Sam Lafferty did all the necessary scoring, and Demko did all the necessary saving as the Canucks won their fifth straight road game 1-0 in Buffalo Saturday night. Here are your highlights:
Not the prettiest game, not a usual Canucks high scoring game, but the team checked down and ground out a solid road victory. Seeing them play a low-event, structured, disciplined game is encouraging to see. Come playoff time, they’ll need to win games like these, and nights like tonight show they’re more than capable.
“I just think it shows we can win games different ways, which is really important here down the stretch,” Lafferty explained. “Games are going to get harder and harder. Some games might be high scoring, some games are going to be like this, so it’s good to know we can play any style.”
Lafferty’s game-winning-goal in the second (sorry Petey!) was his 10th of the year, propelling the Canucks into the lead on that front with eight players total in double digits. The depth the team has right now is really coming through, with the third and fourth lines having another impactful game.
“If you look at all the games on this trip, there’s been a little bit of adversity, whether it’s killing penalties or coming up with a big goal,” Tocchet said. “There’s individuals on any given night you can pick that’s helping the team.”
On the other end of the rink, Demko posted his fourth shutout of the season, bringing his total in the NHL to seven. More than doubled it this year alone. He wasn’t extremely busy on the night, but had a highlight reel save on Mittelstadt late in the second. Tocchet had high praise for him after the game:
“‘Demmer’, when you look at him, even the shots that went wide, he looks so big in the net,” he said. “That’s typical Demko. Very solid, doesn’t get rattled. Looks big in the net. Just a [heck] of a game by him.”
Such a heck of a game on the coattails of his inclusion to the All Star game. Along with Petey. And Miller. And Boeser. And even Tocchet is going. The Canucks swept the vote-in process, and are set to send five players (including Hughes) to the All Star game in Toronto at the end of the month. That too paces the NHL. After reading up about it, the teams will be made from four captains drafting players from the pool. So, there’s a very real chance to have some Canuck on Canuck action that weekend!
The team is set to play the Blue Jackets on Monday, but due to the storm in Buffalo they couldn’t fly out last night. Hopefully they’re able to go today and face the BJs in another early afternoon game.
As well, here are a couple quotes from LeBrun’s talk with Rutherford via the Athletic:
Talking about the difference from last year to this year:
“I don’t want to compare the two situations. It’s not fair,” team president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told The Athletic this week. “We have a different team. So that’s why it’s not fair to compare the situations.
“What’s happened this year is that (head coach) Rick Tocchet put a system in place that the players have bought into. And each player has accepted their role, whatever different role that may be. We’ve obviously had star, impact players for a while, but we added that good group of character guys that came from winning programs and fit their roles, maybe in the bottom six or as penalty killers or all the different things you need to win games.”
Rutherford paused for a moment before adding: “We have to have everything working for us to do well. And we’ve had that.”
On the trades they’ve made (six since mid-September), and what’s to come on that front:
The Canucks were busy at a time of year when most teams aren’t.
“We had to be,” Rutherford said. “We had some areas where we needed to get stronger. Patrik worked really hard on it, from July 1 through training camp until we were able to make some moves.
“The strength of the depth in goaltending was important. That’s helped us. Some of the other changes on defense and whatnot … it’s been good. Patrik’s worked hard on it and was able to figure out how to make a few deals to make our team better.”
Rutherford then quickly added: “With that being said, I understand why you hear from other teams saying it’s hard to make deals. I agree with that. It’s very hard.”
They’re not done. The season the Canucks are having suggests they’ll want to add more before the March 8 deadline.
“We’re open to talking about different things,” said Rutherford, one of the NHL’s most active traders in his executive career, “As a general manager, if you’re doing your job, you should be talking to teams on a regular basis, whether you’re in first place or whether you’re in last place. So that’s what Patrik does.”
Areas of need?
“I think as we speak, if we were able to add another top-six forward, that would give us a better chance,” Rutherford said. “And you know, we’ll watch the defense as we go along here. But you know, for the most part our defense has done a pretty good job.”
The rest of the article is here, for those interested: HERE
And to the comments:
(Quotes from LeBrun, MacIntyre, Kuzma, and NHL.com)
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»