The Canucks blowing a two-goal lead in the 3rd period on Wednesday night in Utah and losing in overtime was one thing. Yes, it meant giving up an extra point in the standings. Yet it also puts a bit of extra pressure on the club as it heads into Vegas for the 2nd-half of the back-to-back roadie on Thursday night.
“We’ve just gotta lock these games down,” Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet said postgame. “You’ve gotta stay with it. Every game’s a learning lesson.”
Bounce back with a win and you’re laughing. Drop the game to the Pacific Division’s 1st place team and you might trigger widespread panic.
A split of the two games would have been acceptable.
The Golden Knights are 11-and-3 at home and on top of the division with 43 points. That’s five more than the Canucks heading into the match with the same number of games played.
Vancouver presently sits in the Western Conference’s top wild card spot with the same number of points and the same winning percentage of the 3rd place Edmonton Oilers. The Oil’ gets the edge because they’ve won more games in OT than the Canucks. Both teams have 13 wins in regulation.
Surely we digress. The focus will be on Kevin Lankinen in Vegas after Thatcher Demko started in net and took the OT loss on Wednesday. “Demmer” showed just a little bit of rust, which isn’t cause for alarm and is to be expected after his long injury lay-off. He’s absolutely coming around and despite a couple of fumble pucks, he’s made spectacular saves.
Lankinen has been the club’s saviour early in the season after signing as a free agent in September. At least for now Vancouver has two viable options until Demko once again owns the crease wholeheartedly. Barring injury.
Drop the puck. The Canucks are up for a challenge and the result will either accentuate or damper some of that pre-holiday cheer in Van City.
