VANCOUVER — Bruce Boudreau shook his head Monday night and heaved a deep sigh.
“It’s like Groundhog Day,” said the exasperated coach of the Vancouver Canucks.
Captain Bo Horvat stood stone faced in the Vancouver dressing room, anticipating the questions he would face.
“I’m running out of things to say,” said Horvat. “Another poor effort by us tonight. That’s the result right there.”
Jordan Kyrou scored his first career hat trick and collected an assist as the St. Louis Blues broke open a close game with three second-period goals and added to the Canucks' home woes with a 5-1 NHL win.
It was Vancouver’s third consecutive loss at Rogers Arena. It was the second game in a row, and fifth time this season, the Canucks lost 5-1 at home.
Some of the Canuck fans still in the building late in the third period booed and chanted “sell the team.” At least one person wore a paper bag on their head.
The Canucks (13-15-3) are 8-6-1 on the road but 5-9-1 at home. They lost 5-1 to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday and 8-3 to the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 10. Between those losses they beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime on the road.
“It’s not fun,” Horvat said in a near whisper. “We play like a completely different team on the road. I don’t know if we’re pushing too hard at home not to get booed out of our building every night.
“It’s just turning on us right now. We’re just kind of running around with our heads cut off a little bit too much. We’re sick of letting our fans down, each other down at home.”
Kyrou, who wasn’t made available to the media after the game because he was receiving treatment, scored twice in the third period, once on the power play. He has six goals in three games and 10 points in the last four.
Robert Thomas, with a power-play goal and assist, and Nathan Walker with his first of the season, also scored for the Blues (16-15-1) who won their fourth straight and for the fifth time in seven games. Vladimir Tarasenko had three assists and Nicky Leddy added a pair.
Ilya Mikheyev scored for the Canucks.
Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 33 shots. Canuck goalie Spencer Martin made 22 saves.
Blues head coach Craig Berube credited a couple penalty kills early in the first period for keeping his team in the game, then his power play scored when needed.
“That was the difference in the game,” said Berube. “Special teams are really important. Your special teams can win you a game or lose you a game.”
After a scoreless first period things unravelled for Vancouver in the second.
Kyrou opened the scoring at 10:25 of the second. The Canucks tied the game just 99 seconds later after Mikheyev took a pass from defenceman Quinn Hughes, outskated the Blues' defence, then deked Binnington to stuff the puck in the far corner.
Walker killed any momentum Vancouver had when he made it 2-1 at 13:02 on a shot from the hash marks that sailed over Martin’s glove.
Thomas gave the Blues a two-goal lead on a power play at 18:50 when he wired a pass from Pavel Buchnevich from the faceoff circle into the top corner of the net.
Kyrou put the Blues ahead 4-1 on a power play just 67 seconds into the third period with a shot through traffic. He made it 5-1 with a wrist shot at 9:19.
“Any time you’re not winning on a regular basis, it’s perplexing for coaches,” said Boudreau. “The biggest part is you can look like champions one night and then the next night you look like the opposite.
“That’s the most perplexing thing for me right now is because I’ve seen the best of us, I’ve seen the worst. I know we’re going to come out of this because we have in the past, but it’s hard going through it.”
NOTES
Canadian soccer hero Christine Sinclair of Burnaby, B.C., dropped the puck in a ceremonial opening faceoff. … Brock Boeser returned to the Vancouver lineup after missing two games with a non-COVID illness. … Elias Pettersson, who leads the Canucks with 34 points and is second with 13 goals, missed his second game with a non-COVID illness. … The Canucks called up goaltender Artus Silvos from their Abbotsford AHL team when Collin Delia’s wife gave birth to their second child Monday. … It was a tough first period for Blues' defenceman Colton Parayko who was called for two penalties in the opening 5:08. … The line of Ivan Barbashev, Thomas and Kyrou combined for four of the Blues' six even-strength goals in wins over Edmonton and Calgary.
UP NEXT
The Canucks end a three-game home stand Thursday against the Seattle Kraken then play the Oilers in Edmonton on Friday. The Blues’ five-game road trip continues with games in Seattle Tuesday and Las Vegas Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2022.
Jim Morris, The Canadian Press
