Earlier today we discovered that the Canucks remain . Some of you scoffed. They are, after all, eight points out. But I went all in. Dammit, this is how every great story starts. Until the math says otherwise, the Canucks are still right in The Miracle Zone. Heck, maybe the miracle has already started, and not only are we missing it -- we’re being Those Who Didn’t Believe. That would suck. We’re gonna hate those people in the movie.
So this morning I decided I Believe. The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Maneuver, which is what I imagined we'd call this great, late surge into the postseason if I had any say, had either already begun or could begin at any minute. The occasion of the Canucks’ first three-game win streak, perhaps? but then the Canucks lost -- like, super lost -- and I realized what a fool I'd been. The loss hurt a lot harder than it should have when I watched this game.
- I can't believe the Canucks blew it. This morning, Willie's all, we're still after them playoffs, and then the only thing between them and their first three-game win streak of the season is the Winnipeg Jets? The universe found the Canucks a team worse than them? Hot diggity! This should have been a slam dunk for Vancouver. But it looked to me like they treated it like a slam dunk, which means they were thinking of the wrong game entirely tonight. I guess what I'm saying is, they looked like a basketball team out there.
- On the bright side, today was about the kids, so it was sweet of the Canucks to stay out of their way.
- Poor Jacob Markstrom. He had a great game, but no one’s gonna believe on a night when he also happened to surrender five goals. If not for a series of huge saves, however, this one could have been a lot worse. Two minutes into the first, Markstrom stopped Adam Lowry on a shorthanded breakaway. Later, he robbed Paul Postma on a point-blank chance with a . And midway through the second, he snatched a puck off the goal line with his bare hand! His bare hand! Granted, it was pretty anti-climactic -- he pretty much just picked it up -- but he did it with his bare hand. Add that phrase to any action and it goes from mild to spicy.
- We probably should have known this night wasn't going to go Vancouver's way after the Jets' first goal. It came courtesy winger Marko Dano, the prospect Winnipeg got in the Andrew Ladd trade, which the Chicago Blackhawks made instead of trading for Dan Hamhuis, so you can bet people took special notice of that goal on Twitter. Far and away tonight’s Most Poetic Goal™, which is an award we should give out more often.
- Tonight's Most Poetic Final Score, by the way, is 5-2. There will be no win streak, and that's disappointing, but remember the 5-2 streak? And you people keep saying the Canucks never do a streak.
- Alex Grenier played tonight, and while it's hard to imagine a hockey player existing before he puts on a Canucks uniform, it's worth noting that he also played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, in Rochester, Albany, and Providence, respectively. And if you’re wondering if he looked exhausted, your answer lies in of him barely defending a developing two-on-one on the Jets’ third goal. I guess the Canucks are #TeamGaunce.
- Granted, he wasn’t the only one who had a case of the unfortunately-timed fallsie-downsies. Alex Biega took a tumble on the Jets' fourth goal, turning it into a two-on-one. And then Dan Hamhuis, the last man back, fell down too, making it a 2-on-0. They looked like . "Okay, half of you vibrate that way, two of you fall down - Nelson, you just spin around in a circle."
- One gets the sense Jake Virtanen was paired with the Sedins largely because Virtanen is the only Canuck that could replace Jannik Hansen's puck retrieval speed. But there's more to playing with Henrik and Daniel than that, and Virtanen has clearly yet to figure it out. Â in the final minute, but the 19-year-old had a rough night tonight overall, finishing minus-7 in even-strength corsi. That's worse than it seems -- Virtanen is the Canucks' best corsi player. Anyway, this is probably . Negative influence. I didn't like the new BIRTANEN nameplate, for instance.
- The Canucks lost more than just the game tonight, though. They also lost two more players. First, Markus Granlund left the game with an upper-body injury. Later, Luca Sbisa left the game with a left arm injury, in tonight's only blow for team tank.
-  after Winnipeg had jumped out to a 5-0 lead was a classic snack goal, with Michael Hutchinson sacrificing his shutout bid to give the Canucks something to nibble on, so they wouldn't be so hungry next time. Either that, or it was dumb luck, as McCann's wrister deflected into the air, then arced over Hutchinson's head and into the net. It sure looked like dumb luck, and the Canucks are, after all, an unbelievably lucky club.
- Finally, because it was the only way to get the people to put down their torches, the Canucks announced immediately after the game that Nikita Tryamkin would play Wednesday,
