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Saturday December 14: Vancouver Canucks 6 Boston Bruins 2
Wow. That was fun! Here are your highlights from the Canucks' emphatic win over Boston on Saturday night:
It was a night when the team and its fans were able to lay to rest many of the demons that have lingered since Boston's 4-0 shutout win at Rogers Arena to capture Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup championship.
Puck luck. Jannik Hansen had it when he opened the scoring with a long shot from near centre ice. Well-defended by Zdeno Chara, the puck grazed Chara's stick as Hansen let it go, rising and then falling to fool a befuddled Tuukka Rask and give Vancouver that important early lead.
Rask was suffering from the flu this week. He looked like he thought he might have been hallucinating as he tried to process how that puck got past him.
The illness probably was a factor in the performance of a goaltender who has generally been outstanding this season. Rask was pulled after Vancouver's fourth goal, by Yannick Weber early in the third period. Rask took the loss, while Chad Johnson allowed two more goals before the night was out.
At the other end, Roberto Luongo was at the top of his game. The score may have been lopsided, and the Bruins may have been wrapping up a long road trip that saw them shorthanded due to injury and illness, but Boston outshot Vancouver 41-30 and applied some serious pressure at times.
Of course, the turning point came during one of those stretches where Boston was pushing back. The Bruins started the second period with five straight shots on goal before Reilly Smith took the puck to the net, crashed into Luongo, and tied the game 1-1.
John Tortorella took another step into the heart of Canucks fans when he called a time out after the goal and laid into his team. The old Canucks under Alain Vigneault would have carried on, and the situation might have snowballed, but Torts wasted no time trying to change the momentum of the game as soon as things started to go sideways.
In this situation, it worked perfectly. It took just 1:20 for David Booth to reclaim the lead for Vancouver with a power move down the left wing, then Chris Higgins scored what proved to be the winning goal three minutes later. The rest of the way, it was fun and games.
Once again, Ryan Kesler was a beast, with his emotions turned up to 10. It was startling to see him drop the gloves with Jarome Iginla in the first period—that's a lot of salary to be throwing punches. Iginla certainly seemed enthused to get involved in the rivalry after being on the losing end of so many games with the Flames over the years. Props to him for his energy—and for returning to the game after a grotesque-looking injury to his finger during the fight.
I won't go down the roster and hand out accolades to every Canuck after a true team win, but it was nice to see the Sedins get on the scoresheet in the third period. It also looks like Yannick Weber is starting to earn Torts' trust. He played almost 15 minutes and added a goal to his assist from Friday night, making the offensive contribution that was hoped-for when he was signed as a free agent.
Boston's Brad Marchand turned the late part of the game into a sideshow with all his miming of raising the Stanley Cup and kissing his ring finger. It was over-the-top—and pretty harmless with his team on the losing end of the score. Even his own coach chastised him for his actions after the game, so he really accomplished nothing more than making himself look silly.
The win's a beauty on its own, but is even more impressive as the capper of a perfect five-game homestand. It started out bumpy with that squandered lead to Phoenix, but after the Canucks recovered to pull out that win in overtime, it's been smooth sailing ever since.
I'll have more tomorrow on this win and the homestand, and start setting the stage for this week's three-in-four road swing through the tough Central Division.
Quick Hits:
- Over the first 35 games of the season, it seems like the fortunes of the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers remain karmically intertwined. The Rangers struggled mightily out of the gate while Vancouver played reasonably well. Then, Vancouver slumped as New York climbed back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture and the Rangers picked up the statement win at Madison Square Garden.
That was Vancouver's last loss. They've gone 7-0-0 since losing in New York on November 30, while the Rangers have gone 1-4-1, with their only win coming against Buffalo. As the Canucks are on top of the world, questions are mounting again about the makeup of the New York team and Alain Vigneault's ability to lead it.
When the scales tip again, will Vancouvers' next dip correspond with another surge in New York? It's interesting to keep watching.
- If you missed it, Pierre Lebrun of ESPN has been in Vancouver this week and has a great piece on Roberto Luongo. Click here for the story.
It's nice to hear that Luongo's wife and kids have now joined him back here in Vancouver, even if this is all we'll get from him at this point about the future. Fair enough, after everything he's been through:
"We'll just take it as it goes," Luongo said. "We all know we can't predict the future. It's impossible. I have a long-term contract and I'm with the Vancouver Canucks. Right now, the team is playing well, I'm having a good year, I'm happy here. So we'll see where it goes."