Blues 4, Canucks 3 (OT): Too many missed moments

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Rick Tocchet calls himself a “big moments guy.”

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As in, he’s big on getting the best of the opposition in the little moments that always define games.

And while his Canucks fought back impressively, scoring three third-period goals, it’s the moments that went against his team that he’ll focus on.

Like Quinn Hughes’ unfortunate deflection of Zack Bolduc’s shot to open the scoring for the Blues. Or giving up the tying goal to Tyler Tucker off the faceoff that followed a big save by Kevin Lankinen.

Or the poor effort on an overtime rush immediately before St. Louis’ winning goal, where Hughes look tired and, rather that fully regrouping, forced a play to Elias Pettersson on the wing, who then fumbled the puck while Jake DeBrusk went for a change, creating the sudden two-on-one that Philip Broberg finished for the win.

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There were some good moments too, like Brock Boeser scoring two sensational goals to give his team a chance.

But in the end it comes back to the Canucks falling behind and just never catching up.

And that’s why the Canucks are in a fight for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Too many nights like this one.

Rarely a good strategy.

The Canucks had a brutal first period and were lucky not to come out of the opening frame down a goal.

They were much better in the second period but still fell behind.

Chasing the game is hard.

Thrilling third

Too often the Canucks have struggled in crunch time this season. Thursday they actually didn’t. They were pretty good in the second period.

They were deadly in the third: they scored three times.

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For a moment in the third it looked like a possible season-defining win as they found a gritty goal from Kiefer Sherwood then an excellent rush goal by Boeser.

That put the Canucks up 2-1. But they struggled to manage the game as the red-hot Blues cranked it up a notch and took back the lead.

Boeser’s dramatic tying goal was the kind of gut-check moment he’s become so adept at, the kind of tally you’d think would be a selling point to other teams.

He’s also generally had Jordan Binnington’s number all these years.

Tired skipper

Hughes launched the sequence that ended with Boeser’s tying goal, but he had a lot of tough moments, reminding us all that he’s far from 100 per cent.

He got steamrolled a couple times.

He made some poor decisions with the puck.

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It’s rare in a game where Hughes is on the ice for two even-strength goals against.

Playoff chase

An outright loss to the Blues was the worst-case scenario, so picking up a point is a good thing.

But the Canucks are now sitting behind the Blues in the standings. A win obviously was the best outcome. That would have kept their distance to the Flames and put the Blues a little further back.

But now they’re chasing the game again.

This is a massive road trip. There’s the big game against the Rangers on Saturday, just for vibes. But it’s also points. And so on and so on.

Tough chart

Another reason this was a struggle: they just couldn’t get inside.

That OT record

The Canucks are now 5-11 in overtime.

Some of this is just bad luck.

Some of it is bad play, like tonight.

Three of those losses is three points. Three points would have them comfortably in front of the Flames and the Blues.

Even so, the “loser” points they have collected have kept them in the playoff race.

NEXT GAME

Saturday