Canucks easily handled by Golden Knights in potential playoff preview
Tuesday night’s game was a disaster from the first minute for the Vancouver Canucks.
What was supposed to be a battle of two Western Conference juggernaut ended up being a one-sided beating as the Vegas Golden Knights walked away with a 6-3 victory.
The start of the game was a bad omen for the visiting team as Casey DeSmith made a great breakaway save before mishandling the puck and allowing Anthony Mantha to open the scoring.
we are catching up lol here is Mantha's goal!!! pic.twitter.com/VEz8YHyXqw
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) April 3, 2024
The Golden Knights managed to build a 4-1 lead in the first period with just nine shots. The Canucks’ lone goal was scored by Nils Höglander in a net-front scramble.
“Not a good start and it starts with me,” said Quinn Hughes after the game. “We’ve still got two games on this trip where we need the wins and we need to play better than what we did and we have that opportunity tomorrow.”
“I didn’t think four or five guys were ready to play,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “We had our moments in the second and the third but obviously that first kind of put us behind the eight ball.”
Things went from bad to worse for the Canucks when Nikita Zadorov got a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding near the end of the opening frame. This left the visiting team with just five defencemen for 40 minutes, as well as a major penalty to kill.
Nikita Zadorov gets a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding. pic.twitter.com/7XSUR1C0WV
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 3, 2024
The Golden Knights would add to their advantage on the lengthy power play, pushing their lead to four goals.
Hughes scored twice to cut the lead to 5-3 in the third period but that was as close as the score would get.
Whenever the Canucks scored to provide some hope, the Golden Knights were quick to answer. Twice the home team answered within 30 seconds after the Canucks scored.
“Can’t happen,” said the head coach about the quick responses.
Thatcher Demko was dearly missed in this contest as DeSmith allowed six goals and made just 24 saves. However, many of the goals came on odd-man rushes.
“First couple of goals we leave him out to dry two-on-ones. On the power play, he made a great save at the end that could’ve made it 5-1 and then we take a five-minute penalty,” said captain Hughes about his team’s goalie. “Casey did his job tonight we were not very good around him.”
These two teams could be facing off in the first round of the playoffs. The Golden Knights are battling the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific Division. The loser will end up in a Wild Card spot where they could play the Canucks in the first round.
“If we play like crap against a team that’s not in the playoffs, it’s even more disappointing because it shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t happen tonight either but I mean you play like that against any team in the league, it’s going to be disappointing,” Hughes said about the performance.
The Pacific Division leaders are back in action tomorrow night when they will have a chance to forget about this disaster. They face off against the Arizona Coyotes and the puck drops at 7 pm PT.
“We’ve got to regroup tomorrow,” said Tocchet. “Got to get these guys energized against Arizona. You’ve got to get the negativity out of yourself now. But as a player it’s not so much negativity, you’ve got [to] look at yourself, ‘How can I do better?'”
The Canucks and Golden Knights have one more game remaining on April 8 at Rogers Arena.
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