the final few games of the season, the Rangers feel the threat of drastic change that hangs over them. Lundqvist said ”now is not the time” to talk about the bumpy road ahead.Describing one of the most suc

VANCOUVER Frederik Andersen Jersey , British Columbia (AP) — Before the Canucks started their season, coach Travis Green said he wanted his team to “score by committee.”Vancouver did just that Wednesday night in a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.Jake Virtanen scored twice, Brendan Gaunce got the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and Antoine Roussel also found the net for the Canucks.“It’s easier said than done, but any team that wins in this league has secondary scoring usually,” Green said. “You need guys at certain times to step up. It’s not one or two or three guys that can score every night.”It was the first two-goal game of Virtanen’s career. At one point in the third period, it appeared he might have a chance at a hat trick, but the 22-year-old right wing chose not to push it.“I didn’t want to go out of position or anything,” he said. “I wanted to make sure we weren’t getting scored on. … We’d rather just secure the win and call it a day.”Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves for Vancouver.Brandon Saad and Jonathan Toews scored for the Blackhawks. Corey Crawford turned away 24 shots, but coach Joel Quenneville thought turnovers were a big problem.“I think it was self-inflicted on the goals against,” he said. “Preventable, all of them Womens Jake Gardiner Jersey , and they turned turnovers into the back of the net.”The team got sloppy with the puck, according to Saad.“A couple posts and unlucky bounces, but regardless we have to tighten up defensively,” he said. “We give that team that much rush chances and time and space and they are going to capitalize. It definitely wasn’t good enough defensively.”Gaunce scored at 9:23 of the third after he snatched up a Chicago pass. The goal was the sixth of his NHL career, with the last one coming on Feb. 1.“I just tried to get it off as quick as I could,” he said. “I knew (Crawford) was coming out and he was a little bit off because it was such a quick play and I just tried to get it up.”Gaunce also assisted on Roussel’s late goal in his first game with the Canucks this season. He was called up Tuesday from the Utica Comets of the AHL to help fill out a roster riddled by injuries.The 24-year-old said he was playing with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.“I want to be in the NHL, and at the start of the year. I obviously wasn’t, so there was a reason for that,” Gaunce said. “You come in here with the mentality that you’re going to make a difference and you’re going to kind of make them have to keep you.”Chicago got on the scoreboard first with Saad scoring his third of the season midway through the first period. The left wing beat Canucks defenseman Erik Gudbranson in Vancouver’s end and put a hard shot on net. Markstrom appeared to get a piece of it but the puck trickled in underneath him.Virtanen responded in the 15th minute after the Blackhawks turned over the puck in the neutral zone. He picked up speed on a breakaway and put a high shot past Crawford.The Blackhawks went back on top with a power-play goal early in the second after Canucks defenseman Michael Del Zotto took a cross-checking penalty late in the first.Toews fired in a wrister from the top of the faceoff circle to give him 299 goals for the Blackhawks, sixth-most in franchise history.Chicago is 30th in the NHL on the power play. Wednesday marked the sixth time this season the Blackhawks have scored with the man advantage.Virtanen followed with his second of the night just more than 12 minutes into the second period. He scooped up a pass just inside the blue line and fired a quick shot past Crawford to tie it 2-all. Virtanen has five goals and two assists this season.NOTES: Blackhawks star Patrick Kane sat out due to illness, the first time he’s been out of the lineup since breaking his collarbone in February 2015. … Vancouver defenseman Troy Stecher left midway through the third after colliding with Chicago’s Brandon Manning. Green said Stecher went through mandatory concussion testing and is fine.UP NEXTBlackhawks: At the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.Canucks: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Friday in the finale of a four-game homestand. WASHINGTON (AP) Henrik Lundqvist got an early glimpse into the New York Rangers‘ rebuilding future.It’s not pretty.Lundqvist roiled with frustration after a rookie defensemen left an opponent wide open for a tying goal