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Canucks lose to Senators and a Quinn Hughes appreciation post |
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Thursday February 27 - Ottawa Senators 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Sometimes, the hockey gods have other plans.
On Thursday, they were determined to give Bobby Ryan a night he wouldn't forget as he played his first home game since November.
Ryan had one goal and four points in 16 games this season before stepping away from the team to receive treatment for alcohol abuse.
He was pointless in his return to action in Nashville on Tuesday, but picked up a hat trick — and fought Chris Tanev — in Ottawa's 5-2 win over Vancouver.
Here are your highlights:
Watching this video, I have to feel happy for Ryan, who turns 33 next month and probably thought his career future was in jeopardy before he went into treatment.
Overall, the rhythm of the game was almost identical to what happened two nights earlier in Montreal — but this time, the Canucks couldn't complete the comeback.
Strange as it is to say, Marcus Hogberg was tougher to beat in Ottawa than Carey Price was in Montreal — the Canucks outshot the Sens 34-25, including 14-7 in a second period where they didn't get on the scoreboard until J.T. Miller connected on the power play with 16 seconds left to go before intermission.
Coulda been a different game if Petey had beaten Hogberg here, on a power play early in the first.
As it was, Tyler Toffoli got the score to 3-2 at the 8:16 mark of the third. The Canucks had a chance to get points until Ryan beat Demko for his second of the night with 2:08 left to play. His hat-trick goal was an empty netter.
With two more points for Miller, he's now up to 65 on the season, holding steady in 16th place in the NHL scoring race. He has Steven Stamkos and Kyle Connor right above him at 66; Mark Stone, Mitch Marner and Evgeni Malkin below at 63.
And with his 43rd assist of the year on the power-play goal, Quinn Hughes has opened up a six-point lead over Cale Makar in the rookie scoring race — and set a Canucks franchise record.
He passed Dale Tallon to claim the record — but I hadn't really processed that this one also includes forwards.
Remember how excited we were about Brock Boeser's 60-point season two years ago? With 54 points, Quinn is now just six points away from matching that mark.
Looking at his full-season average, he's on pace to match the rookie record of 66 points that Elias Pettersson set last year. But at this point, it's not unrealistic to think he could beat it. Rather than slowing down as the season has worn on, like many rookies do, Hughes has picked up his pace since going to the All-Star Game last month. He's averaging 0.82 points per game on the season but has three goals and 14 assists in the 14 games since the break — a pace of 1.21 points per game. And he's currently on a five-game point streak.
That pace leads all defensemen in the league who have played five games or more since the All-Star Break — and it's actually not even close. Matt Niskanen is second, with 13 points in 13 games, and four players have 12: Victor Hedman, Colton Parayko, John Carlson, Damon Severson and Shea Theodore. That's some pretty lofty company!
So maybe we are understating things with the "Quinn for Calder" campaign. Should we be pushing "Quinn for Norris?" His 51 points now have him fourth in scoring among all defensemen for the year, behind Carlson (72), Roman Josi (58) and Hedman (53).
Quinn's 51st point on Thursday also moved him ahead of Christian Ehrhoff (50 pts) as the most productive Canucks defenseman in the 2000s. He's now tied for 12th overall on that list and will move up the ladder with virtually every point he scores on the way to catching Doug Lidster, the franchise leader with 63 points from 1986-87.
As for the standings — the Canucks stay in second in the Pacific for now, despite the loss. Calgary lost in overtime on Thursday to move one point back, then Nashville and Winnipeg now occupy 8th and 9th in the conference with 72 points.
On Friday, Vegas hosts Buffalo, looking for its eighth-straight win and trying to extend its cushion to six points atop the Pacific. Also, Minnesota will try to leapfrog Arizona and move one point behind Nashville and Winnipeg as the Wild visit Columbus.
All the talk of snowstorms and maple syrup in Ottawa on Thursday certainly brought back memories for me. I lived there for about a year and a half when I was in elementary school, and a trip to the "sugar shacks" across the river in Quebec was a fun pastime at this time of year. They'd serve up maple syrup to the kids on sno-cones.
And while spring feels like it's just around the corner here in Vancouver, I think it was a blizzard much like what we saw on TV last night that was the last straw for my parents, and triggered our move back to Beautiful B.C.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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