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Loui Eriksson leads the way, Boeser scores 2, Vancouver Canucks beat Kings |
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Tuesday January 23 - Vancouver Canucks 6 - Los Angeles Kings 2
The Vancouver Canucks kicked off their homestand in rousing fashion, chasing Jonathan Quick from his net on their way to a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your (many) highlights:
After the Canucks managed just two goals in their two road games coming out of the bye week, the last thing I was expecting was to see Loui Eriksson leading the charge with two goals in the first 3:50 of playing time—all before the Kings had recorded a single shot on goal. That's one way to avoid the Markstrom curse!
Eriksson's success came as part of a new line combination with Bo Horvat and Thomas Vanek. All told, Loui finished the night with two goals and an assist—and was named the game's first star. Vanek had a goal and two assists and Horvat picked up two assists while going 21-for-28 (!) in the faceoff circle, including 6-for-8 against Mr. Selke, Anze Kopitar.
The Kings are in the midst of a back-to-back—playing Wednesday night in Calgary—so I wondered if Quick would get the hook when John Stevens called time out to try to settle his team after Vanek's 3-0 goal at 5:49 of the first period, with the shots 8-1 for Vancouver.
Quick's a prickly guy on a good day and he HATES to be pulled, so he stayed in until Brock Boeser made it 5-1 on the power play at 4:21 of the second period.
Quick has only been pulled one other time this year—when he gave up three goals on nine shots over 11:22 in Vegas against the unstoppable Golden Knights.
Boeser played with the twins at 5-on-5, but both his goals on Tuesday came with the man advantage. He's now up to 24 on the season...chasing a franchise record.
Safe to say that Teemu Selanne's all-time rookie record of 76 goals is probably secure?
Brock and Bo earned some style points for their quick switcheroo on the 5-on-3 that led to Boeser's second of the game. He drew the penalty after being driven into the boards by Trevor Lewis. Take it from there, Wyatt...
I had also been hoping for Brock to earn the first penalty shot of his NHL career when he was hooked down by Alec Martinez about a minute earlier. Backup Darcy Kuemper hadn't faced a shot yet in his three minutes on the ice since replacing Quick, so I felt like he would have been at a decided disadvantage. But Martinez got the minor—and was still in the box during that subsequent 5-on-3.
In the third, the Canucks even pulled off a successful Coach's Challenge, when a Tyler Toffoli goal was called back after it was ruled that Adrian Kempe had interfered with Jacob Markstrom before the shot.
The win is just the second time the Canucks have scored six goals in a game this season, following that 6-2 win over Washington at Rogers Arena back in September. They scored six just once last season—in that awful 8-6 road loss to Carolina—and just once in 2015-16, too—the night no one threw hats for Daniel Sedin in the 6-3 win over Chicago.
In Willie's first year as coach in 2014-15, the Canucks beat Arizona 7-1 at home in November before finishing off the year with a 6-5 OT win over Edmonton in their last regular-season game. Under Torts in 2013-14, they scored six three times—all at home, and all in the first half of the season: in October against Edmonton, November against Columbus and December against Boston.
Digging back even further, I can now confirm this:
...and you have to go all the way back to the prime of the AV era!
The last time the Canucks scored six goals in two periods was on their way to a 7-3 home win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on December 23, 2010. The scorers were Burrows, Ehrhoff, Torres, Daniel, Kesler and Henrik, with Torres adding his second of the night and 10th of the year in the third period.
The Canucks built a 6-0 lead that night before the Blue Jackets got on the board. Interestingly enough, the Columbus scorers both have Vancouver connections—R.J. Umberger had two and Tom Sestito finished off the night with his second of that year. That was the second of 10 NHL goals in his career, six of which came with the Canucks.
Still no Erik Gudbranson on the ice at practice on Wednesday.
This afternoon, the Canucks are making a visit to the new Canucks Playroom at BC Children's Hospital.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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