Tough loss against tired team

Transcription

1 Tough loss against tired team Tony Gallagher The Province Vancouver s decision to keep shooting along the ice against Antti Niemi proved to be costly Before the Vancouver Canucks were set to finish up their four games with the Sharks this season, Roberto Luongo was saying that if you start looking at the standings on a regular basis this early, you can drive yourself crazy. In the past those comments would have been true, back when the Northwest Division cocoon kept the Canucks safe and dry knowing that no matter what the standings looked like in November, by March Vancouver would assume its rightful place atop the coziest group of teams on the circuit. Not so much now. In fact, it might be an idea for Lui to take a boo at those standings just to give himself a hint of what this team is facing, particularly if they continue to drop home games against tired teams the way they did against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Arena on Thursday. Despite the fact the Sharks have played a lot of hockey recently and didn t have even remotely close to their A game playing incessantly in different time zones on this trip and the trip before that, the Canucks still couldn t beat them, even though they carried the lead into the last two minutes and had a mountain of chances to salt the game away long before that. Heavens, they even got themselves a power-play goal and had extended their penalty-killing streak to 25 straight disadvantages until finally giving up the four-on-three goal in OT that finished them off. But still they couldn t get by this team that owns and operates them like a profitable Walmart franchise. As always, it was the same pattern. On this, a night when it was Vancouver that had the fresh legs, the Canucks poured shots at Antti Niemi in great number. But sadly, they fired them at him in the same fashion they always try to beat the guy which is along the ice. You would think that given the Finnish goalie has beaten them 10 of 11 times this calendar year, this team would figure out that you have to get the puck toward the high side of the net to have much success against the guy. But that isn t an easy thing to do and it certainly wasn t happening.

2 Shot after shot was right along the ice and virtually nobody covers the bottom of the net better than Niemi, who stopped 34 of 35 shots to send Luongo to his fifth loss in his last six starts, not the way they wanted to start their six-game homestand. Perhaps some devious people in the media secretly snuck into the Vancouver dressing room and convinced the Sedin twins they were tired, something coach John Tortorella Wednesday said he hoped the media wouldn t do. We ve got to find a way to score a few more goals, said Henrik Thursday, who wasn t thrilled with the penalty called against him in OT. It s a tough way to lose, said Tortorella. We played a really good hockey game. It s a kick in the teeth to lose it, but to look at the big picture against a good hockey team we played pretty well and somewhere we ll win one of those we don t deserve. I m really happy on the things we did tonight and that s the only thing we have to worry about. Try to get better. Virtually everyone was singing from the same song sheet talking about how well they played, but that pretty much covers the way they described their exit from the playoffs in four straight last season against this very good San Jose team. Getting a point is a positive against one of the top team, but two points was right there, said Kevin Bieksa, who decided to fight fourthliner Andrew Desjardins with five minutes left in regulation, leaving his team without its best defensive right-side defenceman during the time the tying goal was scored. I was ou there for a long shift and he kind of grabbed me and I just felt it was a good way to kill the shift, so nothing bad happened defensively, get into a fight and get the boys a line change. Obviously it s not the best timing, but I have full confidence in the rest of my teammates. Hockey gods were smiling on Sharks Jason Botchford The Province Lucky goal to tie and a terrible penalty to Henrik Sedin prove costly as San Jose escapes with a win The power play lives. The Canucks, however, did not. A lone goal from the Canucks dormant power play wasn t enough to beat the San Jose Sharks, who have found yet another way to humiliate the Canucks.

