Sunday afternoon seemed like a good spot for a letdown game against a solid Tampa team... and it was. The Canucks couldn't string together a full 60 minute effort again, and this time it cost them. If you wanna see, you can here:



Road warriors. Home rollovers? The Canucks seem to have their groove on the road, but at home has been a different story. A decent first period, a strong push third period... but a lousy second period where they were outshot 18-5 was one of their undoings. The Canucks just can't seem to get it together for long enough at home.

“As a group, it's been frustrating, especially at home,” Juulsen said. “I think on the road, we've found games where we've played pretty solid road games. At home, we've almost got to treat it like a road game right now. Just be a little more simple and just execute the little plays, and maybe even just work a little harder.”

Not being able to string together a full 60 has been pretty consistent for this club all year. As much as that played into it, the special teams did as well. The Canucks took a too many men penalty late in the third and allowed Tampa's top end guys to muscle out a win. The Lightning scored twice on the powerplay yesterday, while the Canucks were blanked on their three attempts. Sort of difficult when you gift a team as talented as that that much man advantage power... in 7:16 of power-play time, it broke down like this for the Lightning: Kucherov, 7:16; Jake Guentzel, 7:13; Brandon Hagel, 7:11; Point, 7:06; and Victor Hedman, 6:09.

“We're still. . . I think our goal is obviously 60-minute efforts," Sherwood said, "and there's going to be ebbs and flows of every game and momentum shifts. But I thought our five-on-five play... was a lot better tonight. I think our defensive detail was a lot better. I mean, their power play is just so good for so many years, and you saw. They just capitalized.”

That they did. The Canucks played well enough at evens for the game, something Tocc even noticed.

“I liked our five-on-five play,” he said. “You know, special teams won the game for them. And their best players. You can't have that too many men. And then that's it — the Kucherov show. There you go.

“We're close. But like I said, it's a special-teams game. Their best players won the game for them. That's it. We've just got to learn from that.”

Seems like there's always something to be learned for this squad.

“Our game was pretty solid and tough one (penalty) at the end,” said Myers. “I thought there was a hook on Huggy before the too many men. We pushed and that’s something we can look at to be more consistent in our play.”

Consistency, full 60, special teams... pretty slim margins at this level, and yesterday it cost the team.

"I keep saying it," Sherwood added, "but there's a lot to keep building on and we’ve just got to continue to improve night in, night out.”

The Canucks can hope to improve upon their improving before the Blues come to town Tuesday night.

Til then:

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