Thursday February 1 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Chicago Blackhawks 2

The Vancouver Canucks are showing signs of life, picking up their third win in four games against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday at Rogers Arena.

Brendan Gaunce led the way with two goals—doubling his total for the year and now bringing his NHL career total to five. No flukes here!

Here are your highlights:



The fast-paced game featured plenty of continuous action, and the Canucks came out with good energy and a physical edge. An early Sven Baertschi bodycheck on Anthony Duclair stood out, as did a Sam Gagner collision with Tomas Jurco at centre ice about a minute and a half earlier, with 6:10 gone in the first.

Here's the play where Sam Gagner got injured. Appears to land awkwardly on his right leg after laying a big hit on Tomas Jurco #Canucks pic.twitter.com/t5Nkf3FfPK

— Bailey Meadows (@baileymeadows20) February 2, 2018

The pair remained awkwardly tangled on the ice and Gagner initially stayed in the game. He played three more shifts in the first, for a total of 3:15 of ice time, before calling it a night.

And FYI, the problem is not his leg:

INJURY UPDATE: Gagner has an upper-body injury and will not return tonight.

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 2, 2018

The Canucks are off today, so we won't get an update on his condition until Saturday's morning skate before the Tampa Bay game.

It's too bad that he's in pain on the anniversary of the biggest day of his NHL career:

6 years ago today, Sam Gagner recorded 8 points in one game with the #Oilers: https://t.co/bv0ZauNri3

— NHL EXPERT PICKS (@NHLexpertpicks) February 2, 2018

That game was against Chicago, too. Gagner had two goals and an assist and was named third star in the Canucks' 5-2 win over the Blackhawks back in December. What could he have done if he'd seen last night through to the end?

After one period, the visitors were up by a goal on Nick Schmaltz's 14th of the year—a long-range play set up by Duncan Keith deep in the defensive zone which saw the Canucks defending pretty passively.

But that was one of the rare letdowns in the night for Vancouver. They didn't get a lot of shots—just 21 for the night—but all four goals came at full and even strength. That's a standout statistic for a team that's tied for 26th in the league with just 82 five-on-five goals in 51 games this year—an average of just 1.61 goals per game.

Gaunce got things started off the rush right after a penalty kill at the 5:33 mark in the second period, then Bo Horvat followed up with his second in as many games to give the Canucks the lead after 40 minutes. Daniel Sedin pulled off a deft tip-in from a Jake Virtanen shot to get the Canucks to 3-1 in the third before the Blackhawks made a push.

Diminutive rookie Alex DeBrincat finished off a strong shift with his 18th of the year to set up a frantic finish but rather than collapsing in desperation, the Canucks kept pressing when they were able to get the puck out of the zone during the second half of the third.

Eventually, Gaunce potted the insurance goal, successfully deflecting a pass from Loui Eriksson with 2:58 left on the clock. His hat-trick attempt on the empty net later went for icing but with just 10 seconds left on the clock at that point, there was no harm done.

“I’m not going to get many hat trick chances, so I fired the puck down there just in case!” - @BrendanGaunce16

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 2, 2018

After the Blackhawks' morning skate on Thursday, Jonathan Toews suggested that the old rivalry with the Canucks was pretty much dead.

Toews asked if Hawks vs #Canucks rivalry still exists. *has to check whiteboard in locker room to see Nux line-up* then says if Luongo, Kesler & Bieksa come back, maybe

— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) February 1, 2018

Things may be different, but Vancouver now holds the 2-0 edge in the season series so far this year. The teams will meet one more time, in Chicago on March 22.

In his first game back in action after missing five with back spasms, Erik Gudbranson played 15:44, including 3:04 on a penalty kill that didn't surrender a goal for the first time in four games. With four hits and three blocked shots, he came out even in plus-minus for the night—on the ice for Chicago's opening goal, but also on after the end of a penalty kill for Gaunce's first goal.

If you missed it, here's what Gudbranson told Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet about his desire to stay in Vancouver:

“I want to be here; that’s the honest truth,” Gudbranson said Wednesday after practising at Rogers Arena. “Free agency isn’t always what it seems. You’ve seen horror stories of guys who shouldn’t have gone in the first hour of July 1 and didn’t get a deal until the day before training camp. If I can avoid it, I think I will.

“I still really haven’t had that conversation with my agents. I saw the tweet, what Jim said about me. That’s what I wanted. But we haven’t started working quite yet. Once we have those conversations, I think everything will be considered.”

MacIntyre seems to think that it's unlikely that the financials will work to keep Gudbranson in Vancouver, even after the player explained why he feels so committed to a team at the bottom of the standings.

“I think this team is headed in the right direction,” Gudbranson said. “I saw pretty much the exact same thing in Florida. It took time. But that feeling when we made the playoffs my last year in Florida … it was special to me because we’d gone through the hard times. We really felt we were connected as a group because we’d gone through those tough times. That’s something that can be created here for sure.

“And for me, strangely, that’s an exciting prospect.”

Finally, Trevor Linden guested on Sportsnet 650 between periods on Thursday, as part of the Canucks for Kids Telethon initiative. Here's his latest soundbite on the Jim Benning contract situation:

Linden on Benning's status: "No real update. I know it's a hot topic. We came into a tough spot. It's been a lot of work for him and I'm really happy with the job he's done. We've had discussions on what an extension would look like and we'll keep those private for now."

— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) February 2, 2018

The Canucks plan to hold their pro scouting meetings next week while the team is on the road in Florida, to try to map out a plan for how to deal with the impending trade deadline.

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