3 This time it was winning a game the Canucks dominated for all of the second period and parts of the first and third. The hockey gods were smiling, that was a game we didn t deserve to win, Sharks coach Todd McLellan said when it was all over. His quote says more about Thursday and San Jose s 2-1 overtime win than the score ever will. The game was decided when Henrik Sedin was called for a hooking penalty in overtime. He called it a terrible call. It was borderline, but that s the last direction the Canucks should be pointing the blame. Dan Boyle scored on the power play at 2:38 of overtime. The Sharks were sucking mud for huge chunks of this game. But while they were preparing to be rolled, the Canucks were burying themselves under a landfill of missed chances. David Booth who else? started it early. He shanked a sweet setup from the slot and sent it wide right of two uprights early in the first. Alex Burrows looked like he was trying to swat at a ping pong ball all night. He managed to miss on consecutive scoring opportunities in the second. On both he appeared to be staring at an open net while he shot the puck nowhere near it. Henrik Sedin missed multiple chances, and an open net of his own. And when Chris Higgins wasn t missing the net (twice), he was shooting the puck into Antti Niemi s gut (twice). It s not frustrating, it just (makes you) pissed off we didn t get that second goal, Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa said. We had a lot of chances and we got to get that second goal. We played a good game and the majority of the game we were in their end. It just came down to one shot in the last minute of the game. There will always be talk about the Canucks lack of size and the fact they may be thin down the middle at centre, depending on the sustainability of Mike Santorelli. But what this team has lacked ever since Ryan Kesler underwent surgeryon his shoulder and wrist two years ago, is a sniper. Heck, they ve been missing a true sniper for years. They sure could have used one Thursday. The Canucks power play did manage to pop its head of the hole long enough to get a goal. It took the gunslinger, Bieksa, to slam one into the net from the point. Before you crown him the powerplay saviour, take note that on the preceding man-advantage chance he had two brutal

4 giveaways. Bieksa giveth and Bieksa taketh. The bad Bieksa appeared with five minutes left when he took it upon himself to fight, taking himself out of the game for the final five minutes. I don t think I regret it, he said. We have six good defencemen on the team. It was just a reactionary play. I think his gloves were off first. The Sharks got the goal they needed to tie the game with 1:05 left when Tomas Hertl got a hold of a shot Boyle flubbed. Boyle appeared to break his stick as both Higgins and Santorelli went down to block it. The puck squirted out to Hertl who had an open net of his own. Unlike so many Canucks Thursday, he did not miss. No time off in power-packed West Ed Willes The Province Realignment means talented teams are in a season-long dogfight for a playoff berth In the interests of full disclosure, the Vancouver Canucks, technically, never had the Northwest Division pennant sewn up by the second week in November. It just felt that way. I think there was pre-season one year, Henrik Sedin said on Thursday. And we re pretty sure he was joking. But, in their five-year run atop the Northwest, winning the division and sewing up a playoff spot was also something of a formality for the Canucks. Two years ago they won the division by 21 points. In it was 23 points. The season was eight points. And even in last year s lockout-shortened campaign, the Canucks won the Northwest by a reasonably comfortable four points. Now, you could make the case that residing in the downy soft Northwest didn t exactly harden the Canucks for the postseason. But the plain fact is they went into each year confident they d win their division along with a top-three seed in the playoffs and there are NHL teams who d cheerfully sacrifice a kidney for those accomplishments. Uh, the Canucks are now one of those teams. In relocating to the newly formed Pacific Division, it s apparent the Orcans have moved into a tougher neighbourhood than south-central Los Angeles. Following Thursday night s 2-1 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks, the Canucks sit with 25 points, which placed them tied for ninth overall in the NHL and on pace for 100 points.

