Joe Thornton was justifiably happy after two of his shots led directly to San Jose goals in Game 4. (Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

This time it wasn’t the goaltender. Or a snake-bitten offense. Or a “so-called Canadian” opponent beguiling the officials with craven attacks on the integrity of the game.

No, by the time the red light went on to signal Patrick Marleau’s decisive goal in Game 4, it was clear: the Vancouver Canucks, all of them, just weren’t good enough to beat the San Jose Sharks. Not even close.

San Jose’s 4-3 overtime win Tuesday night ended a season that, cruelly, lasted just four games more than those played by the Florida Panthers and the Colorado Avalanche and the rest of the dregs of the league. It’s a miserable fate for the Northwest division champs, but one they deserved, just as surely as the Sharks deserved to move on to the next round as one of the NHL’s elite eight.

Here are some observations from tonight’s series clincher:

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San Jose’s Logan Couture scored two goals and added two assists on Sunday. (Don Smith/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Three teams in NHL history have climbed back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series in seven games.

It’s a pretty good bet the Vancouver Canucks won’t be the fourth.

The Canucks changed netminders, switched up their defensive pairings and may even have even poured a tiny glass of rum for Jobu. But the same problem that led to losses in the first two games — a pronounced inability to score — was again the prime culprit in a 5-2 Game 3 defeat suffered at the hands of the San Jose Sharks.

Here are some takeaways from a lopsided Sunday night contest that has the third-seeded Canucks on the brink of elimination:

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Raffi Torres scored the winning goal for the Sharks in overtime in Game 2. (Derek Leung/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Call it Raffi’s Revenge.

Early in Friday’s contest between Vancouver and San Jose, Sharks shift disturber Raffi Torres was robbed by Roberto Luongo. Blatantly, historically robbed. Torres’ one-timer was steaming into the open side and give San Jose a 2-0 lead until Luongo flopped across the crease and snared it with his glove. It was larceny of the highest degree.

So it was fitting that it was Torres who broke in with Brent Burns on a decisive two-on-one early in overtime of Game 2. And this time, when Burns’ pass slipped past the outstretched stick of Kevin Bieksa and landed right on Torres’ tape, there would be no miracle stop for the Canucks’ keeper. As Luongo slid to his right, Torres’ wrister beat him under the crossbar to seal a come-from-behind 3-2 win for the Sharks and snare a stunning 2-0 series lead.

Here are five quick thoughts after the game:

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San Jose’s Raffi Torres (top) provided a noticeable amount of toughness on the forecheck. (Derek Leung/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

For 40 minutes Wednesday night, the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks, two ill-tempered veteran sides teetering on the edge of irrelevance, went toe-to-toe in a mean-spirited contest, with both sides looking to exact an early toll in their first-round series. The officials obliged by putting away the whistles and letting the boys play.

What a vicious thrill it was. When the pace finally, mercifully, slowed in the third, the visiting Sharks found the strength to strike twice against surprise Vancouver starter Roberto Luongo, sealing a 3-1 San Jose win.

Here are some quick takeaways from Game 1:

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Goaltender Antti Niemi and the Sharks swept the Canucks, 3-0, in the season series. (Derek Leung/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

EAST PREVIEWS: Pens-Islanders | Canadiens-Senators | Capitals-Rangers | Bruins-Leafs

WEST PREVIEWS: Hawks-Wild | Ducks-Red Wings | Canucks-Sharks | Blues-Kings

Regular-season recaps

Jan. 27: Sharks 4, Canucks 1

March 5: Sharks 3, Canucks 2 (SO)

April 1: Sharks 3, Canucks 2

Notable injuries

Canucks: G Cory Schneider (body injury, day-to-day); LW David Booth (ankle injury, out indefinitely); D Chris Tanev (lower body, out indefinitely)

Sharks: D Jason Demers (lower body, day-to-day)

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Ryan Miller was pulled Friday night after some misadventures with the puck and four goals allowed. (Jerome Davis/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? A proud goaltender, waving in mock appreciation as a home crowd serenades him with a Bronx cheer? Yeah, Ryan Miller seemed as tired of the First Niagara Center crowd as they were of him after a couple of brutal goals led to an 8-4 Rangers’ win that ended Buffalo’s playoff hopes. Very easy to see him demanding a trade after that display.

• “Yes sir, just like clockwork, you can count on Brad Richards to record a hat trick once every 896 games.” That’s the great lead from Larry Brooks, writing about the veteran’s first career three-goal game in the rout of the Sabres.

• Like everyone else in Boston, the Penguins experienced an unusual day on Friday.

• It became apparent early on that as long as the manhunt for the bomber continued, the show could not go on in Boston. The postponement and rescheduling of Friday’s game means the Bruins play their final six games in a span of just nine days.

• A struggling Milan Lucic could be benched for today’s rescheduled matinee against the Penguins. That should please Bruins fans who are tired of watching him float through games.

• Mike Heika, who offers as entertaining a read as anybody out there these days, says the Stars were taught a valuable lesson in how to impose your will by the St. Louis Blues on Friday night. They probably would have preferred two points, but that lesson might pay greater dividends down the road.

