VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Every coaching hot seat comes with a temperature gauge that measures degrees of discomfort.

Right now, Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock is probably in need of some flame-retardant britches.

His reeling Jackets were routed last night 7-3 by the Vancouver Canucks in GM Place for their 13th consecutive road loss.

While franchise management and ownership repeatedly have pledged support for Hitchcock, it's hard to imagine they will allow the stunning free fall to go unabated. The Jackets lost for the 21st time in their past 24 games.

Something has to change, and a growing number assume it will be the coach.

"It tough for him, it's tough for everybody," Jackets goaltender Mathieu Garon, who replaced Steve Mason after the sixth goal. "Nobody is safe when you go through a stretch like this. We all have to look at ourselves in the mirror, look at what we are doing wrong."

Asked after the game if he's ever endured such a skid in his coaching career, Hitchcock said: "It's the first for me. It's the first for me."

The Jackets built a surprising 2-0 lead barely seven minutes into play, but a bad goal allowed by Mason at 7:47 turned the game on its axis. The Jackets were left spinning the rest of the night as the Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Alex Burrows line overwhelmed them, accounting for four goals and five assists.

Burrows finished with a hat trick, while Daniel Sedin had a goal and two assists.

"(The Canucks) just put their weight to us, knocked us off pucks in our zone and then put it in the net," Hitchcock said.

Hitchcock will be second-guessed for deviating from his "win and you're in" goaltender policy less than a week after saying he wished he had instituted earlier.

Although Mason was left helpless on several occasions -- he robbed Daniel Sedin of three glorious chances -- he crumbled under relentless pressure. He yielded six goals on 17 shots and his ill-advised clearing attempt along the wall with no teammate in the vicinity led to the Canucks' third first-period goal.

Hitchcock lifted Mason with 5:07 remaining in the second period and the Jackets trailing 6-3.

After several good weeks of improved defensive play the Jackets simply came unhinged, surrendering six-plus goals for the eighth time this season. Two goals came off turnovers from defensemen and the Canucks had far too much time and space to create plays.

Simply put, it was an embarrassing performance.

"This was definitely a setback," said captain Rick Nash, who contributed two assists. "We didn't check. We had been playing so solid, finishing our checks. ... We didn't do it tonight."

The Jackets managed three goals for the first time in 11 games but showed little fight against the rugged Canucks. Right wing Jake Voracek was flattened in the closing seconds of the first period by Shane O'Brien and nary a Jacket looked cross at the Canucks defenseman.

"There's a reason you lose a lot of games on the road, and it's more than bad luck," Hitchcock said. "These are competitive areas, and we need to address them. We need a lot more people competing at a higher level. We have had that, but we had people who were pushed out of the game today."

The Jackets couldn't have scripted a better start.

They scored two goals in a 61-second span from R.J. Umberger and Kristian Huselius to grab a 2-0 lead. They hadn't enjoyed a two-goal lead since Dec. 9 against Florida.

The two-goal advantage lasted 39 seconds. Any advantage was gone 24 seconds later. Rick Rypien fired a rolling puck from above the right circle that dipped on Mason for a bad goal at 7:47.

The sudden momentum swing seemed to unnerve the fragile Jackets.

The Sedin-Sedin-Burrows energized the venue, creating one scoring chance after the next with precision passes.

Burrows tied it at 8:11 with his first of two first-period goals and gave the Canucks a lead at 16:58 after Daniel Sedin picked off Mason's clearing attempt.

The Canucks pushed the lead to 4-2 early in the second period before defenseman Kris Russell, perhaps the Jackets' best player, scored on a left point shot with Derick Brassard supplying traffic.

The newly assembled Brassard-Antoine Vermette-Voracek line also showed some flashes.

But turnovers by Jan Hejda and Anton Stralman fueled the next two Canucks goals that chased Mason.

The Jackets head to Edmonton for a battle of the Western Conference's worst teams. The coaching hot seat figures only to get toastier.

"Hitch is one of the best coaches in the league in my opinion," Nash said. "He's laying everything right there on the line for us. It's a matter of us going out and doing it. I wish I could give a reason for why these games happen, but I don't."

treed@dispatch.com