5 That s the good news. The more sobering news is the Canucks are also fifth in the Pacific and, yikes, ninth in the Western Conference. Heading into last weekend they were comfortably ensconced in mid-table in the West, but with just one point over their last three outings, they ve dropped like a stone. This also tells you all you need to know about the Canucks new reality. You can make the case with a healthy Ryan Kesler and upgrades among their depth players, they re a better team than they were last season. But here they are, in a street fight for the final playoff spot and that s not going to change until April. Every game, every shootout, every overtime is important, Henrik said. It s not like it was in the past and I think that s great as a player. Every game means a lot. A lot of games in January and February back then were just a grind. Now every game means something. So it would seem. Thursday night, the Sharks and Canucks hooked up in a joyless grindfest that had all the earmarks of a playoff game. Scoring chances and open ice were at a premium. The goaltending at both ends of the ice was exceptional. And it was decided by a bounce with a minute left when Dan Boyle s attempted shot found Thomas Hertl for the tying goal. The Sharks then won it in overtime when Henrik overstayed his welcome on a shift, took a hooking penalty and Boyle scored the gamewinner on the power play. But there s no time to reflect on this loss. Sunday night, the Dallas Stars, another pretty good Western Conference team comes to town and suddenly they re just three points back of the Canucks with games in hand. This back-and-forth will continue over 60 more games and four more months until the final accounting determines who s in and who s out. If you re looking at the standings every day at this time of year you ll drive yourself crazy, said Roberto Luongo. Things will sort themselves out. But it s hard when you re living in the pressure cooker every day. And it s not just the Canucks. Over their first 19 games, the Sharks have lost just twice in regulation. They re on pace for 120 points this season, yet they re still third in the West and tied for second in the Pacific. In the East, they d basically have a playoff spot clinched. In the West, they re just another palooka fighting for their lives. It s an everyday league when you re playing out West, said Sharks headcoach Todd McLellan. It s not a part-time league. It s taxing because every game is important and I don t think that s going to change. It will for some teams. The past couple of years (the Northwest) wasn t a very good division, said Henrik. This year it s different. I mean, just look at the standings. It s a tough one. And it won t get any easier.

6 Sharks late finn- ish does the trick Iain MacIntyre The Vancouver Sun OT heartbreak: Vancouver was 65 seconds away from perfect too bad close doesn t count Mathematically, it is possible to win a game by scoring only once. Look at soccer. Heck, in the National Hockey League, you can win without scoring at all, as long as you have the circus skills to win the contrived breakaway contest at the end. So, when Kevin Bieksa scored on the power play late in the second period Thursday, the Vancouver Canucks had a chance. All they needed was for the defending, goaltending and penaltykilling to be perfect. The San Jose Sharks make it difficult for anyone to be perfect, and the Canucks were not. They lost 2-1 on Dan Boyle s overtime power- play goal, a few minutes after Boyle s flubbed shot trickled to Tomas Hertl for the Sharks tying goal with 1: 05 remaining in regulation time. It was the third straight game the Canucks scored once. It was also their third straight loss against a rival from the NHL s Pacific Division. Not frustrated, just pissed off not to get the second ( goal) to go up 2-0, Bieksa said. We re getting lots of shots on net. We had 35- plus again and it s only a matter of time before they re going to go in. Burr is close. Santorelli and Higgy are close. We can t get frustrated. We re getting chances, getting shots. But their fiercest rivals are getting points. Including their tour of the Pacific that ended Sunday, the Canucks have lost a net four points against the top four teams in their division. Alex Burrows, goalless in nine games this season, missed the net on a great scoring chance in the second period against the Sharks. So did Chris Higgins on what appeared to be a tap- in. So too, most surprisingly, did captain Henrik Sedin miss the net from about five feet out with San Jose goalie Antti Niemi absent. We ve got to find a way to score more goals, Sedin understated. We played a great game. We should have had a couple of more goals. We have to look at the way we played tonight. Canuck coach John Tortorella said: We played a really good hockey game. We end up getting tied on a fanned shot that goes to the young kid, Hertl. So you know what? It s a kick in the teeth to lose it. But looking at the big picture and some of the things we did against a pretty good hockey club, that is what we are going to take out of this game. We played a really good game right on through. We ll be on the other end of one of these. Hopefully, a few of them. A week ago, Bieksa was re- positioned on the power play. His new spot was on the bench.

