No offence to Alberta's two evolving teams, but they're just not the San Jose Sharks. Neither, it turns out, are the Vancouver Canucks.
After winning three straight against Edmonton, Calgary, and then New Jersey, the Canucks found themselves on the receiving end of another atomic San Jose wedgie on Thursday night, dropping their second-straight 4-1 decision to their Sharks, and their eleventh straight (ELEVEN!) if you count preseason games (and, at this point, we may as well). That flaccid streak includes, of course, the four-game sweep Vancouver suffered at Shark hands last postseason, a broom-infested occasion that led to the forced exodus of head coach Alain Vigneault and the minor reshuffling of a once-thought-to-be blossomed Canucks core.
To their credit, the Canucks have looked the part of a contender over the past week, even if their trio of wins included two two-goal comebacks and two overtime clinchers. This is the NHL, though, so you can't fault a team for winning a close couple – all they need to do to prove their worth is score, score, and SCORE.
And, against San Jose, Vancouver can't.
Burnaby boy Mike Santorelli had the lone tally for Vancouver – which made it 2-1 in the second period – before Sharks forwards Patrick Marleau and Brent Burns sealed it with their own in the second and third periods. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Matt Pelech got things start for the Sharks, who are no 4-0-0 in their young NHL season.
With the loss, Vancouver dropped to 3-2-0, with both losses coming against San Jose and at different venues.
The Sharks narrowly edged Vancouver in shots, 28-26.
Logan Couture and Joe Thornton both had two assists for San Jose, and Burns added a helper to go with his empty-net goal.
