Saturday November 2 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - San Jose Sharks 2
The injury bug bit, but the Vancouver Canucks got out of California with five of a possible six points from their three-game road trip after a decisive win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.
Here are your highlights:
I chastised the Canucks for the dropoff in their offensive production after Quinn Hughes was injured in Anaheim on Friday night. They set out to prove me wrong at the Shark Tank. Vancouver controlled play in the first period, outshooting San Jose 14-8, and built a 4-0 lead by the 5:11 mark of the middle frame — off even-strength goals from Brandon Sutter, Elias Pettersson, Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette.
The Sharks started to show more of a pulse in the second half of the game, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic ruined Thatcher Demko's shutout with a shorthanded marker midway through the third period. But 45 seconds later, the Canucks went onto a 5-on-3 after Joe Thornton was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when he said something unacceptable to one of the officials while he was on the bench. Forty-seven seconds after that, with Vancouver now on a one-man advantage as Thornton remained in the box, Pettersson connected for his second of the night — getting the Canucks back to another 5-1 lead.
Evander Kane finished off the scoring with a sharp shot for his eighth of the year, but that came with just 22 seconds left in regulation. The Canucks successfully drove another big lead home to the finish line, and have now picked up points in their last seven games.
Lineup-wise, Adam Gaudette did stay in after scoring Vancouver's only goal in Anaheim on Friday night — and scored again. Now with 2-1-3 in five games, Gaudette's a plus-two and continues to make a case that he can be a valuable offensive contributor in the bottom six.
And how about Brandon Sutter? With an assist on Gaudette's goal in Anaheim and a goal of his own against the Sharks, he's now up to 4-4-8 in 14 games this season — already ahead of the six points he managed in 26 games in his injury-ridden 2018-19 season. In fact, his current rate of 0.57 points per game is the best of his career — just ahead of the 0.56 he recorded in his second NHL season in Carolina a decade ago. That was his only 40-point year to date, when he had 21 goals and 19 assists in 72 games.
Sutter's production is easy to overlook when he's sitting behind six other Vancouver players who have already hit double digits in the team's first 14 games. All three members of the big line are averaging more than a point a game. After Saturday's game, Elias Pettersson's 20 points have him sitting sixth in NHL scoring and tied for third in power-play points, with nine. Brock Boeser's 16 points have him tied for 15th with Ryan O'Reilly, Dougie Hamilton and Auston Matthews, and J.T. Miller is right behind with 15 points, in a tie for 19th with Morgan Rielly, Mark Scheifele, Andrei Svechnikov and David Perron.
Also, Bo Horvat's five power-play goals rank him fifth in the league in that category, behind James Neal, David Pastrnak, Victor Olofsson and Evander Kane, and Quinn Hughes' eight power-play points tie him for seventh overall.
Hughes did end up sitting out on Saturday, officially diagnosed as day-to-day with a bruised knee.
Good job by Thomas Drance with his video diagnosis here!
Trying to figure out what happened with Quinn Hughes as he fell late in the 1st vs. ANA.
— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) November 2, 2019
Thinking he may have caught a rut with his left skate, precipitating an awkward sequence where he kneed his own foot.
Hughes missed the last 5:04 minutes of the frame. pic.twitter.com/w1oT2Gyd0i
The feeling seems to be that Hughes could be ready to play as soon as Tuesday, when the Canucks host the St. Louis Blues.
Good thing, because Ashton Sautner's season debut lasted exactly four shifts before he was knocked out of the game after a hard hit from Brendon Dillon.
Scary moment as Brenden Dillon hits Ashton Sautner late behind the Sharks net.
— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) November 3, 2019
Sautner was clearly in trouble, but the play continued.
He then couldn't get off the #Canucks bench until the next stoppage, because of the location of the visiting dressing room. pic.twitter.com/dwTHRjYO4E
In real time, I wasn't as concerned about the lateness of the hit as I was about the fact that the referee didn't blow down the play while Sautner was laying on the ice. But it was an ugly one all round — I hope he's doing OK.
Like John Gibson, Aaron Dell typically enjoys his nights when he starts against the Canucks. In his career, he'd gone 5-0-0 against Vancouver before Saturday night. He sounded a little bit shell-shocked after the game.
When's the last time somebody said this about #Canucks?
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 3, 2019
Dell: "It was tough to come back. They're a great hockey team. They pretty well dominated us tonight."
The Shark Tank has been a hostile environment for the Canucks for years. Their best result over the last two seasons was a 5-4 overtime loss on December 21, 2017 and they haven't won in regulation for more than three years. The last time it happened was March 5, 2016, when they went 3-for-7 on the power play on their way to a 4-2 victory. And while the Sharks have struggled all 'round this year, they're built like a team that thinks it's good.
It'll be interesting to see if this is the beginning of a real decline or if they can find a way to turn it around. After Saturday's loss, they've now dropped to last place in the Western Conference, nine points out of the second wild-card spot.
As for the Canucks — their 20 points in 14 games have them third in the West and second in the Pacific — but also just three points out of ninth. After their busy week, the games-in-hand advantage has now just about evaporated, but their .714 points percentage is actually better than St. Louis and Edmonton, the teams above them, who have both played one more game and are at .700. League-wide, Vancouver's currently fourth overall in points per game, behind only Boston, the Islanders and Washington.
Down on the farm, things didn't go quite as well on Saturday night. The Utica Comets wrapped up their homestand with their second-straight shutout loss, dropping a 6-0 decision to the Rochester Americans. Zane McIntyre gave up four goals on 17 shots in the first 24 minutes of the game before being replaced by Michael DiPietro, who stopped 14-of-16 the rest of the way.
The last Rochester goal came with just under four minutes left to play in the second period. The Comets did make a push in the third, outshooting the Americans 12-7, but couldn't beat The Hamburglar, Andrew Hammond, who earned his first shutout of the year.
As well as missing call-ups Sven Baertschi, Ashton Sautner and Oscar Fantenberg, the Comets were also without leading scorer Reid Boucher. After being named the AHL's player of the month for October, Boucher was pointless, with just one shot on goal, before leaving Friday's game against Providence with what might be a groin injury. He'll be missed if he's out for any period of time.
It's another three-game week for the Comets next week. They'll be in Binghamton twice, on Wednesday and Saturday, for dates with the Devils. In between, they host the Wilkes-Barre/Scanton Penguins on Friday night.
As for the Canucks, I expect they'll practice at Rogers Arena on Monday after taking Sunday off. Following their home game against the Blues on Tuesday, it's back onto Air Canuck for Central Division back-to-backs against Chicago on Thursday and Winnipeg on Friday.