The story with the Canucks is akin to Jekyll and Hyde, with Vancouver performing much better on home ice (7-2-0) than when on the road (3-7-0). This week was no exception.
Vancouver continued their trend of winning with secondary personnel when they started their five-game road trip in Minnesota to face the Wild early in the week.
Back-up goalie, Andrew Raycroft earned the win in place of the injured Roberto Luongo, while tough guy Darcy Hordichuk opened the night’s scoring with his first tally in 50 games.
Matt Pettinger, who was called up to replace other injured minor league call-ups, also scored a rare NHL goal, as the Canucks sent the Wild packing with a 5-2 victory.
In the second game of the week Vancouver headed south to face the Dallas Stars. The Stars fired a barrage of shots at rookie goaltender, Cory Schneider, who was starting his first game of the year, was equal to the task turning in an incredible performance, including a pair of stops on breakaways. Eventually the pressure was too much, and Schneider gave up a couple of goals, which was enough for the Stars to defeat the Canucks 2-1.
The game against Dallas was the Canucks’ ninth in fourteen days, and third in four days. It also marked the end of a difficult stretch of scheduling for Vancouver.
Whatever positives Vancouver might have taken from being able to keep it close in the loss to Dallas went out the window a few nights later when the Canucks played the St. Louis Blues.
The Blues scored 18 seconds into the game, which set the tone early. Later in the period, St. Louis scored three goals in under two minutes, and had a four-goal lead before the first period was half over. This is especially remarkable given that the Blues had only managed that many goals in their previous five games combined.
Blues forward David Perron had a hat-trick in the 6-1 shellacking of Vancouver, while Canucks scoring leader, Henrik Sedin, had the lone goal for his team.
Making matters worse was that Luongo, who was dressed as Raycroft’s back-up due to a still-recovering rib fracture, was forced into action a game early when Raycroft was pulled to start the second period.
The Canucks had some more bad news following the St. Louis game, as Daniel Sedin left the team to return to Vancouver in order to have his injured foot reassessed. Sedin, a top line forward, had hoped to return to play on the road trip.
Vancouver will finish its road trip with a pair of games in the coming week, one against the Detroit Red Wings and one versus the division-leading Colorado Avalanche. The trip will be followed by a five day break before starting a lengthy and welcome homestand.
The Canucks sit tied with three other teams for sixth place in the Western Conference, three points back of Northwest Division rivals, the Calgary Flames.
Contact the author at Happy.Kreter@prohockeynews.com
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