7 This isn t the first time in my career I ve been taken off the power play, Bieksa said last Wednesday after a game in Phoenix. I m OK with it. I ll sit and wait for my turn and hopefully the power play can get going. They re going to try new things for sure. Thursday, Tortorella tried Bieksa on the point on the first- unit power play. And Bieksa tried a point shot late in the second period that tumbled past Niemi, making a 1-0 Canuck win seem possible. A few days ago, winger David Booth was in Utica, which is somewhere in New York. A few days from now? Hard to say. But Thursday, the enigmatic winger with three goals in 39 games over parts of this season and the last two, was back in the Canuck lineup, skating on a rejigged third line that was bestowed solid ice time. As the Canucks hopped past the quarter- pole in their schedule, they continue to be a land of opportunity. Roles are changeable, lines fluid. The objective as always, despite Tortorella s insistence on revving his top players beyond conventional red lines at which their engines would break, is to find enough balance in the team to make the Canucks multi- dimensional and less reliant than they have been on the first- line scoring of Ryan Kesler and the brothers Sedin, Danny and Hank. The connection between Booth and Bieksa is this: if the Canucks are to not only survive their brutal division but go anywhere when they get to the playoffs, they ll need scoring from its power play and its third line. They ll need something more than the Sedins and Kesler, and goalie Roberto Luongo and a defence that is experienced and well- rounded. They ll need more than the one goal. Given all that we ve seen the last two years, it would be naïve to count on Booth being much help until he shows that he can score like he did long ago in Florida. On his first shift Thursday, he failed to hit the target from the low slot on a perfect cross- ice pass from Zack Kassian. The power play, however, has more upside. And the return soon from a shoulder injury of twoway winger Jannik Hansen possibly Sunday s game against the Dallas Stars should pay far more reliable dividends than the return from a minor- league conditioning stint of Booth. But still, even when this team is healthy, the Canucks still look a forward or two short. That will be general manager Mike Gillis problem to fix, not Tortorella s. Welsh centres in on all- important first goal Brad Ziemer The Vancouver Sun

8 Folks losing sleep in Ontario watching son s games on TV while waiting for offensive outburst Jeremy Welsh can t wait to score his first National Hockey League goal and neither can his coach.

9 It has been going good and I am starting to relax with the puck and make some plays, Welsh, the rookie Vancouver Canucks centre, said before Thursday s game at Rogers Arena against the San Jose Sharks. I d just really like to bang one in here any day now. Welsh played Game No. 12 as a Canuck on Thursday. He was blanked, again no goals and no assists in the first 12. He also went without a goal in six previous NHL games with the Carolina Hurricanes. His coach, John Tortorella, thinks Welsh is struggling like many young players do when they get their first real shot at the NHL level. I think those guys need to feel that they can put up points, that they belong here, Tortorella said. It can t come from me, it can t come from you, they need to believe it themselves and that is where I think Jeremy is at. He s a big body, he can skate, I can put him in different positions and I do think he s improving, but I think he has to say to himself I belong here and I think other things will fall into place for him. He is an interesting one to me, he really is, because of his size and his skating ability. We ll see where it goes. It s not like Welsh has been getting monster ice time during his stint with the Canucks. As the fourth- line centre he s averaged just 7: 45 of ice time a night and offence is not uppermost on his mind when he and regular linemates Tom Sestito and Zac Dalpe are on the ice. As a fourth line you have to get the puck out, you have to be strong on the blue- line, finish your hits, so scoring goals is maybe fourth or fifth on your list ( of priorities) when you are in that role, Welsh said. This is first time I have had a stretch of more than two or three games at a time so it s been good to get more comfortable each game. I feel like I can score. I have created a few chances for myself and there have been some plays where if I did them again I think I d have two or three goals, but just settling in and taking that extra second I think is a key for me. Welsh and Dalpe were acquired just before the start of the regular season from Carolina in exchange for Kellan Tochkin and a fourthround draft pick. Welsh, 25, was called up after spending just two games with the Utica Comets when the Canucks lost several forwards to injury. But with Jannik Hansen expected back on Sunday and Dale Weise likely not far behind, Welsh may be running out of chances to get that elusive NHL goal. He keeps telling his parents back in Bayfield, Ont., that it s coming soon. My mom and dad have the NHL Network so they are watching. My dad gets out the door at 5: 40 each morning for work so there are some late nights and I keep telling them every day, I

