Saturday February 1 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - New York Islanders 3 (OT)
I think All-Star weekend lit a fire under Quinn Hughes.
After skating as the lone rookie in the festivities in St. Louis last weekend — and impressing Wayne Gretzky with his goal — Hughes has come back to the Canucks looking better than ever. After picking up a goal and an assist in Vancouver's win over San Jose on Wednesday, he recorded the first multi-goal game of his NHL career when he beat Thomas Greiss at the 42-second mark of overtime to give his team a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders in Brooklyn on Saturday
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Hughes is also a plus-five in his last two games, and his four points now have him at 38 for the season — leading the rookie scoring race and one point ahead of Cale Makar heading into Saturday's evening games, when the Avs return from their All-Star break with a visit to Philadelphia.
In any endeavour, progress is rarely linear. I'm excited by the idea that Quinn started from a good baseline at the beginning of this season and was already trending upward before taking what looks like a giant leap forward. Voters' memories are short, too — a late surge could really help him in the Calder trophy race.
He'll also be helped if the Canucks keep doing what they're doing and roll into the playoffs in first place in the Pacific Division. After their win, their 64 points moved them into second place in the Western Conference and into a tie with the Islanders for sixth overall in the entire league. And only team that can catch them after Saturday's evening games is Colorado — heading into their game against the Flyers with 62, and with three games in hand.
The close game against the Islanders seemed like an appropriate outcome, too. Last year, Barry Trotz's team seemed to toy with Vancouver in a 5-2 win at Barclays Center in November and a 4-0 shutout victory at Rogers Arena in February.
On Saturday, the two teams looked quite evenly matched.
The Canucks jumped out to the early lead over their rusty hosts, who were also coming out of their All-Star break. Just 2:09 into the first period, J.T. Miller notched his 20th of the year when he picked up a loose puck in front of the net after a long shot from Chris Tanev hit the post. The goal was ultimately scored as unassisted, with Thomas Greiss being dinged for a giveaway as the puck came off the post. Even if he didn't touch the puck, Jake Virtanen was parked at the side of the net, causing some havoc.
Michael Dal Colle replied for the Islanders three minutes later, and the home team carried a good portion of the play in a first period that saw New York outshoot Vancouver 11-5 — and the Canucks get dinged with 10 giveaways.
That's an unusually high number. Giveaways are a bit of a subjective stat, so it could have something to do with the decision-making of the off-ice official, but the final total in the game was 18-12 against Vancouver. Antoine Roussel and Quinn Hughes were the worst offenders, with three giveaways each. Two of Roussel's came in the first period, which had me thinking again about his 'maintenance day' at Friday's practice and wondering just how banged-up he might be feeling right now.
I wonder if we'll see Justin Bailey or Zack MacEwen draw in for the second half of the back-to-back in Carolina on Sunday? For all the scoring he has been doing in Utica lately, Bailey told
Patrick Johnston of The Province he understands that his opportunity with the big club will come in more of a grinding role.
"For me, it’s making sure that I’m doing the role that I’ve been brought here to do," he said. "I think in the past when I was a little bit younger, 20, 21, I went from being a guy in the minors that’s relied on to score a lot and was able to have a little bit of a bigger leash and then came up here and tried to do the same things.
"Coming up here at 24 from communicating with the coaching staff, you know, having a clear vision of what they want me to do and what things they expect from me on a nightly basis and just going out there and executing that."
And hey — it's not like the grinders haven't been putting the puck in the net.
In his first game back in the lineup since January 14th, Tim Schaller scored his fifth of the year and first goal since October when he drew back into the lineup to replace the injured Tyler Motte. I thought Schaller showed good jump in his return to action, especially on a first-period penalty kill.
Brandon Sutter picked up the primary assist on Schaller's goal after lofting in the initial point shot that started the scoring play. He's now on a two-game point streak after working with Jay Beagle to score a key goal in San Jose on Wednesday, and his return to the lineup from his latest injury coincided with the beginning of the Canucks' current point streak.
