Saturday November 10 - Buffalo Sabres 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3 (S/O)
The Vancouver Canucks extended their point streak to six games but let one point slip away when they watched a 3-1 lead evaporate against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday morning.
Here are your highlights:
The game was billed as a showdown between Swedish rookies Elias Pettersson and Rasmus Dahlin, but it was Casey Mittelstadt who had the move of the day with his first-ever shootout goal, which proved to be the game winner.
Antoine Roussel is clearly not a member of #TeamTank. During his six seasons with the Dallas Stars, his team made the playoffs twice and missed four times—last year, by just three points.
"It’s disappointing. We should have won that game," Roussel told
Jason Botchford of The Athletic on Saturday, while accepting responsibility for a misplay that eventually led to Buffalo's second goal, starting the comeback.
"We let a point just go by. I hope it’s not going to hurt us in the long run. We have to keep the focus for 60 and this was a good lesson for us."
Roussel has absolutely delivered as advertised since joining the Canucks' roster after missing the first four games of the season due to an offseason concussion. From the get-go, he was getting in opponents' faces and stirring the pot. As he has gotten more comfortable with the team, his ice time has also increased—and he has responded by putting points on the board.
Saturday was Roussel's first two-point game as a Canuck, and he played a season-high 16:29. He started with Markus Granlund and Tyler Motte and was moved up the lineup over the course of the game—playing at times with Bo Horvat and Granlund, then later with Horvat and Loui Eriksson.
In addition to bringing some much-needed emotion to the ice, Roussel has six points during the Canucks' current six-game point streak.
Of course, the list of Vancouver goal scorers from Saturday's game also captures the unlikely heroes who have been delivering with newfound consistency over the last two weeks. Loui Eriksson had his second straight multi-point game and is on a four-game point streak; Erik Gudbranson now leads the Canuck blue line with seven points and is on a five-game point streak and #ShotgunJake is on a 40-point pace, played a season high 20:20 and his seven goals are third on the team, behind only Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat.
Those three have taken so much criticism over the last couple of seasons for not performing to the level of their peers on other teams but all of a sudden, that has changed.
Here's how Eriksson stacks up right now against his
top five comparables from CapFriendly's algorithm. I've included team, first year of contract, contract length and cap hit:
Loui Eriksson (2016, 6 yrs, $6 million): 18 GP, 4-7-11
David Backes (2016, BOS, 5 yrs, $6 million): 11 GP, 0-0-0
Milan Lucic (2016, EDM, 7 yrs, $6 million): 16 GP, 1-3-4
Andrew Ladd (2016, NYI, 7 yrs, $5.5 million): 13 GP, 3-3-6
James Neal (2018, CGY, 5 yrs, $5.75 million): 17 GP, 3-1-4
Ryan Kesler (2016, ANA, 6 yrs, $6.875 million): 15 GP, 4-1-5
After the Canucks originally went after Lucic as their UFA target during the summer of 2016, his effectiveness will always be compared to Eriksson's here in Vancouver. But it's also interesting to look at these numbers when you consider that the Canucks traded Kesler, in part, because they didn't think they'd be able to sign him to a big-money, long-term deal. And the Bruins let Eriksson go so they could sign Backes to a contract with the same cap hit, just one year less on the term.
Right now, Eriksson's on pace for 18 goals and 50 points. That's practically parade-worthy, yes? He's already nearly halfway to his totals from his first two seasons: 24 points in 2016-17 and 23 points last year.
Next up:
Erik Gudbranson (2018, 3 yrs, $4 million): 18 GP, 2-5-7, even plus-minus, 19:14 per game
Ian Cole (2018, COL, 3 yrs, $4.25 million): 16 GP, 1-4-5, plus-6, 19:17 per game
Michael Stone (2017, CAL, 3 yrs, $3.5 million): 10 GP, 0-4-4, minus-1, 16:07 per game
Dmitry Kulikov (2017, WPG, 3 yrs, $4.33 million): 6 GP, 0-1-1, even plus-minus, 10:59 per game
Brendan Smith (2017, NYR, 4 yrs, $4.35 million): 16 GP, 1-2-3, minus-5, 17:11
Calvin De Haan (2018, CAR, 4 yrs, $4.55 million): 17 GP, 1-1-2, plus-6, 17:53
Compared to other defensemen at similar ages and pay grades, Guddy is holding his own. He's at the high end of the ice time scale, respectable defensively and leads the group in points.
Gudbranson's goal on Saturday marked a new season high in points with the Canucks, and he's more than halfway to his career high of 4-9-13, set with Florida in 2014-15. If he keeps this up, he'll crush that. He's on pace for nine goals and 32 points.
Finally, there's Jake Virtanen. The first comparable that comes up for him is our old pal Jared McCann, who signed an identical contract with Florida this offseason:
Jake Virtanen (2018, 2 yrs, $1.25 million): 18 GP, 7-2-9
Jared McCann (2018, FLA, 2 yrs, $1.25 million): 12 GP, 1-4-5
For Jake, I'm particularly interested in comparing him to others from his 2014 draft class, the best of whom are just coming into their own.
The star of that group, of course, is David Pastrnak: picked 25th by Boston and now leading the NHL with 15 goals. Other 2014 draftees chosen well after Virtanen who are having strong seasons are Brayden Point (79th, 10-9-19), Dylan Larkin (15th, 7-10-17) and Viktor Arvidsson (112th, 8-5-13).
But the top forwards from that group are a real mixed bag this year. Jake was chosen sixth, so I've grouped the players into those forwards immediately above and below him.
2. Sam Reinhart (BUF) 17 GP, 2-10-12
3. Leon Draisaitl (EDM) 16 GP, 10-7-17
4. Sam Bennett (CGY) 17 GP, 2-2-4
5. Michael Dal Colle (NYI) 12 GP, 7-7-14 with Bridgeport of the AHL
8. William Nylander (TOR) unsigned RFA
9. Nikolaj Ehlers (WPG) 15 GP, 3-3-6
10. Nick Ritchie (ANA) 3 GP, 0-1-1
11. Kevin Fiala (NAS) 16 GP, 1-6-7
Jake hit career highs of 10 goals and 20 points last season. If he can keep doing what he's doing, he'll reach 32 goals and 41 points this year—and earn national attention for being one of the best bargains in the league, as well as a cultural phenomenon.
The boys have now moved on to NYC, where they enjoyed dinner in Manhattan on Saturday night and will celebrate Elias Pettersson's 20th birthday at Madison Square Garden on Monday. That's the first half of a back-to-back that will wrap up at Barclays Center against the Islanders on Tuesday before they hit up the Wild in Minnesota on Thursday on their way back to Vancouver.
To wrap up today: if you missed it, here's the latest on Brock Boeser's injury and rehab timeline:
With any luck, with proper treatment he won't be out for toooooo long and will look more like the player we saw last year when he returns closer to 100 percent.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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