Lankinen’s struggles continue as Canucks lose to Red Wings

VANCOUVER – Not enough choices at centre, and the wrong choice in goal.

As the Vancouver Canucks play without any of the three experienced centres they gambled on for this season, it wasn’t the hollowed out middle of the ice that hurt them Monday as much as the space around their net.

It was poorly defended at critical moments, and staffed by the wrong goalie in Kevin Lankinen as the Detroit Red Wings won 4-0 at Rogers Arena despite being largely outplayed.

After minor-league callup Nikita Tolopilo delivered a rare win for the Canucks with Saturday’s 4-2 triumph against the Minnesota Wild – his second win in three National Hockey League starts – coach Adam Foote returned after a rest day to Lankinen, the struggling backup who was beaten three times on 13 shots and lost for the ninth time in 10 starts.

Tolopilo replaced him for the third period.

Foote’s choice on Thursday will be easy if injured starter Thatcher Demko, out since straining his groin on Nov. 11, is available as projected to play against the Buffalo Sabres. If that’s the case, Tolopilo will be back in the American Hockey League.

He should have been back in the Canucks’ net against the Red Wings.

We know. Second-guessing a goaltending choice after a loss is the easiest and cheapest of low-hanging fruit.

But when the Canucks, who haven’t won consecutive games since Oct. 19, so needed to maintain the spark Tolopilo provided Saturday and after his callup on the previous road trip, the team went back to Lankinen and his .881 save percentage that is tied for 24^th among 28 NHL goalies who have played at least 15 games.

In his last start, Lankinen allowed three goals on 17 shots in a 4-1 loss Friday to the Utah Mammoth. The popular veteran, who is being paid $4.5 million as a backup-plus to make Demko’s absence less damaging than it has been, has been dealing with a family issue that required a brief leave of absence.

So how much consideration was given to playing Tolopilo in the first period on Monday instead of waiting for the third?

“It’s a great question,” Foote told reporters after the game. “We thought about it. At that moment when we made that decision, we weren’t sure where Demmer was (in his recovery). We knew he was close. Lanks has been, you know, he had some stuff going on in his own life, and he’s fighting through that and he’s doing a helluva job.

“I think maybe if I knew that Demko was ready, we might have put Tolo back in. But Lanks is a true pro, and he’ll be fine. He’s been off a little bit but also we can’t put him alone on an island, either. We had full control of a hockey game and, you know, you saw what happened.”

In fairness to Lankinen, who helped keep the Canucks in the playoff race last season despite all the dysfunction and challenges that included a series of injuries to Demko, it’s not like the 30-year-old is serving up bloopers. But the problem Monday was the one he has had most of this season: Not enough saves.

Nate Danielson’s deflection rattled through Lankinen to make it 3-0 at 15:52 of the third period.

Thirty-seven seconds before that, poor defending that included Quinn Hughes failing to intercept a pass when he reached for the puck, left Andrew Copp with an open-net tap-in. And Aatu Raty’s decision to chase behind the net left James van Riemsdyk alone in front to score on his own rebound in the first period.

None of those goals were Lankinen’s fault. But neither did he play anything like John Gibson at the other end, as the Wings goalie robbed Jake DeBrusk on a rebound, stopped every deflection and redirect, and made a bushel of point-blank stops – against Conor Garland, Brock Boeser, Raty, Kiefer Sherwood and DeBrusk, among others – during a 37-save shutout.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Lankinen’s minus-7.9 goals allowed above average (before Monday) ranks 48^th among 56 goalies who have logged 500 minutes. Tolopilo had saved plus-1.7 goals above expectation in his micro-sample of three starts. He won two of them. Lankinen is now 4-10-3.

“It was lopsided there for a good part of the game … and we had a couple mistakes that went in the back of our net,” Foote said. “For most of the game, their goalie kept them in it.

“I thought (Lankinen) was a little off, even though we did have mistakes. I thought (Tolopilo) would also give the guys a little bit of a spark going into the third. You know, Lanks has been a good pro, and sometimes it’s just not your night. It wasn’t all on him; he was left alone a couple times. But I just thought I’d see if we could get the guys going.”

Tolopilo stopped the six shots he faced and made easily the best save by a Canuck when he pushed off his line to rob Moritz Seider on a pass out from behind the net late in the third. With Vancouver down by three, Dylan Larkin made it 4-0 into an empty net with 4:31 remaining.

The final shots were 37-20, and high-danger scoring chances were 20-10 for Vancouver.

“You have full control of the game, buzzing,” Foote said. “We were giving them fits, and then we have a mistake. . . and you give them a little bit of life. But it is what it is.”

Ice chips

Top centre Elias Pettersson missed a second straight game with an undisclosed injury. Foote said Pettersson felt better Monday than he did on the weekend. “I’ll know more in the next couple days as far as the time frame,” Foote said. “I don’t want to touch on that yet.” … After missing 2 ½ months following pre-season surgery to repair a fracture near his ankle, Canucks winger Nils Hoglander made his season debut, logging 13:22 of ice time and registering one hit and one shot … Sherwood had 13 shot attempts and 10 hits for the Canucks, including an open-ice jolt on Lucas Raymond late in the third period that shook up the Red Wings star. . . Fill-in first-line centre David Kampf had two shots and went 11-6 on faceoffs, but extended his pointless streak to 10 games.

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