PITTSBURGH — There was lots of Skille, just not enough skill Tuesday from the Vancouver Canucks.
Suddenly without critical centres Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter, both injured, the Canucks absorbed plenty of pressure from the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins before cracking in the third period and losing 4-0.
Horvat leads the Canucks in scoring and Sutter is second among forwards in ice time. Their injuries, suffered Sunday in Buffalo, pushed a lot of players into new positions and left Vancouver badly outgunned against a Pittsburgh team that is 23-3-3 at home.
Effort has never been the Canucks’ problem, and it wasn’t on Tuesday. The problem is young talent and top-end scoring, and the Canucks were shut out for the seventh time this National Hockey League season.
Jack Skille, the training camp walk-on who was moved up from the fourth line on Tuesday, had the Canucks’ best scoring chances but was stopped twice while in alone on Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray.
“I just wish they would have found their way into the back of the net,” Skille lamented. “That definitely would have helped tonight. You don’t really feel the pressure; you just want to do whatever you can do to help the team. But missing guys, and being one of those guys that gets bumped up, you definitely want to cash in and step up for the team.
“It doesn’t feel good to lose that way, but I think there were a lot of good things. It was unfortunate the game got away from us.”
Vancouver goalie Ryan Miller kept his team close for 40 minutes, and the Canucks trailed only 1-0 until their defending collapsed in the third period and the Penguins got goals from Jake Guentzel, Phil Kessel and Matt Cullen.
Evgeni Malkin had a goal and assist for Pittsburgh, and Sidney Crosby’s third-period assist was his 999th NHL point.
Malkin and Crosby. That’s who the Penguins had at centre.
“We knew what kind of game we needed to play,” Miller said. “You saw what happened when we got away from it in the third. We started stretching things out and leaving good ice and it didn’t turn out so well. It’s a one-goal game; anything is possible. It’s just disappointing to watch it fall apart in the third.”
If this is the road trip that sinks the Canucks’ playoff chances – they’re 2-3 with a game to go Thursday in St. Louis – they’re not going down meekly. If they had skill to match their will, they’d be back up at the top of the standings with the Penguins.
But they showed themselves something by competing without Horvat and Sutter, and they won’t play in fear in St. Louis.
“We knew it would be hard today, especially in the middle,” veteran winger Jannik Hansen said. “A lot of stuff goes through your centremen.
“We were right there. We were there until they scored their second or third goal, but it’s not like we didn’t have our chances.”
But they didn’t have enough, and they didn’t have the finish to convert on those they generated.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Canucks need to beat the St. Louis Blues on Thursday to finish this referendum of a road trip at 3-3, which always seemed the minimum requirement to constitute survival – for the trip and in the playoff race.
They’ve played well through the first five of six games, but left points on the table in regulation losses last Tuesday in Nashville (4-2) and Saturday in Boston (4-3) and now have to find a way to beat the Blues, who are 5-1 since Mike Yeo replaced Ken Hitchcock as coach on Feb. 1.
The Canucks, at least, will be resting Wednesday when the Blues visit the Detroit Red Wings. The absences of Horvat and Sutter were obvious, especially offensively, against the Penguins. One of the impressive aspects of this road trip had been an outbreak of offence by Vancouver, which outscored opponents 12-10 in the first four games.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Canuck general manager Jim Benning said injuries to Horvat (foot) and Sutter (hand/wrist) are day to day and he is hopeful both may be able to play Thursday in the road trip finale in St. Louis. Their status has profound implications on the Canucks’ playoff chase and when Benning might start trying to sell off assets before the March 1 trade deadline.
The Canucks’ two-day pro scouting-hockey operations summit concludes Wednesday in Pittsburgh. The team’s player-development staff is also involved. Benning said the group is planning for the trade deadline and the Las Vegas expansion draft in June.
With the Canucks four points out of a playoff spot coming to Pittsburgh, Benning declined to put a figure on a deficit that he thinks would be too great to overcome.
“I don’t want to put a number on it,” he said. “I can count only a couple of games where I wasn’t happy with the effort this season. We show up every night and compete hard, and sometimes we come up short on the skill side. We’ll see where we are in the next six games and then act accordingly.”
IN A WORD
Improvisation:With their injuries at centre, the Canucks had to rebuild the middle of their forward lines. Jayson Megna moved from wing to centre on the third line, while minor-league call-up Brendan Gaunce replaced Bo Horvat on the second.
Siege: The Penguins did everything but cut off food and water to the Canucks as they put Vancouver under siege for long stretches. Canuck goalie Ryan Miller was single-handedly responsible for keeping his team in it through 40 minutes.
Foiled: Moved up the lineup, fourth-liner Jack Skille had the best Canucks scoring chances, but was stopped in alone on Penguins goalie Matt Murray in the second and third periods.
BY THE NUMBERS
70: Games played this season and last by Alex Biega, whose appearance as a fill-in forward on the Canucks’ fourth line makes the defenceman eligible for exposure in the June expansion draft.
7: NHL players (out of 812) who had a worse plus/minus rating the minus-18 Canuck centre Hank Sedin carried into Tuesday’s game. Sedin’s shot-attempts-for percentage was 49.58.
999: Points by Penguins’ superstar Sidney Crosby, whose third-period assist left him one point shy of reaching 1,000 in the NHL – the threshold Canuck captain Henrik Sedin achieved on Jan. 20.