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Adam Gaudette comes through in the clutch but Canucks lose in OT to Coyotes

February 22, 2019, 2:54 PM ET [252 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Thursday February 21 - Arizona Coyotes 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2 (OT)

They salvaged a point, but the rested Vancouver Canucks got outplayed in the third period by the tired Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Arena on Thursday night and slipped down the Western Conference standings after their 3-2 overtime loss.

It wasn't a game that was overflowing with highlights, but here you go anyway:



During their last lengthy homestand, the Canucks showed us that some R&R while sleeping in their own beds left them a bit complacent at the beginning of games. That patten held true on Thursday. It was the Coyotes, playing their third game in four nights on the road and sixth in 10 altogether, that came out of the box strong, outshooting Vancouver 8-1 and earning a power play before the first TV timeout at the 7:02 mark of the first period.

After that, the Canucks got their act together. By the end of the first, shots were 17-11 for Vancouver and the home team took a 1-0 lead into the dressing room when Bo Horvat converted another nice pass from Antoine Roussel for his 21st of the year.




Though Horvat started the game with Tyler Motte and Josh Leivo, it didn't take Travis Green long to start putting his lines in a blender after his team's slow start. Horvat started the shift when he scored with Leivo and Tim Schaller, who changed for Roussel and Granlund while Bo stayed on the ice.

Horvat has now delivered a third-straight 20-goal season and is one away from his career high of 22, set last year. And Roussel also assisted on Adam Gaudette's third-period goal, giving him eight in 10 games since the All-Star break and 20 for the year—a career high.

Let's just fast-forward to Gaudette's goal, shall we? For the second time in three games, the rookie came through to help salvage points for his team, after also scoring the tying goal late in L.A. last week, which set up Brock Boeser's opportunity to seal the shootout win.

Hockey Gaud, indeed!




Though his ice time rarely cracks the 10-minute mark—he played a team-low 9:40 on Thursday—Gaudette now has three goals in his last five games with the Canucks, counting his tally against the Coyotes during his brief one-game call-up in January as well as his most recent production. The 2018 Hobey Baker Award winner is showing that he's also able to come through in the clutch at the NHL level. I hope Travis Green continues to find ways to give him more prominent roles in the lineup.

Of course, Gaudette's heroics were necessary because the rested Canucks were outshot 20-5 by the Coyotes in the third period. The normally airtight penalty kill gave up a goal for the second-straight contest—and that's a game-changer in these tight contests. Meanwhile, the Canucks' power play continues to shoot blanks—0-for-3 on Thursday and just 3-for-32 for 9.4 percent since the All-Star Break. That's 30th in the league—believe it or not, Colorado is 1-for-32 for 3.1 percent over that same stretch.

In overtime, Brock and Petey got stuck on the ice for far too long before Alex Galchenyuk scored his second-straight winning goal with a sneaky stuff past Jacob Markstrom. Gally also got the shootout winner for the Coyotes in Edmonton on Tuesday.




As for the new guys—Ashton Sautner was mostly solid in his 12:05 of ice time with Erik Gudbranson. He played even-strength only and recorded four shot attempts, three hits, a takeaway and a block.

Ryan Spooner finished with five shot attempts—four on goal—and one giveaway, in 14:15 of ice time. He saw a bit of power-play time and seemed to start off strong, but became less visible as the game went on.

The Canucks are off on Friday, so hopefully they'll bring a more consistent effort on Saturday against the New York Islanders—a team that has looked strong all season and easily beat the Canucks 5-1 in Brooklyn back in November. But the Islanders have struggled so far on its trip through Western Canada, losing 4-2 to Calgary on Wednesday and dropping a 4-3 overtime decision to Edmonton on Thursday.

With the single point, the Canucks hang onto 12th place in the West but slip to two points back from the second wild-card after a win by Minnesota on Thursday. Chicago also won.

Pertinent to the Canucks on Friday's schedule: the Wild are in Detroit, the Avs visit Chicago and the Ducks are in Calgary.

And finally—here's the latest on Alex Edler:




This comes as no surprise; if anything, my eyebrows went up more over the chatter about possible movement of Edler over the last couple of days–especially when those reports didn't even seem to mention the fact that Edler's currently sidelined with a concussion. As I have said many times before, I never thought he'd waive his no-trade clause. The fact that he couldn't step into the lineup of a playoff contender anytime soon made me 200 percent sure that he wouldn't be dealt.

I'm guessing his new deal will be three years. The expansion draft is two years away, so the fact that's being mentioned at all means it won't be any shorter.

Here's Jim's other tidbit from Friday's media availability:


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