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Sam Gagner is recalled; Pettersson scores his 11th in Canucks' loss to Habs |
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Saturday November 17 - Montreal Canadiens 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2
A good effort with nothing to show for it. The Vancouver Canucks returned to Rogers Arena with a 38-shot outing but couldn't protect their third-period lead before falling 3-2 to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Here are your highlights:
It's not often that you see a player from an opposing club take a twirl on the ice when he's named first star of the game, but B.C. boy Carey Price embraced his moment in the spotlight on Saturday after keeping his team in the game with a strong performance—especially in the third period.
With two points on the line and a chance to end his team's losing streak, Travis Green shortened his bench in the final frame and got a 19-shot performance out of his group, including a power-play rocket from Elias Pettersson midway through the period for his 11th of the year.
After leaning primarily on Derrick Pouliot as his point man on the power play during the road trip, Green turned back to Ben Hutton on Saturday. Hutton wasn't able to do enough in preseason to earn that spot at the beginning of the year. He was an improvement over Pouliot on Saturday, especially when it came to getting the puck to Pettersson.
It's always interesting to see how player roles have shifted when the Canucks come home after a long road trip—and even though they're still short on bodies, the team didn't suffer any *more* injuries while they were away. Yes, Brock Boeser was officially sidelined, but he'd already been dealing with his groin issue. And Chris Tanev actually returned to the lineup at the beginning of the road trip after having missed the previous five games, bumping Alex Biega back up to the press box.
On Saturday, Ben Hutton hit the ice in the first period with an air of confidence that I hadn't sensed from him in awhile. In addition to his power-play duties, he was skating miles early in the game and making smart defensive plays. But the game seemed to get away from him a little bit as it went along. Listed at 6'2" and 206 pounds on the Canucks' roster page, I was surprised to see Hutton get knocked on his keister after being stood up along the boards by 5'11", 182-pound Andrew Shaw midway through the second period. I originally thought Shaw's victim was No. 77, Nikolay Goldobin, rather than No. 27.
That moment seemed to spark a battle between the two players, which went on for the rest of the game. It was great to see that fiery emotion from Hutton but in the end, Shaw got the upper hand. Hutton was on the ice when Shaw deflected the game-tying goal past Jacob Markstrom just a minute and a half after Pettersson had given the Canucks the lead, and was also trying to defend on the penalty kill when Jonathan Drouin floated the winner through from the blue line.
I was also interested to see the coach leaning more on Adam Gaudette in the early going. After hitting a season high with 16:05 of ice time in Minnesota on Thursday, Gaudette was dialled back to 12:09 on Saturday, but Green had his line with Jake Virtanen and Antoine Roussel out for the opening draw to start the game and looked like he was trusting Gaudette to try to unburden Bo Horvat a bit, defensively.
Horvat played a reasonable 6:18 in the first period, 6:47 in the second and a Ryan Suter-like 10:08 in the third, finishing the night with a team high 23:03. As has become standard procedure since Brandon Sutter went down, Horvat took about half of Vancouver's faceoffs—and won most of them. His 23-11 record on 34 of the Canucks' 69 draws was good for a 68 percent success rate.
Horvat's 557 total faceoffs taken this season now lead the NHL—and it's not even close. Only seven other players leaguewide have taken more than 400, led unsurprisingly by four-time Selke winner Patrice Bergeron with 436.
Even with that massive volume of draws, Horvat is also right up with those elite two-way forwards in terms of his success rate. Among the workhorses who have taken more than 300 draws so far this year, Ryan O'Reilly leads the league at an amazing 61.4 percent. Horvat's 54.9 percent slots him in the top 10—just behind Travis Zajac and Jeff Carter and just ahead of Dylan Larkin, Anze Kopitar and Matt Duchene.
I also thought Jacob Markstrom had a strong game, particularly in the fist period. If he is playing through some kind of injury, he did a heckuva job of handling it.
At practice on Sunday, notsomuch...
Also...
And finally (I *hope* there's nothing else!)...
On Sunday, the Canucks went ahead and filled the extra roster spot that they've had open since Brock Boeser went on IR. The prodigal son returns!
Gagner has been productive during his time with the Marlies, with seven goals and eight assists in 15 games. With all signs suggesting that Brock Boeser could be out for awhile longer, Gagner may get a real chance to play in a role that suits him in the top six when he returns—something that happened only occasionally for him last season. He'll never bring stifling defensive play but when he's on his game, he can be effective at putting up points, including on the power play.
Stay tuned to see what kind of lineup Travis Green can put together to face the Winnipeg Jets, who practiced on Sunday in Winnipeg before heading west to take on the Canucks on Monday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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