A solid, composed, come from behind win against a top team in the league is exactly what the Canucks needed after their longest losing streak of the season. Against the Bruins, even better. Boeser with two goals and Miller with three assists led a dominant third period and OT for the boys, putting them back on track atop the NHL standings. Here are your highlights:
“It feels good. Let's not make it more than it is, it's just a hockey game in February, but timing-wise it feels good just for the way it's been going a little bit lately.”
That’s a pretty good summary from JTM after the game. Yes, just another game on the schedule, but one the Canucks needed after their mini-slump. To put an end to it against a top opponent feels even better than bumping it against a bottom feeder. A statement that ya, they can rebound even against the best. The Canucks reset, stuck to their systems and played with composure.
“Couldn't ask for a better win, I think,” Lindholm said of the game. “You always get that extra good feeling when you come back late and tie it up. I thought towards the end there, they were just hanging on by a thread and we were just coming in waves. There was definitely a lot of things that were good: coming back against a really good team, the power play scored, we stuck with it and got rewarded, Demmer was good in net. I think there was definitely a lot of things that were good tonight that we can build off.”
Hopefully this is the start of them righting the ship. Miller had a beast of a third, Boeser netted two, the Hughes-Hronek pairing dominated, Lindholm slotted into the 3C slot and gave great center depth and fantastic defensive work… it was a performance the boys wanted to get back to, and did.
“We've been trying to talk about embracing the hardness,” Miller said. “Whether we won or lost tonight, I felt that we just played an awesome 60 minutes. I just thought it was a helluva hockey game and it showed a lot of balls for our group today.”
The Canucks were edging towards another moral victory through two there, but took over the game in the third on the back of JTM.
“Millsy willed the game, his third period was incredible,” Tocchet said.
“We knew we weren't good last game, and this was a response,” Boeser added. “It was the first time we lost four all year, and we didn't want to make it five. That's why, I think, being down 2-0, we just kept coming at them. I think we felt in the room that we were outworking them, and we just said after the second period, ‘Just keep going and hopefully we'll get one.’”
There was slightly more jubilation in the air after the game in the locker room, a little weight lifted off the team. They had hit their first rough patch, adversity had been creeping in, bounces and calls weren’t going their way, injuries started to happen… but that win was a team effort, a needed mental reset.
“We hadn’t gone through adversity this year,” Myers said after the win. “We slipped a little with our mindset of how to handle it. But you know, those are the times that you need to address it. You need to talk about it in the room. We did and we responded the way we needed to — just got to carry that learning process going forward.”
Whatever was said in that room, whatever the coaches told the boys, it worked.
“I kind of went after them the last couple of days,” Tocc said.
“Our bench was pretty calm in the sense that we weren't panicking. I like that,” Tocc noticed. “The last three, four games, the bench would have been a little different, see a little bit of frustration, slamming and sticks and stuff. I didn't see that tonight. There wasn't frustration even though we're down 2-0.
“Maybe that’s the next (step) now we’re trying to graduate to, not that frustration, you know? You know, don’t get mad at the refs. Those are the little things that you can’t do come playoff time, right?”
That mental shift bodes well for the team down the stretch. The maturity, leadership, and buy in to get back to it and not let it fester will be huge come playoff time. Let’s hope that mindset solidifies more on this little homestand with some practice time, as the Penguins are coming to town on Tuesday.
A few random tidbits:
- Quinn Hughes was 24:07 at even strength and +26 in shot attempts. Dominant.
- Miller had three assists, eight hits and a 13-6 faceoff record. Beast.
- Canucks outhit the Bruins 30-16, even without Joshua in the lineup
- Might have been Zadorov’s best game as a Canuck
- Lindholm might not have lit up the scoresheet, but from what people are writing he had himself a great game defensively – one of those players you don’t notice doing all the right things. Here’s what MacIntyre wrote about him:
Amid an uneven transition to the Canucks after his trade from Calgary, Lindholm may have found his spot in the lineup as a third-line centre. Instead of partnering Lindholm with Elias Pettersson, Tocchet deployed his best four centres in order: Miller, Pettersson, Lindholm and Teddy Blueger. That backbone down the middle should be a strength for the Canucks. Playing with wingers Conor Garland and Arshdeep Bains, Lindholm finished with five shots on net, three more than he amassed over the previous four games with Pettersson. He also won the key faceoff ahead of Hronek’s tying goal.
And the comments:
(Quotes from MacIntyre, Patrick Johnston, Drance, and NHL.com)
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