VANCOUVER — For a city that can feel like the wettest place on Earth sometimes — typically only every November through February — Vancouver once went 58 days without rain. Incredible, but true, we think.

Google says it occurred in 1951 and, lest anyone on the West Coast back then became smug or overly tanned, Mother Nature then unleashed 46 straight days of rain the following winter.

We’re guessing one drought was more enjoyable than the other.

Eventually, surely, the Vancouver Canucks will bask in fine weather. But not these days, when even as the sun shines uncharacteristically almost daily here through October, it is only raining inside the hockey rink.

On Thursday, almost inconceivably, the struggling, rebuilding team went 39 minutes and 14 seconds without a shot on goal in a 5-2 home loss to the Detroit Red Wings, a middling National Hockey League team with a middling defensive rank (16th in the league with 27 shots against per game).

Even for a franchise partly known for its 56-year Stanley Cup drought, the Canucks’ remarkable shot famine on Thursday will probably linger long in memory. It may show up on Google 75 years from now.

From Elias Pettersson’s power-play goal at 7:02 of the first period until Jake DeBrusk’s shooting-for-a-rebound effort from the right-wing circle at 6:16 of the third, the Canucks did not force either of Detroit’s goalies to make a save.

Red Wings starter John Gibson........

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