Tuesday March 31 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - Nashville Predators 4 (S/O)
Do you remember how nervous we were when we looked ahead at the busy and tough schedule the Canucks faced in the month of March?
The boys finished it off with back-to-back wins on the road, including a wild one against the Predators on Tuesday. This is a highlight package worth watching:
With the wins on Monday in St. Louis and on Tuesday in Nashville, Vancouver wrapped up March with a record of 10-4-2, picking up their first wins of the year against the Kings and Predators and first point against the Stars along the way. With 95 points, the Canucks now sit 10th in the NHL standings, tied with Minnesota, Pittsburgh and the New York Islanders.
The Canucks are also now four points up on Calgary and—more importantly—seven points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings. SportsClubStats is now pegging Vancouver's playoff odds at a near-perfect 99.8 percent, with a 90 percent chance that they'll finish second in the Pacific—and earn home-ice advantage in the first round.
At 24-12-3, #Canucks have the second-best road record in NHL. Maybe they should finish third in Pacific Division.
— Iain MacIntyre (@imacVanSun) April 1, 2015Five games to go!
Looking back at last night, let's start with the big news: Alex Burrows will not face a suspension after receiving a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct after a collision with Paul Gaustad with 3:54 remaining in the third period.
Canucks talked to nhl this morning, nothing for burrows. Right call. Now they just need to explain how a penalty was called retroactively
— Jason Botchford (@botchford) April 1, 2015The situation was a strange one, where it appeared that the initial contact between Burrows and Gaustad was fairly minor.
Though Jason Botchford—like many of us—was fully prepared for news of a Burrows suspension, he does a good job in The Provies of breaking down the strange sequence of events—and shining a light on how Kevin Bieksa managed to get himself thrown out of the game at the same time. The Gunslinger doesn't come off looking so innocent—apparently hurling harsh words at both the referee and the injured Gaustad while he was still lying on the ice.
Gaustad did not return to the game and there is no update yet on his condition.
I do hope Gaustad is OK after that hit. Good dude, smart guy, has a history of head injuries ...
— JoshuaCooper (@JoshuaCooper) April 1, 2015As for the rest of the game? The most important takeaway was the team's ability to rise up and overcome the adversity of the last few minutes.
It was bad enough that, after fighting back from a 2-0 deficit to earn a third-period lead on a brilliant shorthanded goal from Burrows and another second-unit power-play goal by Chris Higgins, the game was tied with 5:03 remaining on an unfortunate bounce where Nick Bonino's shorthanded clearing attempt hit Mike Fisher square in the skate and rebounded past Eddie Lack into the net.
But after the Burrows/Gaustad incident—and a penalty that'd last for the duration of regulation time and beyond—the Canucks team that was on the back end of consecutive games, on the road, had played a hard-fought game and was now missing two of its more reliable penalty-killers was able to dig deep, earn a point and force overtime.
The Preds managed eight shots in that final 3:56, but you know what the Canucks did through that final stretch? They won some face offs. Nick Bonino took the first draw after the penalty and the Canucks killed off more than a minute before Nashville got its first shot on goal and Vancouver killed another 45 seconds off the clock when Bo Horvat bested Mike Fisher with 1:17 to go. The weakest link was Henrik Sedin, who went 1-for-3 against Mike Ribeiro, but neither of his losses led directly to any meaningful pressure for the Preds.
Once the Canucks survived an overtime where they were outshot 2-0—and ended up outshot 38-25 in the game—snipers Nick Bonino and, of course, Radim Vrbata made short work of the shootout, earning Vancouver an impressive victory and showing, once again, that this team plays best with its back against the wall.
With the success of the second power-play unit in recent games, Botchford got an insightful quote from Willie Desjardins about why he hasn't mixed up the look too much over the course of the year:
“I probably should have changed things at times,… Willie said. “But I’m pretty loyal. Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad.“Sometimes it’s one of my strengths, and sometimes it’s a weakness.
“For now, it’s turned out to be a strength. Maybe for a while it was a weakness.…
Is that the way you’ve always coached?
“I don’t change a lot,… he said, “I usually let the guys do their thing. I try to let them decide it. I try not to over-coach it.…
It may be frustrating for us fans when it's not working, but I suspect that loyalty is part of the reason why Willie's players seem so willing to go to the wall for him. I'm excited that we'll get to see how that plays out in a postseason situation.
It's on to Chicago for a matchup against the Blackhawks on Thursday. And though Patrick Kane isn't expected to play until the third round of the playoffs after breaking his collarbone on Feb. 24, look who's back on the ice at practice today:
Patrick Kane wearing the "don't-touch-me" jersey. Nevertheless, practicing with the #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/m7b9Yq43Sf
— Tracey Myers (@TramyersCSN) April 1, 2015