Maybe the Canucks' inability to generate much offense in the early going was a result of still having their heads in the Pacific time zone? They had just eight shots in the game until the shift where Hughes put them back in the lead, midway through the second.
After 40 minutes, the shot margin was a fairly respectable 20-18 for the Islanders, who trailed by one at that point. The home team pressed hard to earn their comeback in the third. Jacob Markstrom was terrific — again — as he stopped 16 shots in the final frame before a tricky one from Brock Nelson forced overtime and set up Huggy's heroics with just 26 seconds left in regulation.
Also — Jim Benning guested with Dan Murphy during the first intermission of Saturday's broadcast. Among other things, he said that the club is looking to get Micheal Ferland down to Utica next week for a conditioning assignment, that he feels like has lots of time to make decisions before the Feb. 24 trade deadline, and that he's planning to sit down with head amateur scout Judd Brackett soon to see if they can work out details on a contract extension.
Benning also reminded us that Brackett had been working as a part-time scout for the organization when he first took over, and that they'd been the ones to bring him along and promote him. He said Brackett is currently scouting in Europe, but they'd have a conversation shortly after his return to North America.
Speaking of scouting — this is already getting long, but I wanted to draw your attention to Scott Wheeler's latest profile of the Canucks' prospects, if you haven't seen it.
I wasn't so concerned about whether or not it's correct that Vancouver currently ranks 13th in the league for their outside-the-NHL talent. I was more intrigued by the fact that Wheeler chose to rank Nils Hoglander above Vasily Podkolzin as the Canucks' current top prospect — and gave a good argument for his reasoning, as well as sharing some interesting insights on Podkolzin.
He also has some interesting tidbits on some of the less-heralded prospects like Artyom Manukyan, who has just returned to action after missing five months with a hand injury.
If you haven't read the article, here's the link:
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Sunday February 2 - Vancouver Canucks at Carolina Hurricanes - 11 a.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet 650
Standings - as of Saturday afternoon, February 1
Vancouver Canucks: 52 GP, 30-18-4, 64 pts, first in Pacific Division
Carolina Hurricanes: 51 GP, 29-19-3, 61 pts, fifth in Metropolitan Division
Sunday morning's Canucks/Hurricanes matchup is one of three NHL games being broadcast as part of the warmup to the Super Bowl — available nationally on Sportsnet 360.
The 'Canes will likely be feeling none too hospitable after the Canucks helped their division rivals, the Islanders, earn a point to stay three ahead of them in the tight Metro Division playoff race. Carolina is two points behind Columbus, currently in the first wild card, but the Blue Jackets also play again on Sunday, against Montreal, after their six-game winning streak was snapped with an overtime loss in Buffalo on Saturday.
The Jackets' loss means Vancouver currently holds the NHL's longest active winning streak. And it feels unusually comfortable that the Canucks have built a nine-point cushion over ninth place in the West — currently Nashville, with 55 points — while the Hurricanes are fighting for their playoff lives.
The Hurricanes, of course, have been struggling to cope with losing Dougie Hamilton to a broken leg, two weeks ago. In the four games since he went down, they're 2-1-1, most recently dropping a 4-3 decision to Vegas on Friday.
On the bright side, Justin Williams returned to action just after Hamilton was injured. The 38-year-old scored the shootout winner in his first game back, against the Islanders, and has followed up with two goals and an assist in his two subsequent games.
In mid-December, Jacob Markstrom out-duelled Petr Mrazek and Elias Pettersson had the OT winner in the Canucks' 1-0 win over the Hurricanes at Rogers Arena.
Markstrom had another busy day in Brooklyn on Saturday, finishing with 34 saves on 37 shots, but I don't doubt Travis Green would go back to him in Raleigh if Markstrom says he's good to go. I'm interested to see that lineup decision, as well as whether or not Justin Bailey gets in.
Finally, a programming note to close off for today. I'm covering the women's hockey Rivalry Series games in Victoria and Vancouver this week, so I'm heading over to Victoria on Sunday.
The next blog will be forthcoming....soon...
Enjoy the game. Happy Super Bowl!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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