Saturday March 13 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Nashville Predators 2
For all the doom and gloom surrounding the Vancouver Canucks, they've been good at ending streaks for surging teams all season long.
Back in October, Vancouver handed Montreal its first loss of the season after the Canadiens opened their season with a 9-0 record. In January, the Canucks snapped Florida's 12-game winning streak with a 3-2 overtime win. And on Saturday night, Nashville ended a streak of 14 games without a regulation loss when the Predators fell to the Canucks by a score of 4-2.
Here are your highlights:
Before you get too excited, bear in mind that Saturday's game could be a classic case of the opposition taking a team a little too lightly.
Vancouver jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Sven Baertschi and Derek Dorsett and outshot the Predators by a whopping 13-4 margin. I was at the game so I didn't see the TV broadcast, but apparently in the first intermission Elliotte Friedman suggested that the Preds may have been suffering from the infamous "Roxy flu"?
Here's what the lead singer from one of the Roxy's house bands had to say about that notion:
As far as I'm concerned, that's a confirmation, especially given that the Preds had two days off before Saturday's game after playing on Wednesday night in Calgary. The Canucks have benefitted plenty over the years as visiting teams have been caught in the web of one of the most infamous nightclubs in the world. Funny that it would be the Predators, given how much fun we hear visiting players are having when they visit Nashville.
The visitors may have started the game with a sub-par effort, but they picked it up in the second period, outshooting Vancouver 17-8 and outscoring them 2-1.
With the tide turning and the Canucks going into the third with another one of their tenuous one-goal leads, I was prepared for the usual third-period collapse. This time, Ryan Miller proved me wrong, stopping all 16 shots he faced and setting up Vancouver for an empty-netter, for a change.
Vancouver never trailed and left the ice at Rogers Arena with its second straight 4-2 home victory. The Canucks' 13-16-5 home record is still third-worst in the league, but for one night, it gave fans something to smile about.
Bo Horvat was named first star with two points and a much-needed plus-two in 17:33 of ice time, and picked up his first goal in 14 games when he drove hard to the net midway through the second period. The puck went in off his leg.
Horvat spent most of the night skating with Derek Dorsett and a resurgent Alex Burrows on—what should have been the fourth line? They were Vancouver's best line on Saturday night.
I thought Henrik Sedin looked refreshed in his return after missing two games with an injury. He was a steady 6-for-12 in the faceoff circle and put two shots on goal—a rarity for him, lately. But even with four minutes of power-play time, Henrik played an uncharacteristically low 14:58. Daniel logged 14:27 and Jake Virtanen played just 9:58—thanks, in part, to seven minutes in penalties in the first period.
Virtanen raised the energy level in the arena thanks to an unexpected scrap with Filip Forsberg just one minute into the game.
Forsberg isn't even listed at HockeyFights.com, so I believe that's his first-ever NHL fight. He took a pounding from Virtanen.
The Arizona Coyotes pounded Edmonton on Saturday night, so the win leaves Vancouver's place in the standings unchanged—24th overall, now with 66 points, and—just for the record—eight points out of the second Western Conference wild card, with two teams in front of them.
Sports Club Stats says that Saturday's win increased Vancouver's playoff chances by nearly 50 percent. BUT...that's by half a percentage point. They're now pegged with a 1.6 chance of getting to the dance
It's definitely not statistically significant, even though Toronto is the only team that has actually been mathematically eliminated at this point.
I can see the merits of trying to gain the best-possible draft position, and the idea is consoling after a loss, but it was nice to feel a positive vibe in the arena for the entire night on Saturday and see everyone head out at the end of the evening with their heads held high.
Brace yourselves—more wins could come as the homestand continues next week. The Canucks face Winnipeg on Monday and Colorado on Wednesday before taking on the hottest team in the league, the St. Louis Blues, next Saturday.
One other quick note from the game—Nikita Tryamkin did get his first taste of an NHL game. He took part in the warmup as part of his acclimation process:
The Canucks have a scheduled day off today, so it seems unlikely that the new kid will get into the lineup on Monday night without getting one more practice under his belt. But oh—wouldn't it be awesome to be able to compare him side-by-side to Dustin Byfuglien when the Jets touch down?
NCAA Watch
Another quick update on the NCAA hockey playoffs before I sign off today.
North Dakota is through to next weekend's NCHC Frozen Faceoff after an easy two-game sweep of Colorado College. On Saturday, Brock Boeser had three more assists as North Dakota cruised to a 5-1 win.
The news was not so good for Thatcher Demko's Boston College, however. The Eagles surrendered a 2-0 lead to drop a 4-2 decision to Vermont on Saturday, tying the series at one game apiece and forcing a do-or-die third game on Sunday at 1 p.m. PT. BC was upset by Lowell last season. Will it happen again today?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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