|
Vancouver Canucks move into wild-card spot with 5-1 team win over Avalanche |
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday February 2 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - Colorado Avalanche 1
Kudos to Travis Green. Most NHL teams struggle in their first game back after their bye week break, but the Vancouver Canucks got off to one of their best starts of the year as they cruised to a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche in high-altitude Denver on Saturday night.
Here are your highlights:
During their January homestand, the Canucks were making a habit of letting their opponents dominate possession early in games. Saturday's game was just the opposite.
Jake Virtanen opened the scoring on Vancouver's first shot at the 1:32 mark of the first, converting a pinpoint pass off the rush by Antoine Roussel.
He made it look easy, but the goal was Virtanen's first since December 20—a 14-game drought for all you Shotgunners out there.
At 6:04, Brock Boeser's 17th of the year came on the Canucks' fourth shot of the game—a quick strike after a faceoff win by Elias Pettersson that ultimately proved to be the game winner.
This video has a great view of the open shooting lane.
Boeser said in his postgame comments that he hasn't seen a lane this wide open all year.
Late in the third period, Boeser went to the bench in some pain after taking a puck off of his right hand—the one he keeps taped, the one where he's had those wrist surgeries in the past.
He dismissed it after the game, laughingly saying that he couldn't let Derrick Pouliot's errant pass attempt go for icing! Impressive defensive commitment with the outcome well in hand during the third period.
I say that after seeing that the hand looks just fine as the boys board their flight to Philly for Monday's game against the Flyers.
Spirits seems high!
Vancouver's other goals on Saturday came from Antoine Roussel, Tyler Motte and Nikolay Goldobin, on the power play—a glorious range of balanced scoring.
That bottom six of Roussel-Sutter-Virtanen and Eriksson-Beagle-Motte did a lot of heavy lifting on Saturday. Sutter was the high-minute man at forward with 18:30 of ice time and the team's best faceoff man on the night with a 7-for-12 record for 58 percent, and Loui Eriksson was second in ice time up front with 17:59.
Roussel's goal came off an interesting deployment. With six seconds left in a second-period penalty to Jake Virtanen, Green hedged his bets on a neutral-zone faceoff by putting out both Bo Horvat and Jay Beagle as his forwards. Horvat won the draw, and Beagle quickly changed for Roussel as Virtanen came back on the ice—and the Avs got possession. Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie both had shots blocked—by Edler and Tanev, respectively, then the Canucks got the puck.
A Virtanen shot was blocked up high by Erik Johnson, then picked up behind the net by Horvat, who fed it to Roussel all alone in the slot. Just like that, it was 3-0 Canucks.
Tyler Motte also deserves note for another tenacious game, leading the Canucks with five hits despite the tough assignment of checking hulking Mikko Rantanen. Motte is listed at 5'9" and 188 pounds. Rantanen's 6'4" and 211 but once again, his work ethic was impeccable.
Before arriving in Vancouver, Motte had 7-5-12 in 64 career NHL games with Chicago and Columbus. On Saturday, he played his 65th game in a Canucks uniform and now has 9-7-16 in that time. He turns 24 in March, so he's just the right age to be a part of the Canucks' young core for years to come. Not a bad return from last year's Thomas Vanek trade after all!
Now with 21 points in 47 games, Roussel's also tracking for what could be the best season of his career at age 29—all while sticking to his trademark sandpaper style, currently leading the NHL with 112 penalty minutes. He previously topped out at 29 points twice with Dallas, in 2013-14 and 2015-16. Virtanen's 12 goals, of course, are also a career high for him. With a goal and an assist on Saturday, he also reached a new career high in points with 21, one more than last season with 30 games still to play this year.
By the final buzzer on Saturday, it was another five-goal night against for Colorado's Semyon Varlamov.
At the other end of the ice, Jacob Markstrom was outstanding. The Avs ultimately did outshoot the Canucks in all three periods, 35-26 overall, but the big three of MacKinnon, Rantanen and Landeskog, and blue-line sniper Tyson Barrie, were all held off the scoresheet—and each finished the night at minus-two.
Markstrom was named the game's first star as he reached the 20-win mark for the second time in his career.
Heading into back-to-backs in Philadelphia on Monday and Washington on Tuesday, I expect Markstrom and Thatcher Demko will split those assignments, although it's hard to know which goalie will get which game.
Last time the Canucks saw the Flyers, they were in the midst of the downward spiral that ultimately saw coach Dave Hakstol lose his job. Now, they're they hottest team in the league after picking up their seventh-straight win against Edmonton on Saturday—thanks largely to white-hot goaltender Carter Hart, the 20-year-old who made his NHL debut in mid-December and has gone 9-5-1 out of the gate.
I'd love to see a rookie-against-rookie matchup between Hart and Demko.
As well as Canucks-Flyers, Monday is also Day 1 of the 2019 Beanpot Tournament. Canucks prospect Jack Rathbone and the rest of the Harvard Crimson take on Boston College at 2 p.m. PT, then Tyler Madden's defending champs from Northeastern face off against Boston University at 5 p.m. PT, with both games broadcast on TSN2.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»