NHL Exposes Vancouver Canucks in the Worst Way Possible After Loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday

The Vancouver Canucks took on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night in what was a big game to keep their Stanley Cup Playoff aspirations alive.

Despite holding a pair of multi-goal leads throughout the night, Rick Tocchet's group fell in a shootout to a Blue Jackets team who now occupy the second and final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference following the Montreal Canadiens' loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

In the first period of last night's game, the Vancouver Canucks went up 3-0 thanks to goals from Linus Karlsson, Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk and it looked like things were heading in the right direction for the club to pick up a regulation win.

Well, the Columbus Blue Jackets had other plans, scoring three goals in 8:44 of the second period to tie the game up at 3-3, with goals coming from Boone Jenner, Kirill Marchenko and Dante Fabbro.

Vancouver would go on to take a 5-3 lead, which then evaporated thanks to three more goals from the Blue Jackets, before Aatu Raty scored late in the final frame to force overtime.

Overtime solved nothing between the two clubs and they headed for a shootout where Kent Johnson scored the only goal, giving Columbus a much needed two points.

After the game concluded, Sportsnet Stats on social media shared a statistic that Rick Tocchet and the Vancouver Canucks would like to forget about pretty quickly as they shift their focus to Sunday's game in Winnipeg.

According to Sportsnet Stats, the Vancouver Canucks now lead the entire National Hockey League with eight losses when leading games by three goals or more over the last three seasons.

Thankfully, the Canucks were able to pull out a point from Friday's loss in Columbus and now head to Winnipeg to face a Jets team that leads the NHL with 50 wins, with another big two points on the line.