VANCOUVER — In their win-of-the-season Wednesday against the Colorado Avalanche, the Vancouver Canucks proved they could succeed while allowing six goals. Once.

On Saturday, they allowed six (plus another into an empty net) in a 7-4 loss to the Utah Mammoth. A week earlier, the Canucks lost 7-3 to the Calgary Flames. A few games before that, it was 6-2 for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Vancouver is 1-8 in its last nine games and has allowed a total of 47 goals. 

This latest downward spike in performance secured for the Canucks last-place overall in the National Hockey League, an ignominious achievement the franchise had managed to dodge for the last 55 years despite some abysmal seasons along the way.

Losing is hard on everyone except draftists. But it is the only outcome available to the Canucks as long as their goalies, blue line and overall team play are so routinely exposed by the opposition attack.

Goalie Nikita Tolopilo, a surprise starter due to a late-developing health issue for Kevin Lankinen that coach Adam Foote did not detail for reporters, was beaten six times on 23 Utah shots.

And although there were deflections and some of the usual Canuck luck — these factors intersected when the first of three goals by Clayton Keller ticked in off Vancouver defenceman Zeev Buium’s stick —  there was also a turnover by Tolopilo on Lawson Crouse’s third-period goal, a missed backcheck by Marco Rossi on Liam O’Brien’s score, and another terrible line change and slack defending when........

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