Monday January 2 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Colorado Avalanche 2
Sven Baertschi scored twice, including the third-period game winner, as the Vancouver Canucks edged the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night to stretch their winning streak to four straight games.
Here are your highlights:
How 'bout Bo? The 21-year-old leads the @Canucks in goals, assists and points this season. #COLvsVAN pic.twitter.com/A9uHJHBN6b
— NHL (@NHL) January 3, 2017
Just 31 seconds after the goal, Michael Chaput was whistled for a hooking penalty, and the Avs stormed back, with Mikko Rantanen picking up the tying goal.
The Canucks re-took the lead before the end of the period in which they dominated, outshooting Colorado 13-9. Sven Baertschi's first of the night and ninth of the season came just after the end of a power play that saw the Sedins slow everything down and control the play. It looked stagnant and ineffective—until the puck went into the net four seconds after Cody Goloubef stepped back on the ice.
It looked like the Canucks had the game firmly in control when Brandon Sutter's "Callin' Baton Rouge" rang out after a shot off the rush at the 7:17 mark of the third, but the puck didn't actually cross the goal line.
Sutter rings it off the crossbar - horn goes off, goal music plays, but it never crossed the line#Canucks pic.twitter.com/rzUMk5Swml
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) January 3, 2017
No Coach's Challenge needed here, just an old-school video review. No goal.
The stroke of fortune seemed to ignite the Avs, who started to carry the play after the no-goal call. All of a sudden, the team's elite talents like Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Duchene, Tyson Barrie and Rantanen seemed to have constant possession of the puck for the next four minutes or so, until Barrie wired a shot from the point past Ryan Miller at 11:42 to tie the game.
I felt the familiar ripple of fear. Maybe the Canucks' heartening winning streak was going to come to an end against the worst team in the league and that .500 mark would continue to elude them??
But cue another Avs penalty—their fourth of the night—and cue another effective power play for the first unit, finished off again by Baertschi with 3:37 left on the clock.
ðŸ»ðŸ§€ AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/28vzPoi8CZ
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 3, 2017
That's how it ended. The Canucks held their ground with goalie Calvin Pickard on the bench for the extra attacker, and locked in their fourth straight win to kick off 2017 on a winning note.
Individual players hit a bunch of milestones, too. With assists on both Baertschi goals, Henrik Sedin's march to 1,000 career points is now at 996. He's also now tied with Bo Horvat at the top of the team scoring race; both players have 26 points.
Henrik's in a race with Alex Ovechkin to see who can get to 1,000 first. The Great 8 currently has 994 points.
Also...
Daniel Sedin is now the 2nd #Canuck and the 7th Swedish born NHL player to reach 600 assists.
— Canucks PR (@CanucksPR) January 3, 2017
Only five active NHLers have more assists than Daniel:
1. Jaromir Jagr - 1,135 2. Joe Thornton - 987 3. Henrik Sedin - 765 4. Jarome Iginla - 666 5. Sidney Crosby - 616
Daniel is three assists ahead of Marian Hossa, who was drafted two years earlier and has played nearly 100 more games.
And finally...
Ryan Miller became the third U.S.-born goalie to record at least 350 career wins, joining John Vanbiesbrouck (374) and Tom Barrasso (369). pic.twitter.com/KWfstUnfqn
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 3, 2017
Miller's the 21st goalie in NHL history to hit the 350 win mark. Only three active goalies have more:
1. Roberto Luongo - 447 2. Henrik Lundqvist - 390 3. Marc-Andre Fleury - 369
As for Anton Rodin? He was fine, but his ice time trickled off as the game got tighter in the late stages. He got that assist on the Horvat goal and patiently set up Alex Edler for a nice scoring chance, as well as having one shot on goal and one takeaway in 10:12 of ice time.
But he's probably destined for the press box again next game if Alex Burrows returns to action—which looks likely.
Alex Burrows is taking part in practice this morning. pic.twitter.com/LKC7mG6pf5
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 3, 2017
Chris Tanev's not at practice this morning but until I hear otherwise, I'm going to assume that's a maintenance day. Blue-line minutes were pretty evenly distributed last night, with Tanev playing 20:13.
Let's also take a minute to note that the Canucks are now 4-0 since Alex Edler returned from his injury. It was Edler and Nikita Tryamkin who played the final 1:45 of the game, while the Avs were pressing with the extra attacker.
Vancouver-Colorado was the only Western Conference game on the schedule last night, so the Canucks sit in 10th place in the West this morning. During this streak, they've passed Winnipeg and Nashville and are now tied with Dallas, a point behind L.A. in that second wild-card spot, and three points behind Calgary in the top wild-card spot. That'll make for high stakes during the home-and-home series this weekend!
The Canucks could backslide a bit while they're idle tonight. The Kings play the Sharks, the Preds play the Habs and the Jets take on the Lightning.
My other big takeaway from Monday's game was nicely articulated by Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun in his postgame article when he said the "Avalanche team that is last in the NHL and living proof — if no one remembers the Oilers before McSaviour arrived — that rebuilding isn’t as simple as accumulating elite draft picks and prospects, and letting them figure out the rest."
The once-great Avs have made the playoffs just twice in the last eight seasons and haven't won a round since 2007-08. They looked scary during the third period last night as they rolled out their stars, but those stars have not been able to find winning chemistry.
When Colorado finished first in the Central Division in Patrick Roy's inaugural season in 2013-14, Ryan O'Reilly and Paul Stastny were still part of the team. I know the salary cap was part of the reason why those two players weren't retained, but the Avs' fortune is a sobering reminder to me that a team can't be discarding quality players as they come into their prime, just because they have more good players coming.
In his 30 Thoughts today, Elliotte Friedman says "Colorado has told teams not to bother asking about Nathan MacKinnon or 2015 first-rounder Mikko Rantanen." He says the team doesn't want to make a panic move, but that certainly makes it sound as if players like Landeskog and Duchene could be available.
Friedman also has an interesting comment on Alex Burrows:
We mentioned last weekend how someone like Alex Burrows could help a playoff team, but that playoff team could be the Canucks. He’s on-pace for his best points ratio in four years, so there’s a bit of a renaissance. If they fall out, there will be some feelers. Don’t forget, Burrows controls any trade options, so he has to want to go.
Friedman's articles are always worth reading. This week, he also has some quotes from Mason Raymond, who had an outstanding tournament as Canada won gold at the Spengler Cup.