Thursday December 22 - Winnipeg Jets 4 - Vancouver Canucks 1
The Vancouver Canucks played 60 good minutes of hockey against the Winnipeg Jets. Unfortunately, that was over two games. After beating Winnipeg 4-1 on Tuesday, Vancouver fell to the Jets by the same 4-1 score in their last home game before Christmas at Rogers Arena on Thursday.
Here are your highlights:
After playing well in the second and third periods on Tuesday, the Canucks got off to a strong start on Thursday. Markus Granlund opened the scoring just 3:54 into the first period off a sweet feed from Loui Eriksson following a Jacob Trouba turnover.
It's just the seventh time in 34 games that the Canucks have scored the first goal. Their record in that situation now sits at 4-2-1.
Though the Canucks were once again whistled for an uncharacteristic three penalties in the first period, they outshot Winnipeg 9-5 in the opening frame and went into the locker room with a 1-0 lead.
If you remember back to Vancouver's playoff matchup against the Calgary Flames in 2014, my biggest gripe about Willie Desjardins' coaching style in that series was his seeming inability to counter adjustments made by opposing coach Bob Hartley.
I started thinking the same way during the second and third periods on Thursday. The Jets ramped up the physical play in the second period, most notably with Patrik Laine's big hit on Henrik Sedin...
Apparently when Hansen feels pain, it translates directly to rage in his brain. Just as he fought Nazem Kadri second after suffering a broken rib in that game back in Toronto back on November 5, Hansen's first reaction to getting tangled up with Perreault was to drop his gloves and challenge him to a fight.
He and Hansen continued to jaw at each other in the penalty box but did not get an opportunity to renew acquaintances. After he served his time, Hansen managed just one 11-second shift before shutting it down for the night with what appears to be a knee injury.
So far, all we know is that he didn't travel to Calgary with the rest of the team after the game. This gives us a little bit of reason for hope.
Ran into Hansen coming out of Nux room. Limping badly but he said it's not as bad as it looked. Going for MRI tomorrow
After Hansen left the game, the Canucks lost what mojo they had. They'd already looked a bit like they were going to try to protect their one-goal lead right through 60 minutes, but Nikita Tryamkin and Alex Biega had been matching Winnipeg's physical play up till Hansen was hurt. After that, Vancouver seemed to go out with a whimper while the Jets' big gunners took over.
The hit total ended up 22-18 in Winnipeg's favour at the end of the game, and the Jets' talented youngsters found the space to play their game.
Patrik Laine got his team on the board with his 19th of the year, with less than a minute to play in the second period. What a shot!
Nikolaj Ehlers followed up with two goals of his own in the third, then Bryan Little rounded out the scoring when he poked the puck past the toe of a sprawled-out Ryan Miller with 4:17 to play.
The Canucks managed just five shots in the third period and looked like they were running out of gas—worrisome, when they have another game to play tonight.
The Tanev Bowl turned out to be a non-story. Winnipeg's Brandon was scratched from Thursday's contest. Joel Armia and Shawn Matthias, back in the lineup after missing time with injuries, both played well and may have eaten up some minutes that helped the top line find the necessary spaces to score those goals.
End result—the Canucks squandered their chance to catch the Jets. They remain four points back in the Western Conference standings.
Friday December 23 - Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames - 6 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific
Vancouver Canucks: 34 GP, 14-17-3, 31 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Calgary Flames: 35 GP, 17-16-2, 36 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
The Canucks will get one more chance to put some points on the board when they face the Calgary Flames at the Saddledome on Friday. With the three-day Christmas break falling over the weekend, it's a busy Friday night on the NHL schedule, with 12 games on tap.
It's the third game in four days for Vancouver, and Jacob Markstrom will get back between the pipes.
With Hansen's injury, it's extra-convenient that Anton Rodin was recalled from his conditioning stint in Utica on Thursday. He'll make his NHL regular-season debut tonight.
2009 #Canucks pick Anton Rodin will play his 1st #NHL game for the franchise/overall tonight in Calgary. #CanucksOn1040
With the very optional morning skate, it's hard to know how the lines will shake down. Perhaps we'll see Loui Eriksson back with the twins, and Rodin with Sutter and Granlund?
Based on morning skate #Canucks could sound like this tonight (just my hunch) 22-33-21 60-20-17 47-53-14 50-45-9 27-8 5-51 88-55 Markstrom
The Flames will be the more rested team tonight. Their last game was a 4-1 road loss to San Jose on Tuesday. Since riding backup goaltender Chad Johnson to a six-game winning streak at the beginning of December, Calgary has come back down to earth, losing three of its last four games.
The Canucks will see Brian Elliott in net tonight. Overall, he has struggled since being traded to Calgary in the offseason, with a 4-9-1 record, a .889 save percentage and a 3.21 goals-against average. His last outing was strong, however—he stopped 25 shots in Calgary's 4-2 win over Arizona last Monday.
The Flames are healthy, so they are making some roster adjustments for tonight's game.
Flames also putting D Tyler Wotherspoon and RW Garnet Hathaway in.
Lance Bouma and Jyrki Jokipakka are scratched for Calgary.
The Canucks and Flames have met just once this season so far—the 2-1 shootout win in the season opener at Rogers Arena that's probably best remembered for Loui Eriksson's own goal but also featured the first Vancouver comeback of the season.
Since that time, young Matthew Tkachuk has established himself as the new darling of Flames fans. It's him, not Sean Monahan or Johnny Gaudreau, pictured on the banner of the Flames' Twitter page. He's tied for third in team scoring with 6-12-18 in 31 games, though he's only sixth among this year's rookies and third from his 2016 draft class, behind Patrik Laine and Auston Matthews. Tkachuk also leads the Flames—and all rookies—with 62 penalty minutes. He certainly seems to have inherited some of the hard-nosed playing style of his dad, Keith Tkachuk.
Of course, the Canucks had a shot at Tkachuk at last summer's draft. He went to Calgary one pick after Vancouver chose his London Knights teammate, Olli Juolevi.
Tkachuk on #Canucks: "I had a meeting with them at the (draft) combine and it never seemed like they were that interested." #Flames
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