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Vancouver Canucks Game Review: Bo Horvat Breaks Out in Win Over Carolina

January 7, 2016, 2:39 PM ET [495 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Wednesday January 6: Vancouver Canucks 3 - Carolina Hurricanes 2

Eddie Lack's return to Vancouver was spoiled by a breakout night for Bo Horvat as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.

Here are your highlights:



Sven Baertschi and Brandon Prust both returned to the Canucks lineup after missing brief spells with injuries, and Baertschi had an immediate impact. He scored his sixth goal of the year on his only shot of the game and also picked up an assist—apparently helping to spark Horvat, who posted the first two-goal game of his NHL career and was named first star.

Bo showed he was feelin' it early, bearing down on Lack with a couple of strong offensive forays as the Canucks outshot the Hurricanes 8-2 in the first period.

The tide turned in the second, when Jordan Staal's strong penalty killing set up John-Michael Liles for the game's first goal. It was the fifth shorthanded goal of the season allowed by Vancouver, but the first since November 16.

The Hurricanes got their offense going and outshot Vancouver 13-7 in the middle frame, but the score was tied 1-1 after 40 minutes thanks to a headsy feed from Adam Cracknell that set up Baertschi for a confident goal.

Horvat looked even more confident when he barrelled into the Hurricanes' zone to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead at the 7:15 mark of the third.




Matt Bartkowski and Alex Biega drew the assists on that goal. For the most part, I'm liking these two as a pairing. They seem to complement each other well—I feel like there's something special about the fact that when you add up Bartkowski (44) and Biega (55), you get Gretzky!

My newfound confidence was shaken, however, when Bartkowski left Jordan Staal all alone in front of the Canucks net to tap in the 2-2 equalizer with eight minutes left on the clock.

I was hoping for at least a point as the Anaheim Ducks were getting shut out at home by Jonathan Bernier and the Toronto Maple Leafs (think about that for a second!). I got really nervous when Jaccob Slavin was whistled for the Hurricanes' second puck-over-glass violation with 2:43 remaining. Putting the Canucks on the power play seemed like the the perfect way for Carolina to guarantee that the game would, at least, go to overtime.

But Horvat was having none of it. Young Jeezy reverberated in Rogers Arena once again when Bo scored the game winner with just 1:06 remaining—a power play goal from the second unit with assists from Baertschi and Linden Vey. Wow!

Despite having five power-play opportunities to just two for Carolina, the Canucks were outshot 28-21 in the game and really didn't generate the kind of scoring chances that could have brought down the house with the old "Eddie! Eddie!" chants. Fans made one half-hearted attempt in the second period, but it was pretty random—it came while Carolina had the puck and sputtered out pretty quickly.

With the win, the Canucks roll back into third place in the Pacific Division and keep their playoff hopes alive. Hearing that Anaheim traded for goaltender Dustin Tokarski after John Gibson was injured in last night's game, I thought the Canucks' situation was improving even more as that spelled big trouble for the Ducks, but apparently not?




Gibson is practicing with the Ducks today, so it sounds like he's OK.

Speaking of injured goalies, it sounds like Ryan Miller's just about ready to get back to work:




The team has indeed announced Cannata's departure this morning.

If Miller plays against the Lightning on Saturday night, it'll be nearly three weeks after he was pulled during the shootout in Florida on December 20.

And...speaking of Florida...mark your calendar for another important visit from an ex-Canuck goaltender on Monday:




If you're disappointed that the Canucks are back in a playoff spot, perhaps you'll be cheered up by the fact that Chris Higgins was, indeed, a healthy scratch on Wednesday night.

I miscalculated heading into the game, thinking the Canucks had only 12 healthy forwards without counting Virtanen, but with both Baertschi and Prust coming in and only Kenins going out, that did indeed leave an extra skater to sit.

Jared McCann's now on a "schedule," so he stayed in the lineup, and Baertschi has been missed during his two-game absence. So, Higgins it was.

The Canucks did suffer a new injury on Wednesday, when Jannik Hansen rather mysteriously lost the ability to skate midway through one shift, then left the ice holding his arm later in the third period. The Canucks are taking a well-deserved day off today, so we won't get an update on his status until Friday at the earliest.

To wrap up today, let's revisit this comment from Jim Benning from Tuesday:




How does that comment line up with the action that came down on Wednesday afternoon, when Ryan Johansen was swapped for Seth Jones, Vincent Levacalier and Luke Schenn were shipped to L.A. and Mike Richards signed a free-agent contract with Washington?

The Flyers/Kings deal, we now know, had been in the works for awhile.




It's a complicated one, with Philadelphia retaining a good chunk of salary and Lecavalier, who turns 36 in April, promising that he'll retire at the end of the year.

Lecavalier has two years left on his contract after this one, at a cap hit of $4.5 million per season. Word is that if he walks away from the contract, there will be no salary-cap implications, even though he will have collected $16.5 million of the $22.5 million value of the contract.

I can't find anybody spelling this out explicitly, but here's what I'm piecing together. Lecavalier's current contract was signed under the terms of the current CBA. In that agreement, rules were put in place to prevent the type of long-term back-diving contracts that were signed by players like Roberto Luongo, Marian Hossa and, ironically, Lecavalier, before the 2012-13 lockout.

Lecavalier's 11-year deal, which had been set up to stretch to 2019-20, was bought out by the Tampa Bay Lightning under the amnesty clause. Then, the Flyers signed him to a five-year deal before the 2013-14 season. Though that deal is still front-loaded, the difference from year to year isn't as dramatic as we saw under the old contracts. Instead of dwindling down to $1 million in the final seasons, Lecavalier is scheduled to make $3 million in each of his last two years.

I guess the league is OK with that differential, and that's why there's no recapture? First time, I think, this has come up. And all the Kings have at this point is a verbal promise that he won't continue to be a burden on their bottom line beyond this season, as they try to re-sign Anze Kopitar and possibly Milan Lucic.




It'll be interesting to see if the path changes if Lecavalier does end up playing well in L.A.

It'll also be interesting to see if Wednesday's deals are the first shot fired in a busy trade-deadline season. It's the big boys who are making the early moves...
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