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Vancouver Canucks make history with third straight comeback extra-time win
October 19, 2016, 2:30 PM ET [356 Comments]
Carol Schram
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Tuesday October 18 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - St. Louis Blues 1 (OT)

There's some crazy stuff happening right now at Rogers Arena. Once again, the Vancouver Canucks were able to come back when trailing after two periods and see it through for a win on Tuesday night.




Here are your highlights:



Admittedly, there wasn't much to get excited about on the ice for the first 55 minutes of the game. For me, the experience was like going to see a new band that has just one album out but has a *really* great hit song. You wait and wait while they grind through the rest of the filler from the record—but you know the hit is coming and when they play it, it's fantastic!

In this case, the hit was Bo Horvat's second goal of the season with 2:55 to play in the third period. Erik Gudbranson wired a slapper from the blue line, and Horvat snuck behind Colton Parayko to convert the rebound.




That tied the game 1-1 after Vladimir Tarasenko had given the Blues the lead off the rush midway through the second period, just after Henrik Sedin had been denied on the doorstep by Jake Allen.

On Tuesday, Henrik also got to play hero. Continuing my concert analogy, if Bo's goal was the hit song that you knew was coming, Henrik's OT winner was the amazing surprise in the encore—perhaps when the jaw-dropping special guest comes out to duet with the up-and-comers? It makes the show that much more special, and everybody goes home with smiles on their faces—the plodding main part of the show completely forgotten.

They never did announce the scoring play in the arena. I could see that it was Henrik all the way.




Once again, overtime was strategically interesting. Willie Desjardins started Daniel Sedin with Brandon Sutter and Ben Hutton, just as he did against Carolina on Sunday. Why not give it another go?

The Blues countered with Tarasenko, Alexander Steen and Kevin Shattenkirk—a formidable combination! But Sutter won the draw and the Canucks played keepaway for the first 45 seconds or so. Daniel missed the net on a shot attempt, as Sutter and Hutton were able to change for Henrik and Tanev.

When the play went back the other way, Shattenkirk hopped off and Alex Pietrangelo hopped on—and I saw Tarasenko consider going to the bench, but he decided to stay on and try to take advantage of the scoring chance.

By the time the Canucks broke back down on what turned out to be the scoring play, Tarasenko was gassed—he'd been out there for 1:40. Steen didn't change until the Blues lost possession, so his shift was about 1:30—and while Daniel also stayed on the ice for the full 1:40, the fresh legs on Henrik and Tanev may have made the difference.

So—in less than a week, the Canucks have matched the number of third-period comeback wins they were able to collect all last season. They're now the only unbeaten team in the Western Conference and one of just two in the league—the other is the Tampa Bay Lightning.

And they're doing it with smart strategic play and excellent puck possession.




To boil that down a bit more simply:




While the first two periods ground on, I was feeling cautiously impressed that the Canucks were hanging with the Blues. I remember them getting blown out in those late-season shutout losses last year, so the fact that they were outshooting St. Louis and limiting chances seemed like a promising sign, even if it wasn't very entertaining.

I thought Luca Sbisa should have gotten credit for this goal. His skate only came off the ice because he was falling, right?




A couple of other subplots:

First assist goes to the crowd for finishing what Jim Byrnes started when his microphone failed midway through the Star-Spangled Banner:




And the second assist goes to UBC's Matthew Hewitt, who ably backed up Jacob Markstrom and only had one moment of nervousness, when Markstrom got bowled over by Patrik Berglund in the third period.




I hope he gets to keep his uniform!




Injured goalie Ryan Miller was back on the ice this morning but is not practicing with the team.




Will Richard Bachman get called in just in case? Knowing absolutely nothing about how Miller is feeling, I'd be tempted to err on the side of caution with back-to-backs coming up on the road in California this weekend. I don't want Markstrom to be forced to play both games if Miller isn't ready to go.

Everything else remains the same with the line combos at practice today.




FYI, Jack Skille finished his first game as a Canuck with one shot, one hit, one block and a plus-one in 10:38 of ice time. He was on the ice for Horvat's goal. Skille wasn't super-noticeable, but no one really stood out on Tuesday.

Can the Canucks keep this going? Or will they actually get a chance to try defending a lead for the first time this season? Up next, it's the 1-1-1 Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.


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