Vancouver Canucks glad to be home, beat Lightning on Matthias Ohlund night (canucks)

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Vancouver Canucks glad to be home, beat Lightning on Matthias Ohlund night

By Carol Schram

Dec 17, 2016 • 3:43 pm

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Friday December 16 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Tampa Bay Lightning 2

Mattias Ohlund was the sixth person inducted into the Vancouver Canucks' Ring of Honour, then the team on the ice paid its respect—and took some heat off Willie Desjardins—thanks to a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night at Rogers Arena.

Here are your highlights:

I also liked seeing this tweet from Steven Stamkos:

Since Stamkos is out of action with his knee injury, defenseman Victor Hedman stepped in against Henrik Sedin for an all-Swedish faceoff. Seems fitting!

Ohlund's P.R. tour has continued into Saturday, as he's part of the crew pressing the flesh with season-ticket holders at the Canucks' open practice.

Ohlund's name now sits alongside Orland Kurtenbach, Harold Snepsts, Thomas Gradin, Kirk McLean and Pat Quinn in the rafters at Rogers Arena.

As for Hedman, he was the first player to get his name on the stat sheet last night once the actual game began, taking a penalty for shooting the puck over the glass just 24 seconds into the game. Ben Hutton got a puck past Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy on the subsequent power play, but the play was ruled offside on a coach's challenge.

Former lawyer Jon Cooper looks like he's dialled in when it comes to collecting and presenting evidence for challenges!

At 6:31, the busy Hedman opened the scoring for real, for Tampa Bay, when Nikita Tryamkin got tangled up with Ryan Miller.

Brandon Sutter replied with his eighth of the season to send the teams to the dressing room deadlocked at one after 20 minutes.

In the second, Vancouver took the lead. Luca Sbisa got his first of the season on this confident play, where he kept the puck alive from down low before getting it back for the shot.

Heading into the third period with a 2-1 lead, the Canucks had a 4-1-1 record for the season when leading after 40 minutes, but the only games I could think about were the collapse against Carolina last Tuesday and the overtime loss to Chicago on home ice back in November.

I got a little more nervous when the Lightning tied the game at 3:53.

Remember when Cory Conacher was briefly Canucks' property at the end of of the 2014-15 season? He was part of the Utica Comets group that went to the AHL's Calder Cup Final that season, then spent last year in Switzerland before returning to the Lightning organization. He had success as a rookie in Tampa Bay, scoring 24 points in 35 games in 2012-13 before being traded to Ottawa for Ben Bishop at the 2013 trade deadline.

Conacher has spent most of this season in the AHL, but was recalled by the Lightning this week due to their long injury list. His goal on Saturday against Vancouver was his first of the season.

But then—a little divine intervention? That was quite a rebound that Vasilevskiy gifted Bo Horvat on the power play for what proved to be the winning goal.

Then—whaddaya know? The Canucks shut it down the rest of the way, allowing just three Lightning shots in the remaining 12:14 of the third, and none in the final 6:24, including a stretch of six-on-five play with an empty Tampa Bay net. Alex Burrows got the insurance marker with Vasilevskiy on the bench with 47 seconds left on the clock, and the Vancouver fanbase breathed a sigh of relief when all was said and done.

Chris Tanev was a welcome sight in his return to the Canucks lineup. Playing with Ben Hutton, he logged a game-high 23:30 and was a plus-one.

Hutton's regular partner, Erik Gudbranson, was scratched for an undisclosed reason. He's not on the ice for practice today, either.

My gut feeling is that Gudbranson has been playing through an injury for awhile. Before this absence, he had a few "maintenance days" when the Canucks practiced. I suspect that he hasn't been 100 percent, but has been staying in the lineup because the Canucks have been so shorthanded on the blue line. Now that Tanev's back, it provides a little bit of relief.

This report from today's practice lines up with my theory.

Nothing definite yet, but with a quick turnaround before Sunday's 1 p.m. matinee against Columbus, reinforcements might be necessary.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are now in town after picking up their eighth straight win in Calgary on Friday night. Torts' team could also be gunning for a share of top spot in the entire NHL—Columbus is currently in fourth place overall, just two points behind league leaders Pittsburgh and Chicago. Quite a turnaround!

I'll set that game up tomorrow morning.

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