The Canucks became the first team in the NHL this season to reach 30 wins, and the fastest team in franchise history to accomplish that feat. Things are pretty good in Vancouver right now. A howizer by Petey and some sweet hands in tight by Joshua (for a new career-high in goals) led the way for the team. If you missed the game, here are your highlights:
The boys earned their victory last night, grinding through a tougher-than-normal matchup with Arizona after the season long road trip. The first game back is never easy, and teams tend to stumble out of the blocks, but Tocchet has been beating the drum on a certain mentality he wants from the team and they've been delivering: steady, committed, never too up or too down.
“Sometimes when you lose, the next day guys are moping around or whatever,” he said. “There’s no moping around. You know my mantra is earn your day. It seems as though we come the next day, ‘Let’s a have a good practice: Earn your day.’ I think that helps, instead of riding the roller coaster, we’re even-keeled.”
The Canucks have five home games on this stand (four after last night) before the All Star break, and Tocc wants the most out of them. They’re not trying to ride this out into a vacation, they’re gearing up mentally for the playoffs.
“This focus level for five games, to me, is a very key part of our fabric,” he said before the victory. “Like, I'm really interested to see — and I'm very confident that it will be — the focus level of this team. This five games for me is going to be a big part of our moving forward.”
And the boys showed that for Tocchet. It wasn’t a high scoring affair, but it was closer to playoff hockey. Scrappiness, fights, winning battles, and playing well defensively – and earning the win, of course. Some would say they didn’t play their best, but big Z would challenge that:
“What's best, like scoring six goals every game?” he said. “I don't think we gave up any scoring chances today, and I think that's our playoff mentality. So I think this game was better than our other games when we won 6-4 or 6-3. I will take this game over those games for sure because you don't win 6-3 in the playoffs. I think this game was a lot of grind. It was stick to it. I don't think we gave up anything at all in the third period.”
After the pummeling he gave O’Brien, I’ll take his word on that. Tocchet seemed impressed with the win too.
“That was hard fought,” Tocchet weighed in after the game. “I liked the way we managed and we had enough juice to lock it down. The Coyotes are trying to make the playoffs and we’re going to run into desperate teams. And we have to play the same way.
“There are moments when we have the puck and we throw it away, but it’s happening less frequently and these are good pressure situations to be in. And we didn’t give them a lot.”
Could the powerplay be better? Sure. Could Miller and the refs stop taking goals away from Boeser? Also sure. But overall, things are rolling right now. The Canucks are the only team left in the NHL to not lose three consecutive games so far this season. Again, the consistency mindset. The last time they dropped two in a row was two months ago. The captain had a good summation of the night, and of squeezing it out:
“Some of (the games on) the road trip, we just won purely because we were better that night,” Hughes said. “The New York (Rangers, 6-3 win) and Islanders (5-2) and the Devils game (6-4), we kind of blew it open in the first and second. I think this game was a little bit tighter. But if we want to be a really good team, we've got to find a way to get points out of that, and that's what we did.”
The team and the fans will face a tougher test on Saturday when the Leafs and their fans descend on Rogers Arena. Here’s to hoping it’s more of a revenge game for the loss in November.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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