VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Canucks looked threatening on Friday.
asserted
Canucks → look → Friday
Then the team fell apart yet again.
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team → fall → ?
“It’s frustrating, obviously,” winger Brock Boeser said after his team fell 5-1 to the New York Rangers.
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team → ’ → Rangers
“I feel like we just haven’t put a full game together.
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we → feel → game
And we talk about it and we talk about it, and it’s the same stuff.
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it → talk → it
So we’re going to have to learn eventually.”
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we → go → ?
The defeat marked a seventh straight loss for the Canucks (3-17-1).
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defeat → mark → Canucks
The team has lost 17 of its last 18 games.
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team → lose → games
But it was Vancouver that scored first on Friday.
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that → score → Friday
Boeser won a battle along the sideboards midway through the first period and chipped a puck to Zeev Buium.
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Boeser → win → Buium
The defenceman unleashed a long-range blast and Elias Pettersson deflected it in from in front of the New York net.
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Pettersson → unleash → net
The Rangers (12-8-1) levelled the score before the first intermission when Gabe Perreault ripped a shot in from the bottom of the faceoff circle.
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Perreault → level → circle
Even New York’s head coach thought the Canucks played well in the early going.
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Canucks → think → going
“I thought they had momentum in the first period,” Mike Sullivan said.
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Sullivan → think → period
“We defended hard, but we defended too much, and you know, I thought in the second and third, we did a much better job pushing back, elevating our intensity, winning more puck battles.
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we → defend → battles
“We were more proactive as opposed to reactive, and we’re at our best when we’re like that.”
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we → oppose → that
Oliver Bjorkstrand put the Rangers ahead with a power-play tally 8:21 into the second and minutes later, the Canucks unravelled.
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Canucks → put → second
Goalie Leevi Merilainen tried to clear a puck but hit centre Filip Chytil in the process.
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Merilainen → try → process
The rubber disc pinged out to Glenn Gawdin and he wasted no time putting a shot into the yawning Vancouver net.
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he → ping → net
It was the first of three goals the team surrendered over a span of three minutes and nine seconds.
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team → surrender → minutes
“If we let in a goal, we can’t let it snowball and they get another three goals like they got today in the second period,” Pettersson said.
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Pettersson → let → period
“So it’s up to us in this room to figure it out.”
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it → ’ → it
The errant pucks fed New York’s transition game and kept Vancouver hemmed in its own end for extended stretches.
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pucks → feed → stretches
“And then you’re not getting pucks deep and not getting a forecheck, and you’re just on your heels,” Boeser said.
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Boeser → get → heels
“So it’s a pretty important part of the game.
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it → ’ → game
“You see the best teams in the league, they continue to play the same way.
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they → see → league
There’s times you can make a play, and there’s times that you can’t, and you’ve got to learn when those times are.”
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times → ’ → play
Vancouver is now 1-5-0 when heading into the second period tied this season.
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Vancouver → head → period
The Canucks haven’t fared better with a first-period lead — they’re 0-3-1 when leading after the first.
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they → fare → first
“When you look at really good teams in this league, they don’t shoot themselves in the foot, and they just stay with their process, they stay with their game plan.
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they → look → plan
And eventually somebody cracks,” head coach Manny Malhotra said.
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Malhotra → crack → ?
“And too many times, we’re the team that goes off script and cracks in those moments.
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that → ’re → moments
So it’s that learning lesson of being comfortable in the nothingness of just being simple.”
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it → ’ → nothingness
HOMETOWN HOCKEY
Gawdin scored his first two NHL goals with about a dozen loved ones in the crowd.
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Gawdin → score → crowd
Hailing from the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, B.C., the depth forward is in his ninth year of professional hockey but has spent much of his career toiling in the minors.
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forward → hail → minors
To mark a major milestone in front of family and friends was “huge,” Gawdin said.
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Gawdin → mark → family
“There’s a lot that goes through your mind over the years, and credit to the circle around me, credit to my wife, they push me when I need it,” he said.
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he → ’ → it
“And yeah, I think the success tonight, I think they have an equal part in that, so it was a special night.”
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it → think → that
Playing in Vancouver was special for Garand, too.
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Playing → play → Garand
The goalie is from Victoria, B.C., and said he had “close to 50 people” at the game.
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he → say → game
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
