Sunday March 22 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Arizona Coyotes 1
Now that was a good road trip! The Vancouver Canucks took care of business this weekend with an emotional win over Los Angeles on Saturday and a workmanlike victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday. Here are your highlights from Sunday:
Jacob Markstrom was reasonably solid between the pipes on Sunday—his only goal against was a sweet end-to-end rush by Oliver Ekman-Larsson where he didn't get a whole lot of help out front from Kevin Bieksa and Luca Sbisa.
Markstrom did show some signs of nerves but with 26 saves over 60 minutes, his goals-against average for the year has now dropped all the way back to a respectable 3.08. He has also shown that he can be entrusted with another start—most likely one of the back-to-backs against St. Louis or Nashville to kick off next week's road trip.
It was also good to see Alex Burrows back in the lineup after taking that scary hit from Tyler Toffoli on Saturday against the Kings. He was a plus-one thanks to Henrik's game-clinching empty-netter and had an engaged game with four shot attempts, two hits, a giveaway and a blocked shot.
Vancouver's shot totals were excellent this weekend. They managed to direct 42 shots at a normally-stingy L.A. defense on Saturday and followed that up with a 44-shot performance in Glendale on Sunday. The chances are coming and on Sunday, the key goals both came off the sticks of defensemen: Yannick Weber and Alex Edler.
That has been a rare occurrence this season but Weber broke a six-game point drought with three points this weekend, while Edler's two goals and two assists in the last four games were enough to earn him top slot among defensemen in my Team of the Week for Bleacher Report.
Mr. Daniel's six points also earned him top spot at left wing, and I gave Willie an honourable mention for coach of the week. Whatever he does to get the team to bounce back quickly and effectively after bad losses like the game against Columbus, it's working.
When I look at individual decisions that Desjardins makes, I find myself scratching my head over things like his continued faith in Yannick Weber or his choice to scratch Ronalds Kenins on Sunday in favour of Brandon McMillan (hoping to get a good game out of McMillan against his old team, maybe?) But on balance, I feel like Willie is riding the wave I was hoping he'd catch—learning every step of the way during his first NHL season and guiding the Canucks' progress—both as individual players and, probably more importantly, as a team.
Last year, nearly the entire Vancouver roster underperformed. This year, almost everyone is playing to their ability—or above it.
I think we can finally put those worries about permanent issues from Daniel's 2012 head injury to rest now that he's not only 17th in NHL scoring—and just 10 points off the lead—but is also two points ahead of Henrik with 64 points. That probably hasn't happened since he won the Art Ross Trophy in 2010-11.
It's funny about Edler, too. He has seven goals and 14 assists in 64 games this year, compared to seven goals and 15 assists in 63 games from 2013-14, and his penalty minutes are also nearly identical: 50 last year; 48 this season. But the two seasons couldn't have been more different. Edler finished the 2013-14 with an NHL-worst minus-39 while this year, he's a steady plus-12.
With 10 games to go, Vancouver's goals-against-per-game is actually almost identical to last season: 2.63 goals-against per game in 2013-14, and 2.65 goals per game this year. The difference in the team's success has come at the other end of the ice, where they're 12th in NHL scoring this year with 2.81 goals per game, compared to a third-worst 2.33 goals a game last season.
Now with 88 points, Vancouver has some breathing room in the standings for the moment with a four-point lead over Calgary and six points over Los Angeles. The Kings (with newly called-up Mike Richards) visit New Jersey today at 4:30 while the Flames host Colorado.
SportsClubStats now pegs Vancouver's playoff chances at 97.7 percent, with a 79 percent chance that they'll hang on to second place in the Pacific—and earn home ice advantage in the first round. Who would have expected that at the beginning of the year??
My preference would be to see the season play out as it stands right now, with the Canucks hosting Calgary. It'd be a fiery matchup between two old Canadian rivals, where the winner has gone on to do very well after past meetings (a Cup for Calgary in 1989 and Stanley Cup Final appearances for Vancouver in 1994 and for Calgary in 2004).
What do you think?
The Canucks are enjoying a well-deserved day off on Monday before taking to the ice against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena.