Wednesday March 9 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Arizona Coyotes 2 (OT)
The Vancouver Canucks strayed from their usual script when they came back from a 2-0 second-period deficit to defeat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
Jacob Markstrom was named first star after finishing the game with 32 saves, including two dazzlers on Max Domi—one on a breakaway with 1:34 to play in the third period and another in overtime.
Here's a crazy stat: Markstrom's numbers are identical in his last two games, stopping 32 of 34 shots for a .941 save percentage—and earning the win. Ryan Miller's last win came on February 25 against Ottawa.
So—the braintrust is now officially moving away from the "Miller is No. 1" position:
Willie D on Miller and Markstrom: "Right now it's going to be a split. I want a chance for both guys to be good."
I'm happy to see this. Markstrom has done a good job this year of building on his excellent season in the AHL in 2014-15 and I hope he'll be the Canucks' starter next season.
Where does that leave Miller? He may not want to stick around for the last year of his contract in a diminished role, but with a goals-against average of 2.67 and his 36th birthday on the horizon in July, is he tradable? Don't forget, Markstrom is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2016-17 season as well. If he's the goalie we want to keep around, he needs to be treated as such.
One big change in 6'6" Markstrom's life: as of today, he's no longer the tallest player in the Canucks' dressing room. Nikita Tryamkin is listed at 6'7" and 228 on the roster on Canucks.com, and he's on the ice at UBC this morning.
The big guy makes an early impression not just with his size, but also his work ethic. He was on the ice for an hour today—and I can't imagine that long flight was very comfortable for somebody his size.
Tryamkin's flight got in after midnight. Didn't get to bed until after 4am. Had to be up at 6. Skating at 915. He might throw up. #Canucks
Instead of "Tree," I guess now we have to call him "Tram."
Before I get too carried away with the future, a few more thoughts on last night's game.
The game had reasonable pace in the first period, where the shots were 15-10 for the Canucks, but Vancouver managed only 12 more shorts in the second and third before turning on the jets for 3-on-3 overtime.
Once Arizona had built a 2-0 lead on a power-play goal from Tobias Rieder and a big wrister from Kevin Connauton after a Matt Bartkowski giveaway, I figured Vancouver had the loss in bag—made even better by a Calgary win—and even a win for the Leafs!
Before the second period was out, Radim Vrbata came back from the dead to score his 13th of the year, and Luca Sbisa fired a big one-timer off a pinpoint pass from Ben Hutton to tie the game.
In the third period, I really felt like both teams were doing their best not to take home the two points. The shots were 9-6 for Arizona and there was plenty of listless play in the neutral zone by both teams. Even the fans in the sparsely-filled Rogers Arena didn't seem invested in the outcome of the game, merrily doing the wave while the Canucks tried to make something happen with their fourth power play of the game while Shane Doan was off for hooking Ben Hutton at 2:42.
But overtime was fun! Daniel gathered Vey and Hamhuis for a summit on his desired set play before the opening faceoff—and they got a shot—but it was newcomer Markus Granlund who showed that he wasn't buying into Vancouver's record of 3-on-3 futility when he converted a rebound off a Jake Virtanen shot from the rush to give the Canucks the win.
That's just the third overtime win at home for the Canucks all season—and their first since January 11, when Daniel Sedin snapped the Florida Panthers' winning streak. All told, the Canucks' record at 3-on-3 this year is now 4-9, with a 4-3 record in shootouts.
The two points move the Canucks back up into 23rd place overall—tied with Columbus with 64 points, but with a game in hand. For their part, the Coyotes picked up their first point in their last 10 road games on Wednesday night, leaving them tied with Buffalo at 63, while Calgary is up to 61.
A couple of other quick notes to wrap up today:
Brandon Prust has now officially been shut down for the season:
NEWS: #Canucks confirm mutual decision allowing Brandon Prust to shift focus from playing with ankle discomfort the rest of this season -1/2
Prust's ankle has been an issue all year. He had surgery during the summer of 2015, before he joined the Canucks, which slowed him at the start of the season, then suffered that nasty ankle injury against the Montreal Canadiens on October 27 but missed only 11 games before getting back into the lineup.
Prust was a reasonably productive 1-6-7 during his nine games in Utica.
I would think that this move will allow the Canucks to move Prust to long-term injured reserve for the last month of the season. If that's the case, it would free up another $1.55 million in cap space, which might help make room for possible college signings or late-season call-ups from Utica.
During his radio appearance on Wednesday, Jim Benning mentioned that the wants to look more at some of his farmhands before the end of the year.
Benning: There's 3, 4 players we'd like to get up and get a look at. Gaunce is one. Alex Grenier. Mike Zalewski. And Andrey Pedan
Finally, Twitter went into a bit of a frenzy during last night's second intermission when Sportsnet's John Shannon threw up his vision of the Canucks' lineup for next season:
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