Monday March 9 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - Anaheim Ducks 1
Yep. That was Zack Kassian on the ice with the twins with 3:59 remaining in a tie game, driving to the net and accepting a slick feed from Dan Hamhuis for Monday's winning goal. I guess you could say he's starting to earn Willie's trust.
Here are your highlights from a most satisfying win on Monday night at Rogers Arena:
It wasn't the most thrilling game, and I blame Chris Tanev. After several weeks of nail-biting defense and untimely giveaways, the entire team seemed to settle back into a defensively-responsible style with Tanev back in the lineup on Monday (or maybe it's Frank Corrado?). Vancouver was credited with just six giveaways in the entire game on Monday, compared to 24 on Saturday night in San Jose.
That, my friends, is why Tanev is probably worth big bucks this summer.
The fascinating part is that I didn't even notice him on the ice until late in the first period. The only mark on his stat line was one blocked shot—and I believed during the game that Willie was limiting his ice time to keep him out of dangerous situations in his first game back.
But look at that. He finished with 22:16 of ice time—second-most on the team to Alex Edler's 24:09. That's actually a little more than his season average of 21:06.
Welcome back, Tan Man!
The Canucks weren't the only team out there playing good defense. The Ducks limited Vancouver to just 10 shots through the first 40 minutes of play, though one of those shots was Bo Horvat's snipe that gave the Canucks the opening lead for the first time since they shut out the New York Islanders seven games ago.
Of course, a 1-0 deficit was no big deal to the Ducks. Yesterday, I mentioned that the Ducks' great record was built on a lot of wins in close games. It turns out, they hadn't lost a single game by one goal in regulation all season—until last night, their 68th game of the year.
Interestingly, the goat on the winning goal for the Ducks was brand new acquisition James Wisniewski, acquired at the trade deadline and playing his first game for Anaheim. Here's how Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register described the winning goal from the Ducks' point of view:
It was a breakdown that began with James Wisniewski – making his debut with the Ducks after being acquired from Columbus – committing a turnover and defense partner Clayton Stoner vacating the front of the net to play Hamhuis and leaving Kassian alone.
The Ducks tried to improve their defense at the deadline by acquiring Wisniewski, Simon Depres and injured Korbinian Holzer while shipping out Ben Lovejoy and Eric Brewer. Judging from this small sample, I'm not so sure they've made themselves better.
Maybe Wiz just needs some time to get adjusted, but late-game mistakes like he made last night simply haven't been part of the Ducks' game as they've owned the Canucks for the past two years.
The Canucks also got a little more luck to fall their way on Monday, like Ryan Getzlaf's early shot off the crossbar 1:16 into the game and a third-period video review that looked pretty grim from my angle as the puck squeezed behind Eddie Lack. I thought that would come down to "intent to blow the whistle" but they didn't seem to find an angle that showed the puck had completely crossed the goal line.
The win improves Vancouver's record in March to 3-1-1 and sets their current playoff odds at a reasonably-comfortable 94.8 percent from the folks at Sports Club Stats. The team has bent a couple of times this season, but it really hasn't broken.
Credit, too, to Eddie Lack, who had another terrific game. He stopped 29 shots and earned his "Eddie! Eddie!" chants, as well as first-star honours.
I liked reading this tidbit from Botchford after the game:
When the Canucks signed Miller, part of the hope was that he could help mentor Lack, if they didn’t trade him.
And who was at Lack’s stall jawing with him about everything that happened for an extended post-game discussion tonight?
Yeah, that was Coach Miller, logging in some mentoring.
No goalie controversy here.
The win gives Vancouver 80 points on the year, extending their lead in the standings to three points over the Flames, five points over the Kings and six over the Sharks. It also finally puts Vancouver clear of the two wild-card teams from the Central Division, Minnesota and Winnipeg, which could be a factor if the Canucks slip at all going down to the wire.
A big game against the Kings looms on Thursday. Tonight, L.A. is in Denver to take on the Avalanche, who have been hot of late with a three-game winning streak. Colorado will be without starting goaltender Semyon Varlamov, though, who's listed as day-to-day with a groin issue. That game starts at 6 p.m. PT.
The Canucks are off today, so we won't get any injury updates, though there's buzz that Kevin Bieksa might be ready to play in time for the Toronto game on Saturday.
We'll finish today with this nugget. Zack Kassian had a game-winning goal, a near-fight with Patrick Maroon and three hits on Monday, including this beauty:
For his part, Kesler finished the night with a 52 percent success rate in the faceoff circle and four missed shot attempts. That is all.
Oh, wait. One more sweet stat before I go:
Bo Horvat scored his 11th goal of the season. #Canucks are 10-0-1 when he scores a goal this season.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»