10 think tonight s the night, I m going to score my first goal so you d better be watching. I think they wouldn t mind me getting the first one over with, too. NOT INTERESTED: Tortorella wouldn t bite Thursday when asked about the tight Western Conference standings, insisting that he really doesn t pay it much attention. There are too many things that go on in a long season, too many ebbs and flows that happen week to week that you need to keep track of, Tortorella said. The best way to keep track of it and stay within it is taking each day at a time. That s the way we go about our business and at the end of the year we ll see where we re at. However, San Jose coach Todd McLellan was more than happy to talk about the logjam at the top of the Western Conference. It s an everyday league, it s not a part- time league when you are playing out West, McLellan said. Eight of the nine top teams in the league are from the West right now so if you fall asleep at the wheel for any extended period you drop dramatically. It s taxing because every game is important at this time. There s not much separation between the teams, but I don t think that is going to change and it leads to us as a staff managing the team properly as we go forward as far as fatigue and rest. WORTH REPEATING: I don t worry about it. I just think they are such pros and they are the heartbeat of our team here. They ll get it figured out. Tortorella on Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who both carried three- game pointless streaks into Thursday s game. Sharks pull even late in 3rd, beat Canucks in OT Canadian Press Sportsnet VANCOUVER The Vancouver Canucks were just over a minute away from celebrating a hard-earned victory Thursday. They were instead left to ponder what went wrong against an opponent that almost always has their number. Tomas Hertl tied the score on a broken play with 65 seconds left in regulation and Dan Boyle won it on the power play at 2:38 of overtime as the San Jose Sharks stormed back to stun the Canucks 2-1.

11 Vancouver had killed 28 straight power plays until Boyle beat Roberto Luongo with a shot that needed video review. "It sucks," said Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa, who scored his first of the season for Vancouver. "Sometimes you re on the wrong end of these kind of games. "Getting a point is a positive against the top teams but two points was right there. It s early in the season. You don t want to get too down on yourself, but we deserved those two points." The Sharks have now won 10 of their last 11 against the Canucks. Vancouver led late in the third period until Boyle s flubbed shot from the point found its way to Hertl at the side of the goal. The Czech teenager buried his chance past a helpless Luongo for his 11th of the season, which leads all rookies. Canucks captain Henrik Sedin was then whistled for hooking in overtime and the Sharks power play clicked. "We played a great game. I thought they got a really lucky break on their tying goal and they get a power play in OT and that s it," said Luongo, who finished with 28 saves. "That s how close the NHL is. We re a minute away from playing, what I thought was a really great game, and all of a sudden it turns into a loss." Antti Niemi made 34 saves for the Sharks (12-2-5), who came in having dropped five of their last six and were outplayed for long stretches on Thursday. "This becomes the game you hear hockey people talk about the hockey gods, where it starts to even out," said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. "We weren t the better team tonight and we have been on the other end of that where we were the better team and found a way not to win it. Tonight we found a way to come back." In a scheduling quirk, Thursday s game was the final regular-season meeting between the Canucks (11-7-3) and Sharks in , with San Jose winning three and losing one. "It s a kick in the teeth to lose it but looking at the big picture and some of the things we did against a pretty good hockey club, that s what we are going to take out of this," said Canucks coach John Tortorella. "We played a really good game right on through." Bieksa broke the scoreless tie on the power play at 13:40 of the second period when his shot from the point found its way through traffic past Niemi. Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows missed a glorious chance moments earlier before Henrik Sedin fed Bieksa for the one-timer. The goal snapped a 2-for-28 drought for Vancouver with the man advantage and was just the Canucks third power-play goal at Rogers Arena all season.

