The season has been a disappointment for Vancouver and the seven-man strong Swedish colony in the Canadian NHL club.
Vancouver is one of three teams in the league (Chicago and San Jose are the other two) that have only 15 wins or fewer at home, writes Vancouver Sun.
At home against Seattle, Vancouver – which lacked star forward Elias Pettersson – was crushed with a whole 0–5. Seattle's André Burakovsky set up the visiting team's 2–0 goal before he definitively decided the match with his 4–0 goal 8:55 into the third period.
With just over three minutes left to play, defenseman Adam Larsson scored 5–0 into an empty net after Vancouver had pulled the goalie in pursuit of a reduction.
Despite the loss, Vancouver is not theoretically eliminated from reaching a wildcard spot in the Western Conference, but it looks tough. With seven regular season matches left to play, the team has eight points up to Minnesota and St Louis (both of which have six matches left).
Minnesota lost in overtime 4–5 away to New York Rangers, but the extra point can be important for reaching the Stanley Cup.
All points are important. We need as many as we can get, says forward Marcus Johansson, who scored a goal and two assists.
Gustav Nyquist gave Minnesota the lead in the match and goalie Filip Gustavsson made 34 saves.
