A terrible first period led to a better final 40, but the Canucks found a way to climb to a 5-2 win over Columbus at home on Friday night. Here are the highlights:
The Canucks have been a bad first period team, and that might have been their worst outing of the season. They gave up the first goal for the 15th time this season, got outshot 17-2 in the frame, and were lucky to only be down 2-0 by the intermission. Apparently in those situations Tocchet doesn’t yell because the players know better… but maybe he should start yelling at them before the start of the game because something has to change here.
“Obviously, we've talked about this many times,” Boeser said after the win. “I think we're all pretty aware that our starts aren't good, and that was unacceptable again. I don't know if it's a lack of preparation or what, but we need to be ready to win our puck battles and playing our style of hockey, going through guys, in the first period. Luckily, we recovered and got two big points.”
The two points are great, but the Canucks are playing with fire. You’d think they would have learned how to play a fast team with their previous blowout loss against the Devils, but that wasn’t so evident to start the game. Luckily the Canucks started to turn things around and the BJs started to let things go about the same time. The Canucks potted five unanswered goals to round out the affair and get a much missed win in front of the home crowd – but as usual a lot of the heavy lifting fell on Lankinen. He ended the night with 30 saves on 32 shots, and was the reason why the game didn’t get out of hand.
“Could have easily been 4 or 5-0 after the first so he kept us in it, and that’s why we got two big points,” Boeser said.
“If you're down 2-0, then you don't want to be down by three or four,” Lankinen explained after his first star honours. “Obviously, that was huge that we got that goal there early in the second period. In today's NHL, the momentum shifts so quickly, so I think whether it's 2-0 or 0-0, nothing really changes from my perspective. I'm just going to try to stop the next shot because, you never know, the next shot could be the biggest play of the game.
“Whether it's 20 shots or two shots, it's just my job to stay focused. Sometimes it's nice to help the guys out; they scored five unanswered goals to help me out at the end. I think that's how a good team works.”
The team knew what that first period from him meant, and how they had to turn it around in the second. Boeser, Sherwood, Suter twice, and DeBrusk all tallied goals on the night.
“It just seemed like Kevin gave us a massive chance today because it wasn't looking too good after the first,” DeBrusk said. “We weren't too happy. Obviously, Woody's goal there (late in the second) really was huge for us, just kind of a weird play. But just to tie it up 2-2 and come in the room, we had to win a period to win a game. That's all we were trying to do. In saying that, we've got to be conscious of not putting ourselves in that position. But it shows character coming back, that's for sure.”
DeBrusk’s goal was his 11th of the season, and his first of the year at home. It was actually his first goal EVER in Rogers. Which is funny and a bit odd, and was actually brought up to his post-game.
“I was wondering when somebody was going to ask me about that,” he told Sportsnet. “I did realize that when I signed. I was thinking to myself, ‘you know, I've had a couple of assists there but never actually scored.’ But it didn't become a thing until the beginning of this season – in my head, anyways. I'm human, and it's one of those things where it does creep in your head as time goes along. I signed here for seven years, so I gave myself seven years to try. But I thought it would be faster than this.
“It's a little bit of a personal challenge of mine to get one in every building. I have two to go now. But I always remember my first goal in a building, so I'll remember this one.”
Apparently the other cities he has left on his hit list are Dallas and Salt Lake City.
Overall, a win’s a win and the Canucks get to move on to prepping for the Lightning tomorrow. The boys are starting to get some players back as well, with Demko serving as the backup last night and JTM’s arrival on the horizon.
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