Blues 2, Canucks 1: Vancouver flails in tight-checking game and Andrei Kuzmenko is scratched again

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For the second time in a week, the Vancouver Canucks have been reminded what grinding, tight-checking hockey looks like.

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And for the second time in a week, they’ve failed the test.

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One can’t help but think about how this is the kind of hockey that goes a long way in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and that the teams that make the playoffs are a lot better than the St. Louis Blues.

The Canucks lost 2-1 Thursday to a hustling Blues squad, which doesn’t have a ton of scoring depth but does have plenty of pluck.

The Canucks scored first, got plenty of shots off, many of good quality, but they never really found a rhythm and as their head coach has said more than once, they’ve got to find a way to push through tight-checking games.

“Gotta bury your chances,” Tocchet said post-game in a short media session.

He didn’t seemed displeased with his team’s effort, but still you have to believe he believed his team could have done better.

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In games like this, you need to find ways to be a difference maker, to rise above the defensive pressure.

J.T. Miller’s line had some moments of pressure, but they couldn’t bury the puck.

Elias Pettersson had a more difficult night, struggling to generate many quality chances. His line started the season flying high, with him skating with Ilya Mikheyev and Andrei Kuzemenko on his wings.

But his line has unravelled. Mikheyev has struggled with consistency and hasn’t scored in almost three weeks. Kuzmenko was a healthy scratch on Thursday, the fifth time this season Tocchet has opted to sit the winger.

Kuzmenko scratched

More than once Tocchet has said he needs more energy from Kuzmenko.

Before Thursday’s game, he wasn’t revealing his cards about what he was going to do with his lineup — he chose to scratch Kuzmenko in the end, dressing rookie Linus Karlsson instead — but he keyed in on things he didn’t like from Tuesday’s 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators.

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Even as the Canucks dominated the struggling Senators, he felt his team had gotten away from their hard forechecking game.

“When you don’t forecheck, and you’re standing around, they start blowing the zone and they start taking over the game. If you’re late, then you gotta get out and make sure you’re above people,” he said.

“I just need some more guys that forecheck a little harder and come out with loose pucks. That’s when we’re at our best. There’s some jobs open for that sometimes. We need a consistent effort of forechecking right now.”

He never mentioned Kuzmenko, but the message was obvious.

And with no independent reporters in St. Louis for this game, only a team reporter and a fill-in host from Sportsnet, Tocchet wasn’t queried post-game about this latest Kuzmenko scratch. We are only left to extrapolate from what’s been said before.

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More mysteries

Other questions that were left unanswered on Thursday:

• What is Phil Di Giuseppe’s status? After Tuesday’s game Tocchet simply said he didn’t think the gritty winger would be back any time soon, but didn’t even proffer a lower- or upper-body update.

• Why was Sam Lafferty the choice to go back on to the Pettersson line? He’s a hard-worker fast winger with a nose for the net, but is so obviously best-suited to a fourth-line energy role, not being the guy who is helping the team’s most dynamic centre create offence.

Where are…

• FIlip Hronek, who has just four assists in the last month? And that’s playing with Quinn Hughes, who had a five-game points streak snapped by the Blues.

• Nils Höglander, who has just one goal in his last 11 games now.

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• Brock Boeser is goalless in four games. He went five games a goal in November, so it’s not like he hasn’t had dry patches before.

But he’s missed a few chances over the past three games and his shots on goal volume is way down.

Given how well he’s played this season and the energey he showed on the forecheck in this game, it does seem likely he’ll get back on the score sheet soon enough.

That’s more like it

Thatcher Demko was excellent and gave his team a chance to win.

He’d given up 14 goals in his previous four games.

Who else would score first

Given how well the Garland-Blueger-Joshua line has been over the last month, it wasn’t a big surprise they opened the scoring in the first period.

Nor was it a surprise that it was Conor Garland who scored, picking up his 10th point in 13 games.

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It seems a long time ago that people worried about his production.

Scattered

On the other hand, Tocchet won’t have been happy how St. Louis’ first goal, by Colton Parayko, unfolded. Blueger’s line lost control through the neutral zone and the Blues made some smart decisions on the rush.

Robert Thomas was allowed to make a fine cross-ice pass to Parayko, forcing Thatcher Demko to move post to post, and Parayko wired a great wrist shot against the grain and just inside the post.

So smooth

Tocchet won’t be happy about the winning goal either, as Thomas was left uncovered dead in the slot.

A player this good isn’t going to miss often from there.

Good starts

For the 25th time this season, the Canucks scored first.

It was just the fifth time the Canucks have lost after scoring first.

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Close games

“We got to be comfortable playing the 0-0 game,” Rick Tocchet declared a week ago, after his team dropped a 4-1 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers. “Just take what’s given. You can’t get frustrated because people are in your way or people are hitting you. Can’t get frustrated because it’s gonna get ramped up even more than this game.”

His team certainly played better against St. Louis than they did last week against the Flyers, but still, here was the same result.

Murph will be back

Fans watching the Sportsnet broadcast noticed a wrinkle: Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet’s Winnipeg-based reporter and host for Hockey Night in Canada, was serving the host’s role for Thursday’s broadcast, standing in for Dan Murphy.

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Murphy will be back on air on Saturday, when the Canucks face the Devils in New Jersey on Hockey Night in Canada.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

@risingaction.bsky.social

NEXT GAME

Saturday

Vancouver Canucks vs. New Jersey Devils

4 p.m., Prudential Center, TV: SN Pacific, Radio: Sportsnet 650

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