Thursday November 29 - Vegas Golden Knights 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3
I don't normally want to hand out participation prizes, but it seemed a bit cruel that the Vancouver Canucks didn't come out of Thursday night's game with anything more than a couple of cool highlights to add to their 2018-19 sizzle reel after dropping a 4-3 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights at Rogers Arena.
Here's the package from what proved to be an entertaining and competitive game:
Thursday's game marked the first time this season that the Canucks delivered the first goal of the game on home ice, but couldn't convert that into a win—and what a goal it was.
Elias Pettersson's from-his-knees pass out to Brock Boeser in the slot was a high-effort thing of beauty. Petey actually got that play started when he chased down a streaking Max Pacioretty on the backcheck to send the puck back the other way.
As a group, the Canucks players looked like they had more collective hustle than we've seen in awhile. I think we're already seeing the payoff from a few days at home and a little bit of rest.
All told, Vancouver outshot Vegas 36-31 in a physical affair that featured plenty of board rattling and 25 hits-per-side. Pettersson did not have a shot attempt in the game but Boeser put up another eight—six on goal—to follow up his 10-attempt performance on Tuesday against L.A. Bo Horvat and Alex Biega each had seven shot attempts.
The Canucks got burned when Vegas' fourth line of William Carrier, Ryan Reaves and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare combined for the Golden Knights' first goal against the line of Horvat, Gagner and Leipsic, and the Vegas special teams turned out to be the difference in the game. Max Pacioretty picked up his ninth of the year on the power play in the second period, and the Canucks not only went 0-for-3 on their own power play, the second unit surrendered what proved to be the game-winning goal to Reilly Smith and Wild Bill Karlsson with 6:25 left to play in the third after thoroughly bungling any semblance of defensive coverage.
That goal was a back-breaker after the Canucks had come back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game in the third—on a beautiful rush goal by Alex Edler and Brock Boeser's second of the night and sixth of the year, from the side of the net.
I loved seeing Boeser call this goal with the point, making sure the play was stopped and reviewed.
Lots of buzz postgame about Ryan Reaves' blindside collision with Alex Edler with 4:45 to play in the third period, which sent the Canucks' blueliner face-first to the ice, cutting him on the eyebrow and taking him out of the last few minutes of the game. Edler didn't talk to the media after the game but did do his usual Eagle's Nest meet-and-greet and is back on the ice for practice on Friday.
After taking the morning skate, Antoine Roussel was also a surprise scratch on Thursday with what was called an upper-body injury, and Erik Gudbranson sat out his second-straight game.
The press box at Rogers Arena was practically overflowing with scouts on Thursday night. The clock is approaching midnight on the William Nylander situation—the deadline for him to sign if he hopes to play this season is 2 p.m. PT on Saturday, which means a trade has to be a real possibility if the Leafs can't come to terms with him. And with Paul Holmgren holding the reins for the moment in Philadelphia and itching for change, the Flyers could jump into the trading fray at any moment, too.
I spent the whole game wondering if Roussel and/or Gudbranson were being held out of the lineup because of a potential deal but both players are back at Friday's practice. Stand down for now, I guess.
Since the Canucks' next game is an early one on Saturday, I'll set that up as well before I sign off for the day:
Saturday December 1 - Dallas Stars at Vancouver Canucks - 1 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 28 GP, 11-14-3, 24 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Dallas Stars: 26 GP, 13-10-3, 29 pts, fifth in Central Division
For the first time under new coach Jim Montgomery, the Dallas Stars will face off against the Vancouver Canucks when they visit Rogers Arena for a matinee game on Saturday.
Though the Stars will come into the game with one extra day of rest—their last game was a 4-3 overtime win in Calgary on Wednesday—the Canucks may actually have the schedule advantage for a change. Dallas is wrapping up a four-game road trip and will be playing the seventh of eight games away from home over a 14-day stretch that included three sets of back-to-backs with travel. Not surprisingly, results through those games have been mixed: 3-3-1.
The Stars have been good defensively this season: currently fourth overall at 2.69 goals allowed per game. But despite all the firepower on their top line, secondary scoring is proving to be an issue once again. They're scoring just 2.77 goals per game, which is 24th in the league and three spots below Vancouver (21st, 2.86). The Dallas power play is also uncharacteristically shaky—ranked 21st at just 18.3 percent. It has gone particularly cold during the last 10 games, while John Klingberg has been sidelined with a hand injury, going just 3-for-29 during that time.
Also missing from the blue line: Marc Methot, who has been out with a lower-body injury since early November. Defenseman Stephen Johns and forward Martin Hanzal are both on long-term injured reserve while goaltender Ben Bishop is expected to be get the start on Saturday after missing nearly two weeks with a lower-body injury.
Bishop's numbers have been good this season: he's 8-5-1 with a .923 save percentage and 2.33 goals-against average.
Saturday's game will be our first chance to see Dallas' super-rookie, Miro Heiskanen—and we'll likely see a lot of him. The 19-year-old defenseman, drafted third overall in 2017, has 11 points in 26 games and is averaging a whopping 22:57 per game as he helps to fill in for the injured Klingberg.
Another new face is left-side defenseman Gavin Bayreuther, a 24-year-old who was signed out of St. Lawrence University in the spring of 2017 and has been averaging more than 20 minutes in the eight games since his mid-November call-up.
That pretty much sets the stage for Saturday. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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