In a top-of-the-table Canadian battle, the Canucks came out well on top of the Jets with a 5-0 beat down on Saturday night. Balanced scoring, strong defensive work, and a tireless effort: the boys put a post-TDL statement out that they’re still top of the West for a reason. It wasn’t all rainbows though, as the Canucks lost Demko to injury midway through the game. If you didn't get to see, here are your highlights:
That was a resounding win. Sure, the Jets were tired, but in this playoff-like stretch before the playoffs start, that was a good old-fashioned playoff beatdown. The Canucks out-hit, out-shot, out-chanced, out-special teamed, out-faceoffed, and more importantly out-scored the Jets on their way to a two-goalie shutout last night. The Canucks have now won four in a row (with some top competition in there), having only allowed three goals over that span.
“Kind of a textbook win,” Garland said. “It’s hard to win 5-0 against a team like that. We’re playing well, guys are clicking right now. We’re a pretty confident group.”
Hughes expanded on that:
“Feel really good, but I’ll give you the old cliche answer that tomorrow is a new day and we’ve just got to keep going, can’t get too high or too low,” he said, which is about as excited as he gets. “After beating some of those teams we just beat and the way we beat them, only allowing three goals in four games, obviously [Demko] was a big part of that, and Casey coming in, finishing it off, but feel real good about how we’re playing.”
They should be feeling good after this stretch of games. The Canucks had that gruelling post-All Star game stretch where they were bouncing around in a condensed schedule. Now, they get to be back at home and rested, and put together efforts like last night. Tocchet touched on that shift after the game:
“You gotta believe in yourself. Yeah, we were a little bit pissed about our play, but it wasn’t that bad to me. We had a really good game against Boston. We gave the one (against) Pittsburgh we let get away. I don’t think it was that bad. It’s a gruelling month, you know after the All-Star break, you could tell the miles, it was wearing on guys. I think this week the rest we got, playing the style that we had to get back to, the 2-1 games, a 3-1 game. … These are big games.”
The team is rounding into form at a good time. Podkolzin is staking his claim be to in the lineup, Soucy is stabilizing the back end, and Hoglander is putting up goals: he potted his 20th last night, giving the team four 20 goal scorers on the season so far. Tocc was all praise after the game for him:
“He's been terrific for us, energy wise,” Tocc said. “There's been games where we're maybe not on our game, and he'll just do something, whether it's heavy forecheck or get a big goal, to ignite our team. He's an igniter.”
Now, the bad news: Demko is hurting. No word yet on the severity. The Canucks are set to practice today, so maybe there will be an update at some point. But DeSmith came in and pitched the second-half of the shutout, and looked good doing so. The team believes in him:
“Yeah, that's tough,” Miller said of Demko’s injury. “But we have total faith in Casey. He's been unreal for us all year and he's going to relish that opportunity whatever the heck happens with Demmer. We have a good part of the schedule right now where we get some time (and) hopefully he can heal up. But, you know, Casey has been great. He played great when he came in tonight, and I'm sure that's probably the hardest job in hockey — to come in off the bench like that.
“Sometimes you go through injuries and sometimes you get lucky. I think we've played hard all year and we are going to have moments where (injuries) are going to happen. But I think we have faith in the group. Whoever needs to step up is going to do it.”
DeSmith was concerned for Demko’s injury, but knows he’s able to set up to the plate over these next games.
“It's generally easier when you play more,” DeSmith said. “You get to feel the game and feel the puck more in games. It's obviously harder playing less and then going into a game. So if I have to start a couple in a row here while Demmer recovers from whatever he's got, then I'll be ready for that.”
Tocchet didn’t seem overly concerned, especially with the light schedule coming up for the boys. They play the Avs next on Wednesday.
“The schedule kind of sets up for that,” Tocc said of managing the workload and Demko. “And we're confident in Casey. I think we play three games in 11 days or something, so there’s a lot of time for (Demko) to get some rest and whatever we’ve got to do to get him healthy again. But yeah, we’ve got to manage him for sure.”
Hopefully it’s nothing major, but we should find out more today.
Until then, the comments:
(Quotes from MacIntyre, Patrick Johnston, and NHL.com)
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