So the road trip goes on. Despite some late game heroics and a lucky double minor in the latter half of the third period, the Canucks were unable to come from behind yet again against the Montreal Canadiens. Or should I say the Canucks could not find a way to solve Jaroslav Halak and subsequently are STILL without a win in February.

You know, it’s really hard to try and stay positive about this club, but not having a win for the entire month of February is pretty goddamned bad. You start looking ahead. Can the Canucks still make the playoffs? Does the Olympic roster freeze necessitate GM Mike Gillis blowing up the core? Do we look at moving the Sedins, who were without any points tonight? Especially since Henrik Sedin’s lead in the NHL scoring race is held by only the slimmest of margins (Alexander Ovechkin sits behind him by only a single point now.)

You also have to wonder about Roberto Luongo and if he’s smarting over the Olympic snub, where he was not named the bonafide starter for Team Canada. I mean, it’s one thing to make several miraculous saves late in the third period when the opposing team is only leading by one goal and it’s another thing entirely to melt down after the third such save and allow yourself to be scored upon. You can’t help but start second guessing if he truly is one of the best in the league.

Lots of soul searching must go on now, in this bleak, dreary second month of the year. It may have been Groundhog Day today, officially, but it seems like the Canucks have been trapped in the Bill Murray film for quite a while. I now know the pain that Edmonton Oilers fans are enduring.

Winless for the month of February. When will the pain stop?

…okay. I’m pretty sure I’ve beaten THAT particular topic into the ground. As you could probably surmise, the Canucks ended up running into a hot goaltender tonight. While there are some people who are losing their minds over this loss, I thought I’d try and put things way into perspective here with the Canucks. Yes, the Canucks lost. As much as I hate to have it happen against the Canadiens, losses can and do occur and the Canucks had just completed a great 7 game stretch where they beat some of the best teams in the league (Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Chicago.)

That said, while I can be accepting of the Canucks losing, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be critical. I know that the popular target tonight is Roberto Luongo because Luongo failed to make a save on one of the first shots of the game from the Habs. Prior to Sergei Kostitsyn’s tally, the game was all Canucks, as they generated several quality scoring chances but were unable to convert.

So, fair enough. I gave Nolan Baumgartner grief on Saturday for his whiffing on a momentum killing pass in what turned out to be a win against the Maple Leafs, I’ll do the same here and hang Luongo’s first goal against as being a momentum killer and saying he had played bad.

But that means the blame needs to be spread around as well. The defense, in my estimation, was a jumbled mess tonight. I thought Sami Salo and Shane O’Brien looked good in spots, but that was about it. Edler looked bad, disappointing considering he had been playing well prior to this game. I am not a huge fan of the Rome/Lukowich pairing (can we not pair each of them up with more responsible/talented partners?) Ehrhoff and SOB were on the ice for two of the goals scored (remember how I said SOB looked good in spots?) All in all it was a bad night for the Canucks blueliners. As much as I was hoping Luongo would sit for tonight’s game despite knowing that there was zero chance of it happening (Luongo sitting in Montreal? Yeah, right) I hope that Alain Vigneault seriously considers starting Raycroft against Ottawa to let his defensemen understand that having a star goaltender is a privilege, not a right. Plus, it’d give Luongo a rare night off and get a chance to get rested.

Beyond that, a lot of talk has shifted towards the Canucks bottom six. Steve Bernier is getting a lot of flak over his play as of late, moreso than Kyle Wellwood, which is unusual. While Bernier’s gone cold, cold, cold and the third line has been an offensive black hole right now, they still are managing to be quite adept at not being scored against. I’d be very interested in seeing how our third line matches up against the third line of other teams, as I’m not convinced they are as horrible as some people are making them out to be.

Don’t get me wrong, the lack of offense is frustrating, but people are acting like our third line is like our fourth line which IS a complete disaster. I loved Ryan Johnson’s piece he wrote for the Province and I know he is capable of being a good, quality bottom six guy, but for whatever reason he just isn’t working out in Vancouver and oh my god I cannot wait until he is gone from this team. I feel bad writing that, but goddamn.

Throwing him AND a mix of Glass/Rypien/Hordichuk out there is a disaster on ice. Hence why the second goal was scored: our fourth line plus Rome/Lukowich equals chaos.

At the very least, there’s hope for that third line, if they can ever get their act together. Same thing can’t be said for the fourth line.

On the plus side, the Canucks top lines looked fairly solid. The Sedins seemed a little out of synch tonight, although they were dangerous and had a number of golden scoring opportunities right on Halak’s doorstep. The second line did their job, as Mikael Samuelsson continues his post-Olympics snub tear.

Anyway, the Canucks didn’t play a perfect game, a costly early goal ended up deciding things and they ran into an incredibly hot goalie. It happens. Let’s see what happens against Ottawa now on Thursday.