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Canucks head to Washington without Kesler

Mar 14, 2014 - 3:03 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Just when the sun brightens a bit for the Vancouver Canucks, it is followed up with a torrential downpour.

The Canucks will be without their leading goal scorer for the rest of their road trip, one that resumes on Friday night against the Washington Capitals.

Wednesday should have been a night that left the Canucks feeling good about themselves. They snapped a seven-game road losing streak with a 3-2 shootout win over the Winnipeg Jets in the opener of a four-game swing and saw forward Alexandre Burrows net his first two goals of the season.

Of course, the good came with the bad as Ryan Kesler left in the game following a knee-on-knee collision and went back to Vancouver for further tests. It is not known how long he will be out, but head coach John Tortorella did admit that Kesler will not play for the rest of this trip, one that includes games versus the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Kesler was mentioned in a number of trade rumors before last week's deadline, but the Canucks did not pull the trigger on a deal to move the forward, who has 22 goals on the season.

Kesler's 40 points are tied with Daniel Sedin, currently out with a strained left hamstring, and one back of Henrik Sedin for the team lead.

Minus the forward, Eddie Lack made 32 saves through overtime before stopping all three skaters he faced in the shootout. Vancouver then earned the extra point on Chris Higgins' third-round tally.

"We lose (Kesler) before the third and we get down, so yeah, I thought we played hard right on through. And that's two out of the last three games that we have played well in the third period, so good for them," Tortorella said. "They've hung in there, they've hung together. Losing a big guy like (Kesler), I thought they stuck together as a group. It was really nice to see."

So was the production from Burrows, who scored his first goals since April 15 of last year. That gave him a gap of 40 games between goals in the regular season.

"It was one of those nights it seemed the puck was finding me around the net," said Burrows, who hadn't scored a goal in his first 35 games of the season. "I had a lot of chances. Honestly, I think I had four real good looks."

Vancouver picked up its first road win since Jan. 21 in Edmonton and sits four points back of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Lack, meanwhile, rebounded after giving up six third-period goals in a 7-4 setback to the visiting New York Islanders on Monday and is likely to face Washington tonight for the first time.

The Capitals are looking to put their own struggles behind them as they were just swept in a home-and-home set by the Pittsburgh Penguins. That gave the club five losses in its past six games and Washington sits three points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

After losing a 3-2 decision at home on Monday, the Capitals were blanked 2-0 in Pittsburgh the following night. Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves, but the Penguins' Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 32 shots he faced.

"We were on our heels the whole first period, no question," said Capitals coach Adam Oates. "We turned it over too many times -- probably a little hangover from (Monday) night."

Evgeny Kuznetsov failed to record a point in the two games, the first of his NHL career after signing an entry-level deal on Saturday. He was the 26th overall pick of the 2010 draft and the Russian-born forward had been playing in the Kontinental Hockey League.

It has also been a rough few games for Caps forward Alex Ovechkin, who leads the NHL with 44 goals but does not have a point in his past four games. He is a minus-4 over that span.

Halak, acquired from the Buffalo Sabres before the trade deadline, started both games versus the Penguins and is 4-3-1 lifetime with a 2.12 goals against average versus the Canucks. Fellow Washington netminder Braden Holtby has never faced them.

The Capitals have lost four straight and nine of their last 10 meetings with the Canucks, including a 3-2 setback in Vancouver on Oct. 26.

The Canucks have won four of their last five trips to Washington and are eligible to have forward Zack Kassian back in the lineup tonight. He finished serving a three-game suspension for a hit-from-behind versus Dallas last Thursday.