Thursday February 8 - Tampa Bay Lightning 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Amalie Arena has been kind to Brock Boeser. He won his NCAA Frozen Four title there with North Dakota back in 2016. He picked up the All-Star MVP Award and a whole bunch of bonuses a couple of weeks ago. And he potted his 26th of the year in his first visit as a Vancouver Canuck on Thursday night.
That was pretty much the only highlight of a pretty grim game against the NHL's best team. Here are your highlights:
The Lightning offense came from both ends of the depth chart. At the superstar end of the spectrum, NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov snapped his 11-game goalless drought in the first period, opening the scoring with his 28th of the year after Chris Tanev was immobilized from a shot block after a long stretch of scrambling in the defensive zone. Steven Stamkos also picked up his 20th of the year, and Victor Hedman notched his eighth on the power play to close out the scoring and snuff the Canucks' flicker of a comeback hope after two third-period goals.
Meanwhile, rookie Yanni Gourde also tallied his 20th of the year, and Adam Erne's first of the year, in his first NHL game this season, proved to be the game winner.
Here's Boeser's goal—a standard-issue rocket from him, which broke Andrei Vasilevskiy's shutout after tipping off the stick of Andrej Sustr.
Brock Boeser scores his 26th of the season#Canucks pic.twitter.com/ojEdZP3teM
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) February 9, 2018
Four minutes later, Sven Baertschi got the Canucks within two with his 12th of the year; his fourth goal in 13 games since returning from that fractured jaw. Even though he missed 11 games, Baertschi is on pace for 20 goals and 38 points this year, which would slightly beat his previous season-best stat line of 18-17-35 from last year, if he can keep it going.
I suppose one could call it good news that both Tanev and Alex Edler returned to the game after leaving with injuries in the first period.
Markus Granlund was not so lucky.
Granlund's ankle. It should not bend that way. pic.twitter.com/K7DJBTDHGh
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) February 9, 2018
Granlund is the latest player to be shipped back to Vancouver early for further evaluation, which means the Canucks will still be carrying just 12 healthy forwards after Darren Archibald joins the team today in Raleigh.
One would need to be an extreme optimist to say the Canucks were competitive in this game, but they did keep the shot totals reasonably close and were even close enough on the scoreboard to briefly entertain thoughts of a late-game push in the third. But the second period was grim. The Lightning outshot Vancouver 17-9 and outscored them 3-0—although, remarkably, the Canucks were 13-for-23 on faceoffs in the middle frame and actually held the edge for the night at 32-of-57. That's one area where Matthew Peca (2-of-12) and Brayden Point (4-of-14) still need work.
I imagine Steven Stamkos would have been used more in the circle if the game had been in jeopardy for the Lightning at any point. He was 9-of-11.
Even though Edler missed nearly eight-and-a-half minutes of game action across two periods after he was cut near his eye, Travis Green still managed to play him more than any other Canuck, at 24:02. Edler picked up assists on both Vancouver goals, including the primary assist on Boeser's tally.
With 11 points in his last 13 games, he's up to 20 for the year and on pace for 33, which would be his most productive season since his career-high 11 goals and 49 points back in 2011-12. With his 32nd birthday approaching in April, Edler has been a bright spot over the last month, playing his best hockey in years.
Onwards...
Friday February 9 - Vancouver Canucks at Carolina Hurricanes - 4:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 54 GP, 21-27-6, 48 pts, seventh in Pacific Division Carolina Hurricanes: 54 GP, 24-21-9, 57 pts, seventh in Metropolitan Division
Other than Bo Horvat's foot injury, the Canucks' 3-0 shutout of the Hurricanes in Vancouver back in December was one of the high points of the season. Jacob Markstrom followed up his impressive near goose-egg against Toronto three days earlier with the first official shutout of his NHL career, ducking an inauspicious NHL record in the nick of time. With the win, the Canucks climbed to four games above .500—their best mark of the season.
Since that time, Vancouver has gone 7-17-2. Thursday's loss drops them to six games below .500—their worst benchmark to date in the Travis Green era. By comparison, last year after 54 games, Willie's team was still .500, at 24-24-6, but went 6-19-3 the rest of the way to finish the year 13 games below the even mark.
As for the Hurricanes, all we seem to hear about is low attendance, terrible goaltending and a lack of team cohesion. Carolina comes into tonight's game ranked second-last in reported home attendance with an average of 12,937 fans per game but is just one point out of the second wild-card spot in the East. With a win tonight, the Hurricanes have a chance to potentially leapfrog both the Islanders and Columbus and slip into a playoff position.
With his .892 save percentage and 3.09 goals-against average, Scott Darling hasn't slid into the starter's role in Raleigh like one-time backups Cam Talbot did in Edmonton or Martin Jones did in San Jose. Same as it ever was: Cam Ward has started to see more game action for Carolina as the season has worn on. Darling's last win came on January 11 and he has played just three times in 11 games since then—once in relief—but he is confirmed to start tonight.
For the Canucks, Jacob Markstrom is expected to get a chance to see if he can extend his perfect record against the Hurricanes this season.
The Hurricanes are currently healthy. As a team, they continue to struggle to score despite the presence of some promising talent. Carolina is ranked 25th offensively, just a hair above Vancouver. Sebastian Aho leads the team with 19 goals while his linemate Teuvo Teravainen is the overall points leader, with 42.
Though Carolina's so close to earning its first playoff spot in nine years, their season is being seen as a disappointment after they were the trendy pick to take the next step this year. As a result, there's some talk that they could be busy at the trade deadline—or maybe that's just other GMs trying to use a moment of weakness to steal talented young players. Jeff Skinner's a high-profile new addition to TSN's Trade Bait Board, joining his teammate Derek Ryan. I've also heard defenseman Justin Faulk's name bandied about.
It'll be interesting to see how the Hurricanes come out tonight with so much on the line. We don't see them often, but the Canucks have (mostly) had their number in recent years.
#Canucks have won 8 of their last 9 meetings with @NHLCanes. @Canucks lone defeat came in their last trip to Carolina last season (8-6 Dec.13/16)...
— Joey Kenward (@kenwardskorner) February 9, 2018
Remember last year? Who knows what we have in store tonight...
Enjoy the game!