Sunday October 16 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Carolina Hurricanes 3 (OT)
What a great weekend! The Vancouver Canucks are 2-0-0 after mounting a three-goal comeback to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime on Sunday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
As I mentioned yesterday, the Canucks' record last season when trailing after two periods was 3-30-1. Admittedly, it's not great that they've been behind after 40 minutes in their first two games of the new season, but these comeback wins are great for team morale—and should help to drive some fan interest.
If you can't remember the last time the Canucks erased a 3-0 deficit, fair enough. It has been nearly five years since this happened!
In the first period, it didn't look like a comeback would be necessary. The Canucks carried the play and outshot the Canes 10-7. The shots were 8-1 when Henrik Sedin just missed on this great chance, just over nine minutes in.
But Victor Rask got Carolina on the scoreboard first with 2:24 to play in the first, and Jacob Markstrom started taking some heat when Teuvo Teravainen put the Hurricanes up 2-0 with 50 seconds remaining, on a power-play goal while Henrik was in the box for hooking Jordan Staal.
By the 5:28 mark of the second period, the lead was up to three thanks to a Justin Faulk goal, but Markstrom shut the door the rest of the way. And though Carolina was the rested team that hadn't played since Thursday, it was Vancouver that once again took control of the play in the late stages.
Bo Horvat provided the spark when he got the Canucks on the board at 12:03 of the second, then Markus Granlund and Ben Hutton chipped in as Vancouver outshot Carolina 13-5 in the third period to send the game to overtime for the second straight night.
This time, there was no messing around. Willie Desjardins made a change from his usual overtime strategy of starting the Sedins, putting Brandon Sutter out with Daniel and Ben Hutton to get things started. It took just 32 seconds for the plan to pay dividends.
The Canes won the opening draw, but Jeff Skinner took a spill in the offensive zone. That left plenty of room for Brandon Sutter to turn on the jets and wire an awesome shot blocker side over Eddie Lack's shoulder. After scoring the shootout winner on Saturday against Calgary, Sunday's goal counts as Sutter's first of the season—and reminds us what a big hole his injuries created in the Canucks lineup last season.
With Brandon Sutter in the lineup the #canucks went 8-6-6 last season. Only 20 games. He had 5 goals and 4 assists.
— VanCity Sportsnut (@realmrsaxobeat) June 5, 2016
When Sutter's goal song played on Saturday night, I didn't twig to the fact that he'd made a change. Last year, he was using "I Like It, I Love It" by Tim McGraw—but that's Nashville's goal song. So he has now commandeered the track used by Matt Bartkowski last season.
And for those wondering, Sutter changed his goal song to Garth Brooks' "Baton Rouge Is Calling" #CanucksGoalSongs
Though he gave no indication at the morning skate that he was going to do so, Willie Desjardins shuffled his lines back to what most fans consider to be "normal" for Sunday night's game. Bo Horvat started the night skating with Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen, while Brandon Sutter played with Markus Granlund and Jannik Hansen and Brendan Gaunce was between Alex Burrows and Derek Dorsett.
Willie also flipped his defensive pairs during the game, putting Philip Larsen with Alex Edler and Chris Tanev with Luca Sbisa. Early signs are that we're seeing a much less rigid Willie Desjardins this year, who's willing to make adjustments from game to game and even during games themselves.
The first two games are a small sample size, to be sure, but the Canucks seem both more organized and more determined this season. I keep thinking about Willie Desjardins' hip surgery during training camp last year—wondering how much of a setback that turned out to be both in terms of systems play and some of the more subtle motivational elements that are part of a coach's job description.
It's early days, but so far Willie has done just about everything he could possibly do to get himself off the hot seat and ensure that he'll keep his job this year.
Unlike the Edmonton Oilers, who were asked to surrender their team day off on Monday after an embarrassing 6-2 loss to Buffalo on Sunday, the Canucks will be enjoying a day off on Monday. They can take some satisfaction in proving the doubters wrong, but their next test will be tougher. On Tuesday, Vancouver will host the St. Louis Blues, who sit at the top of the Central Division with a 3-0-0 record after starting their season with wins over Chicago, Minnesota and the New York Rangers.
A couple of other notes on Canucks prospects to finish off today:
#Canucks prospect Jordan Subban with 2G tonight - he now has 4 PTS (2-2-4) in 2 AHL games. Currently tied for third in the AHL scoring race.
Rather ironically, this move may clear the way for Emerson Etem, who has not yet dressed for a game in Anaheim since being claimed on waivers last week by the Ducks.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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