12 Niemi kept the Canucks from doubling their lead with a big stop on Ryan Kesler with five minutes to go in the period. Canucks forward Chris Higgins had a chance off the rush early in the third that Niemi was equal to before the Sharks, who had just 17 shots through two periods, started to come on. After Henrik Sedin missed a wide-open net off a feed from his brother Daniel Sedin, Luongo made a big glove save on San Jose forward James Sheppard with under eight minutes to go. "We re trying to find ways," said Boyle. "That s what it s all about and in this league with the extra points they are giving now it s just going to come down to the end of the year and you never know which extra point is going to solidify your playoff position or have you on the outside." The Canucks returned home Thursday after a road trip against Pacific Division rivals, with the only victory coming in 4-2 decision over the Sharks on Nov. 7. Playing their first home game since a 4-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 2, the Canucks had a couple of early chances in a first period that was short on action. Niemi stopped Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev on a chance in the high slot five minutes in before shooting out his left pad to stop Mike Santorelli on the doorstep a few moments later. Vancouver s No. 1-ranked penalty kill was put to the test midway through the period when defenceman Alexander Edler was whistled for interference. The Sharks moved the puck around to Joe Thornton, but the San Jose captain s heavy shot from the top of the faceoff circle rang off the crossbar behind Luongo and stayed out. "You re not going to win every game you play great and sometimes you don t deserve to win and you re going to win," said Luongo. "That s the way the NHL is. I think the main thing is we can t put our heads down." Notes: The Canucks power play entered the night ranked 28th overall. NHL legend Gordie Howe was in attendance and got an ovation midway through the second period. Vancouver s victory in San Jose last week snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Sharks dating back to last season. The Sharks swept the Canucks four straight in the first round of last season s playoffs, while Vancouver got the better of San Jose in five games in the 2011 Western Conference final. Vancouver left-winger David Booth returned to the lineup after completing a conditioning assignment in the American Hockey League. The Sharks are in action Friday night against the Oilers in Edmonton. The Canucks continue their season-high six-game homestand Sunday against the visiting Dallas Stars. Canucks give up tying goal late, lose in overtime Gord MacIntyre - The Sports Xchange (Slam Sports)

13 VANCOUVER - Defenceman Dan Boyle scored a power-play goal at 2:38 in overtime to lift the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 win over the Canucks on Thursday. Canucks captain Henrik Sedin was in the penalty box for hooking. Sharks rookie centre Tomas Hertl, forced overtime when his 11th goal of the season tied the game at 1 at 18:55 of the third period. The Canucks managed a rare feat earlier in the game, they scored with the man advantage. For 58:55, that was good enough. The power play that languishes near the bottom of the league came through for the Canucks for the first time in a while, leading to the game's opening goal by Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa, a blast from the blueline at 13:40 of the second period, with winger Daniel Sedin providing a screen in front of the San Jose goal. It was Vancouver's first power-play goal in four games and eight tries. The power play was firing at just 9.7 percent heading into the game, third-worst in the league. On the other hand, the Canucks had no problems on their other special team, the top-ranked penalty kill in the league (89.4 percent heading into the game). Vancouver killed off three power plays in regulation to run its string to 26 straight successful power play kills, a string that stretched over 24 periods until Thursday's 4-on-3 Sharks goal. The Sharks, after bolting out of the gate at to start the season, are stumbling. In their past seven games, they've managed just one regulation win, going Centre Henrik Sedin and Sharks centre Joe Thornton each had an assist and are tied atop the NHL assist leaderboard with 18 each. For two teams that have built somewhat of a rivalry, the opening period was tepid. The best save by either goaltender was by the Sharks' Antti Niemi, getting in front of a shot redirected by his own defenceman, Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The shots were 8-8 after the first frame, unusual since the Sharks came into Rogers Arena leading the league in shots taken with an average of 37.1 per game. In four games, the Sharks have recorded 50 or more shots on the opposition goaltender. The shots wound up in Vancouver's favour Thursday. NOTES: If the Sharks and Canucks are to meet again this season, it will have to be in the playoffs. Thursday's game was the fourth and final meeting between San Jose and Vancouver in the regular season.... Heading into the game, Sharks C Joe Thornton was in 44 games

