In Vancouver, the Canucks barked up a dismal effort on Monday night, losing 4-0 to the visiting Winnipeg Jets.
Blake Wheeler scored all the offense the Jets would need when he potted a goal in the opening frame for a 1-0 lead.
“It was a good bounce-back game for us as a veteran line,” Wheeler said.
The Jets were coming off a pair of losses to the Edmonton Oilers.
Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves to get the win.
“It means you’ve finally perfected a game,” Hellebuyck said. “I’m never going to say my game is perfect, but for one game, with the guys in front of me, we played a perfect game. Granted, there’s some luck in there and maybe you can find some mistakes, but at the end of the day we’re looking back at this like we played our A-plus game, and this is what we want to try and continue moving forward with.”
Winnipeg scored three times in the third period to end any doubt on the outcome.
Adam Lowry struck for two of the three goals in the period.
“It was a pretty complete, pretty solid effort,” Lowry said. “Throughout the game, we didn’t give them a whole lot. A couple of posts, a couple of chances, but [Hellebuyck] was rock-solid.”
The Canucks dropped to 16-17-3.
“I’m not sitting here saying we outplayed the other team and deserved better fate, but I am saying that it didn’t feel like a 4-0 game and I liked a lot of things in our game,” Vancouver head coach Travis Green said.
Paul Stastny also scored in the third period.
“They got the bounces,” Vancouver’s Jordie Benn said. “We hit three posts in the third. It could have been a different game if those go in.”
Thatcher Demko made 25 saves in the loss.
“We need guys to step up to the plate,” the Canucks’ J.T. Miller said. “This is an opportunity. As much as it [stinks] to lose pretty much all of our centers at this point, this stuff happens. Guys are going to get an opportunity and we need guys to step up. This is the hard part of the season. We just need to literally challenge ourselves to be need to be the best version of ourselves right now.”
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