Friday December 15 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - San Jose Sharks 3 (OT)
From the monkeys-off-their-backs department, the Vancouver Canucks snapped their four-game losing streak and won their first extra-time game of the year while beating the San Jose Sharks for the first time in nearly six years at Rogers Arena on Friday night.
The game was uptempo and exciting, and featured some unlikely heroes. Here are your highlights:
Travis Green has developed a bit of a reputation for motivational talks that light a fire under his players. The latest candidate: Markus Granlund.
#Canucks Green having a LONG chat with Markus Granlund off to side at morning skate pic.twitter.com/Yg9pw0Ps7o
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) December 15, 2017
Used primarily in a defensive role this year, Granlund came into Friday's game with just four goals and two assists in 31 games this season, well below the pace of his 19-goal output from last season.
At 5-on-5, Granlund was once again deployed on the checking line—last night, with Brendan Gaunce and Nic Dowd. But he took full advantage of his special-teams opportunities in the first period, with a power-play goal to open the scoring just 44 seconds into the game, then his second of the game with the power-play unit still on the ice, seven seconds after Jannik Hansen's penalty had ended.
Brock Boeser's 17th of the year also came with the man advantage in the second period, so the power-play officially went 2-for-3 on the night, with the third goal coming just a few seconds after the end of a penalty. Both Sedins assisted on all three goals, taking us into throwback territory. They're clicking again with the man advantage, making them valuable offensive contributors.
Canucks' PP up to 5th in the league pic.twitter.com/gGZWt7X98c
— Jason Brough (@JasonBroughTSN) December 16, 2017
Remember back in the Presidents' Trophy years, when one of the Canucks' themes was that teams would hesitate to play them hard because they'd be made to pay by the power play? It doesn't work when the refs put their whistles in their pockets, but it can be a pretty effective deterrent from the chippy stuff. The improvement of the power play has been a heckuva story over the last month.
Meanwhile, Boeser's goal keeps him on his point-a-game pace, like clockwork. He's on his second five-game point streak of the season. He holds a two-point lead over Mat Barzal in the rookie points race, is tied with Sean Monahan for fifth overall in goals and his 14 power-play points tie him with Johnny Gaudreau for eighth in the league. Heady stuff.
He would have had his fifth game-winning goal of the season, too, if Brent Burns hadn't tied it up with less than six minutes to play in regulation. But that set the stage for a brilliant winning goal by Sam Gagner in overtime—showing blazing speed after taking a delicious feed from Alex Edler.
#Canucks forward Sam Gagner shows off his @SubwayCANADA-OT-winner-worthy backhand and it's a beaut. pic.twitter.com/DujhrWVkOT
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 16, 2017
That is one happy dude. The goal is Gagner's fourth of the year, his first in nine games, and his first at Rogers Arena since October 30 against Dallas.
And not to make it personal but yes—the Canucks are now 4-0-0 at home when I'm not at Rogers Arena to watch them—and 2-7-3 when I am. At least I'll always have the Pittsburgh game!
As things stand right now, they're stuck with me for the rest of the games through the end of the year, so hopefully they can keep rolling and build off this emotional win starting Sunday, when they face the Calgary Flames once again.
I'll close today by checking in on World Juniors. After Team Canada's final cuts, Jonah Gadjovich is in...
Gadjovich on making the team, “I am speechless, super excited. All the hard work paid off, all the blood sweat and tears… #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) December 16, 2017
Gadjovich on his role “Finish checks, block shots on pk, be hard to play against, stand in front of the net whatever they want I will made the adjustment.… #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) December 16, 2017
...but Michael DiPietro is not.
An emotional Michael DiPietro had some heartwarming parting words for Team Canada after getting cut. VIDEO @ https://t.co/huxkEIz6hi pic.twitter.com/XmQCl9kzQV
— BarDown (@BarDown) December 16, 2017
Canada outshot Denmark 52-14 in its 5-2 win in its final tuneup game on Friday. DiPietro and Colton Point, the NCAA goalie he lost out to, each allowed one goal.
It's too bad DiPietro won't get the World Junior experience this year. He'll be eligible again next year and could play on a very big stage right here in Vancouver in the 2019 tournament.
Meanwhile, Kole Lind turned his Team Canada cut into motivation in his first game back with the Kelowna Rockets on Friday:
#Canucks prospect Kole Lind wiTh a hat trick tonight
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 16, 2017
He is now up to 39 PTS (16-23-39) in 24 WHL games
I don't imagine Elias Pettersson or Olli Juolevi will have any issues making their respective teams, so now we turn our attention to Will Lockwood's chances with Team USA.
Canucks.com ran a great feature this week on Lockwood, who hasn't been seen much by Canucks fans since he was drafted in 2016.
.@lockwood_will has been bleeding @UMich maize and blue since the day he was born. The #Canucks prospect is living the dream. https://t.co/aZTyBjJVDW
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 15, 2017