that led to New York’s 44th loss of a lost season. As Zen-like as he was earlier in the day about the new organizational direction toward youth and away from trying to win now Tyler Graovac Jersey Womens , the face of the franchise for more than a decade was bothered by a mistake caused by inexperience that’s sure to be repeated over the coming years.”So frustrating,” Lundqvist said.When general manager Jeff Gorton committed the Rangers to a roster refresh that laid waste to 2018 playoff hopes and set the stage for pain that could last longer than Lundqvist’s prime, the star goaltender battled his own internal conflict. The 36-year-old from Sweden had never played in an NHL game with no chance of making the playoffs.”As a competitor, you want to win, and I never experienced that before where you’re like, `We can’t go for this,”’ Lundqvist said Wednesday, hours after the Rangers were eliminated from contention but several weeks since it became clear they wouldn’t make the postseason. ”It was definitely a new experience. But we’re all on board in this.”Lundqvist and his veteran Rangers teammates have two choices: get on board or be tossed overboard. When it became apparent this team didn’t have the stuff to compete for the Stanley Cup, Gorton traded captain Ryan McDonagh and forwards Rick Nash, J.T. Miller and Michael Grabner before the deadline and set a course for the future.With three years left on Lundqvist’s contract at $8.5 million per season, how far away that future is remains painfully unclear. After 11 playoff appearances and a trip to the final with Lundqvist as the backbone Youth John Tavares Jersey , the Rangers may not get within reach of the Cup in his prime or even his career – but even current players see the need for change.”I think it’s good for this organization to get some fresh air and some new young players and go from there,” 30-year-old winger Mats Zuccarello said. ”But it’s going to be a process.”The process began last summer with the trade of veteran center Derek Stepan to Arizona for the seventh overall pick that turned into Lias Andersson and the selection of Filip Chytil later in the first round. Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Brady Skjei are young building blocks already in place, and there’s hope that free agent addition Kevin Shattenkirk and trade acquisition Vladislav Namestnikov become part of the long-term solution.When the Rangers played at Washington on Wednesday night in their first game with no hope of playoffs since 2004, they dressed 15 players age 26 and younger. New York’s future is its present, which can mean blunders like Neal Pionk’s missed assignment in front, along with the excitement and potential of prospects like the 22-year-old defenseman, Andersson and Chytil.”When you see the progress of the group, especially the young players, that gives you hope for what’s ahead of us,” Lundqvist said.With a full no-movement clause and the equity he has built up with the Rangers Authentic Mitchell Marner Jersey , Lundqvist can choose his future. Others, like Zuccarello and coach Alain Vigneault, aren’t so fortunate.In February, when he announced plans to go young, Gorton didn’t want to answer a question about whether Vigneault would be back next season other than to praise his coaching and say, ”We’re all responsible in some way here for what we’re seeing.” This spring will be the first time in a decade Vigneault hasn’t coached in the playoffs, a tough turn for the 56-year-old who almost certainly will be behind an NHL bench somewhere next season.”A tough decision was made for the long-term future of this organization and you have to respect it and you have to do your jobs,” Vigneault said Wednesday. ”That’s what I’m trying to do, that’s what my staff is trying to do and that’s what the players are trying to do.”Try as they might to focus on the final few games of the season, the Rangers feel the threat of drastic change that hangs over them. Lundqvist said ”now is not the time” to talk about the bumpy road ahead.Describing one of the most successful runs in franchise history, Zuccarello used words like lucky Morgan Rielly Jersey , fortunate and even spoiled. In a sport with a salary cap, it’s difficult to remain among the top teams for even this long, and now everyone is bracing for the uncertainty of what’s next.”This is a new situation for most of the guys that have been here for a while, but you have to buy in, you know?” Zuccarello said. ”It is what it is. It’s nothing you can do about it. … Hopefully I have some good years – five, six good years – left and can be part of the rebuild and come to the good times again.”—