14 as a Shark against the Canucks.... Until the Canucks won 4-2 at San Jose on Nov. 7, the Sharks had beaten Vancouver nine consecutive times, including the playoffs.... Canucks C Henrik Sedin ended a three-game streak without a point. Prior to that, he had registered at least a point in 12 straight games ( ).... Canucks RW Ryan Kesler entered the game with 11 points in his previous 11 games (6-5-11). Canucks suffer late collapse, fall to Sharks in overtime David Ebner- The Globe and Mail The game, even though it was the 11th meaningful match the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks have played in 2013, did not have the tenor of a fierce rivalry. The absence of oomph had the wags of the press box chattering throughout the Thursday night contest. Is it me or is this boring? wondered one during the first period. In the second, another reporter observed on Twitter that there was surprisingly little feeling of edge to the game. Another tweet joked that the teams seem bored with each other. Spent too much time together. It was, indeed, already the teams fourth meeting of the season, with San Jose accounting for almost 20 per cent of the Canucks first 21 games and in a quirk of the schedule, Thursday night in Vancouver was also the teams final regular-season contest. At the end, San Jose won 2-1 in overtime, after tying the game with a minute left, and the victory elevates the Sharks to , tying the team for second in the Pacific Division with Phoenix. The winner was scored by Dan Boyle on the power play. Rookie Tomas Hertl scored the goal to tie, after San Jose pulled its goalie, and the Canucks opened the scoring with a rare power play goal, in the second from Kevin Bieksa. The Canucks had killed 25 consecutive penalties, over almost eight games, before San Jose scored in overtime. Henrik Sedin, who was sent off for hooking, called it a "terrible call" after the game. "Very tough," said Sedin of losing. "We should have had two points tonight. It sucks." The description was something of a refrain. "Yeah, it sucks," said Bieksa. "That's the first thing that comes to mind." Roberto Luongo echoed the sentiment. "We played a great game," he said, adding that the tying goal came off a rebound he considered a lucky bounce. "That's how close the NHL is." It had been a good outing for the Canucks before losing and the latest result is illustrative of what people speak about when they discuss the difficult Pacific Division, stacked with some of the National Hockey League s best teams. It is a situation the Canucks, and the other Pacific teams, will battle through the whole year and into the playoffs. Vancouver coach John Tortorella spoke to it directly, when asked on Wednesday after practice about playing strong teams such as San Jose or divisionand-nhl-leading Anaheim. There s such a fine line in winning and losing, said Tortorella. It is a fine line, even if it does not always look like a fine line. One main oddity in the Canucks-Sharks rivalry played hot or fairly flat, depending on the game is the in-game action and the final results do not exactly reflect each other in the 2013 tilts.

15 The final tally is heavily in favour of the Sharks, winning nine of 10 games before Thursday, with almost double the goals, Yet in the category of puck possession, measured by all shots attempted, the Canucks have not been totally outplayed by the Sharks. When the teams have been at even strength, with the score within a goal, Vancouver has put 247 pucks at San Jose, compared with 219 against in the 10 games before Thursday. Vancouver has had stronger puck possession in four of the games, and four have been basically even. The playoff sweep last spring is a good example: in two games Vancouver was stronger at even strength, and twice the teams were even but the Canucks lost all four, two in overtime. Of course, power plays were a factor last spring, but the numbers suggest Vancouver is much closer to San Jose than the win-loss record seems to say. On Thursday, the Canucks were the stronger team on puck possession, ending regulation played with about 40 shots attempted compared with about 30 against at even-strength with the score close. Vancouver s second line again was solid, the trio of Alex Burrows, Mike Santorelli and Chris Higgins clicking as they often have though once more not scoring. With the season series between the teams now already over, it feels there is unfinished business, particularly for Vancouver. The Canucks had been the ones, several years ago, that nearly reached the peak of Mt. Stanley Cup, taking out San Jose in the Western Conference finals 4-1, a series closer than the result showed, so the sweep last spring was payback. San Jose of course went on to go down in seven games to the Los Angeles Kings, a third team in a triangular rivalry with the Sharks and Canucks. Kings defenceman Drew Doughty last week spoke of the ire between squads, saying of the Canucks, They re a team that frustrates us. There has been talk in Vancouver about not seeing much of the stars of the Eastern Conference, such as Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin, who make only rare appearances in Vancouver. But while the brightest lights might not be around Rogers Arena much, the regular visits of teams such as the Sharks and Kings makes for the type of rivalries on which sports thrive even if on Thursday night the passion did not really run high.