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Yankee Stadium will feature a bit more ice next season when it plays host to two NHL matchups. (John Iacono/SI)

By Allan Muir

If one outdoor hockey game each year is special, the NHL is banking that six is even better.

Multiple sources are reporting that the New York Rangers will skate in a pair of outdoor games next year at at Yankee Stadium. The Blueshirts will play the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 26 and the New York Islanders on Jan. 29.

The timing might seem odd, but it plays out as a genius act of coat-tailing. With the Super Bowl slated for the following weekend, the largest media contingent of the year will be descending on New York City that week. What better way to fill their downtime–and help promote the sport–than with a pair of hockey spectacles.

The games will complement a burgeoning outdoor schedule that already features the Red Wings and Maple Leafs facing off in the Winter Classic on Jan. 1. Other matches in the works include Pittsburgh vs. Chicago on March 1 at Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, along with the expected return of the Heritage Classic on March 2, when Vancouver will host Ottawa at BC Place. There also are reports that the Los Angeles Kings will to host the Anaheim Ducks at Chavez Ravine on Jan. 25.

You can expect cries of overkill from some corners, but the league is gambling that the public’s appetite for these outdoor spectacles is nowhere close to being sated. Odds are they’re right. You can bet the games will sell out and draw huge numbers on TV.

And that’s why it’s not just the paying public that’s excited by this news. These games will provide the league a chance to soothe any ill will that lingers with sponsors in the wake of the lockout. NBC Sports, the network that invested heavily in the league almost two years ago to the day, will gain five new appointment dates on its schedule. There will be five new title sponsor deals, like the one that’s worked out well for Bridgestone, and five new opportunities for the rest of the league’s affiliates to line their coffers.

We’ll have more as the story develops.

By Allan Muir

Roberto Luongo wasn’t asking anyone to feel sorry for him.

But it’s kind of hard not to, right?

Just minutes after being pulled of the ice from practice, only to learn he hadn’t been traded, the reluctant Canuck opened up about his disappointment in a painfully human post-trade deadline press conference on Wednesday.

It made for riveting theater as he grappled with his emotions about remaining with a team that won’t play him but couldn’t find anyone willing to take him off its hands.

Not that there wasn’t interest. Talks with the Maple Leafs went right to the final minute before breaking down when the Canucks reportedly refused to assume a portion of Luongo’s remaining $40 million in salary.

If a part of him had held out hope that there was a way around that massive hurdle, it was gone by the time he stepped in front of the gathered press.

“My contract sucks,” he said. “That’s what the problem is. It’s a big factor in trading me. It’s why I’m still here.

“I’d scrap it if I could right now.”

It had to be a humbling admission. That 12-year, $64 million deal he signed in September 2009 has already given him a boatload of dough and will give him boatloads more. It’s enough to buy anything but the one thing he wants most: a chance to earn it.

Luongo has been beaten fairly by Cory Schneider for Vancouver’s starting job. That stings, but he can accept it. And maybe he can handle the smackdown of the minimal return the Leafs offered for him — back-up Ben Scrivens and a pair of second-rounders.

What really hurts is that the line of suitors that were hoping to secure his services never materialized in the off-season. And that teams facing obvious needs at the deadline decided to go with younger, cheaper options.

He’s certainly not the first to feel that particular rejection in this economy. But that doesn’t make it any less humiliating.

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Acquiring center Derek Roy made sense for the Stars last summer, but he didn’t pan out. (Dustin Bradford/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Multiple sources report Derek Roy going from Dallas to Vancouver in exchange for a 2013 second-round pick and defenseman Kevin Connauton.

Canucks skinny

Finally, the Canucks get a legitimate, second/third line center to fill a long-gaping hole, and they did it without tampering with their current roster. Roy brings veteran experience and proven playmaking ability (18 assists in 30 games), but as I’ll explain below, his game is not without flaws. Still, he’s an upgrade over what they had, and he gives coach Alain Vigneault some flexibility in his top nine. That kind of depth will be key as the Canucks push into the playoffs.

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Taylor Hall (right) is now one of the few hockey players that can say they’ve done something better than the Great One. (Dan Riedlhuber/Reuters)

By Allan Muir

A notated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Was last night’s 4-0 lambasting of the Canucks a preview of things to come for Taylor Hall and the Edmonton Oilers? Hall’s hat trick broke a Gretzky franchise record for fastest from the start of a game, but this was a total team effort. It was the sort of night that makes you wonder if Edmonton should be buyers before Wednesday.

• It was also the sort of night that makes Canucks fans imagine a future without the Sedins. With their contracts expiring at the end of next season, the team’s status as a contender could impact the decision to move forward with or without them.

• Jarome Iginla said his Pittsburgh debut made him feel like a kid again. Meanwhile, the Pens are hoping a date with the oral surgeon is the worst thing to come out of Sidney Crosby’s facial injury yesterday.

• With Iggy off the board, Ryane Clowe is hockey’s most wanted man ahead of the deadline. Wait … zero goals, lingering shoulder injury … what? David Pollak says the Sharks played Clowe’s career highlights on the video board to impress the scouts. Had to do something to obscure his play on the ice, I guess.

• The slumping Boston Bruins looked a little too comfortable as they lost for the fifth time in seven games on Saturday.

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