank 23rd with 2.91 goals allowed per game. That's exactly where they finished the 2015-16 season.

No improvement this year, but I would argue that the current group has more potential upside thanks to the additions of Stecher, Tryamkin and an eventually-healthy Gudbranson, compared to last year's blueliners that included Dan Hamhuis, Yannick Weber and Matt Bartkowski—even if the latter two are getting ready for the playoffs right now.

I know there's talk of trading a defenseman for scoring help, but I don't think the Canucks are deep enough yet to really be ready to start offloading blue line talent!

Characteristically, the Canucks did lose a player to injury on Thursday. Sven Baertschi left the game early in the third period after an incident with Jordan Martinook.

I'm not sure what happened—I didn't see a replay. Here's all we know so far.




Baertschi has committed to join Team Switzerland for the upcoming World Championships in May, so hopefully he'll be able to fulfill that commitment.

Also in the third period, Bo Horvat and Nikolay Goldobin both left the ice in some discomfort at various points, but were able to finish the game. Hopefully there will be nothing further to report on the injury status of either player.

I talked earlier about how the Sedins haven't been putting points on the board. The same is true for poor Horvat—still leading the Canucks in scoring but with just one assist in his last five games, and no goals in over a month. His 20th of the year came back on March 5 in Anaheim, so the goalless drought has now stretched to 15 games.

Horvat's presumed scored title is in jeopardy, too. Henrik's three assists last night now put him just three points behind Bo in the team scoring race. Vancouver's last two games of the year are against Edmonton this weekend—and the Sedins used to feast on the Oilers back in the old days. Will Henrik make a late run to keep the twins' streak of scoring titles alive?

Also speaking of the twins, Coyotes writer Craig Morgan got some big quotes from them this week:




Henrik says the twins have no interest in playing anywhere other than Vancouver—not even back in Sweden. So, don't expect them to waive their no-trade clauses this summer, or next year. They're even talking about re-signing in Vancouver once their contracts expire at the end of 2017-18.

“All we know is we’re going to play next year,” said Henrik Sedin, who has 15 goals and 45 points this season. “This has been an off year for us. We have to produce more and we know we can do it. We’re not going to be 100-point guys anymore but we think we can get back to putting up 60, 65 points and that’s something we’re aiming for.”