Tuesday August 25 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - Vegas Golden Knights 2
Best-of-seven series tied 1-1
So that's how you beat the Vegas Golden Knights!
On their 12th try since Vegas joined the NHL at the beginning of the 2017-18 season, the Vancouver Canucks got an early lead and went on to earn their first-ever regulation win against the playoffs' top seed in the Western Conference.
Here are your highlights:
Not only did the Canucks tie the series, they also did an impressive job of changing the narrative around the series, which saw them looking very overmatched in Game 1.
Once again, Travis Green's adjustments were effective. In my mind, there were two keys that set the tone.
First, he started his fourth line of Beagle, Motte and Virtanen against the 'meat grinders' of Vegas — Ryan Reaves, William Carrier and, in this case, Chandler Stephenson subbing for the injured Tomas Nosek. Vegas was the home team for Game 2, so Peter DeBoer had the final word on lineup decisions. He has been starting with that unit, to set the tone for his team, ever since he took over as the Vegas head coach in mid-January. After he continued the pattern in Game 1 against Vancouver, Green knew what he was working with.
The Canucks will be the home team for the next two games, so Green will have the opportunity to respond if DeBoer does decide to try something different after Tuesday's loss — just the second for Vegas since they entered the bubble.
Secondly, Green was able to change up the look of his top six by re-inserting Tyler Toffoli. He was injured in Game 1 against Minnesota all the way back on August 2, so he has been out of action for about three and a half weeks with what's now being reported as a high ankle sprain.
The Post game show has learned it was high ankle sprain for Toffoli.. not 100 percent, but clearly good enough to impact the game immensely.. 3 point night in the Canucks victory
It feels pretty exciting that a player who has only been with the Canucks for such a short time was willing to try to step up and help the team even when he's not at full health. And it was also exciting to see Green insert him onto a line with his old L.A. teammate Tanner Pearson, along with Elias Pettersson.
The combo clicked immediately, as an unguarded Toffoli scored easily from the side of the net, just nine seconds into his first shift, converting what had started as a wraparound try from Pettersson.
All of a sudden, when Vegas plays from behind, the hoots and chirps die down a bit. And so does the presence of Ryan Reaves. He logged a playoff high 14:50 in Game 1, and recorded 11 hits. But on Tuesday, he played just 8:36. He still delivered six hits, tied for tops in the game with his linemate Carrier, and Vancouver's Tyler Motte. Total hits in the game finished at 38-31 for Vegas — still a lot, but not as insane as the 54-45 hit totals from Game 1.
The Canucks outshot Vegas 8-6 in the first period. And after getting just one power play in Game 1, they were able to capitalize on their first man advantage of the game on Tuesday, needing just seven seconds for Bo Horvat to tally his seventh of the playoffs — and give Toffoli the primary assist.
Vegas pushed back hard in the second period, outshooting Vancouver 22-7. They got within one when Alex Tuch came barreling down Main Street for his sixth of the playoffs. The Canucks bent but didn't break — blocking shots like crazy and relying on Jacob Markstrom to take care of the pucks that did get through to the net.
Elias Pettersson provided some breathing room when he restored the two-goal lead with 1:25 left in the second — and earned some serious style points, too.
Horvat pretty much sealed the deal when he scored his second of the game just 19 seconds into the third period, and after Vegas picked up a 6-on-4 marker with 1:26 left to play in the third, Tanner Pearson showed why he's one of the best in the business when it comes to scoring empty-net goals.
In the end, the Canucks were outshot 40-27 and shot attempts were an even more lopsided 93-56 for the Golden Knights. Shea Theodore had 14 of those attempts — eight on goal, six blocked. Max Pacioretty had five shots on goal, seven blocked shots, and three misses. And Alec Martinez had eight shot attempts but didn't get a single one through to Markstrom — six were blocked and two missed the net.
All told, the Canucks blocked an incredible 40 shots on the night. Chris Tanev led the way, of course, with six, and Jay Beagle was right behind with five. All told, the only Vancouver skater who didn't record at least one block in the game was Brock Boeser — and we have seen him do it in other games in these playoffs, so that's no smear to his name.
One big question for Game 3: what will Vegas do in net? Four goals on 26 shots was not a great night for Robin Lehner, and it was the first time in these playoffs that he's given up four goals in a game. Did the Allan Walsh tweet create enough bad blood that Peter DeBoer's now going to be reluctant to try turning to Marc-Andre Fleury? Lehner has played all but two games so far in the bubble. Fleury got wins in the 6-4 round-robin game against St. Louis and Vegas' 2-1 win in Game 3 of their series against Chicago, on the front half of a back-to-back.
Every second-round series has a back-to-back in the schedule somewhere. Boston and Tampa Bay are right back at it on Wednesday after the Lightning's overtime win on Tuesday night. The Flyers and Islanders play Wednesday and Thursday.
The Canucks and Golden Knights aren't scheduled to go back-to-back until Games 5 and 6, if necessary. They're scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday.
Also really exciting to me: seeing how many Canucks are showing up near the top of the playoff stats in a number of different categories. These were the three standouts, following Tuesday's game:
Markstrom: No. 1 in playoff minutes (727:03). No. 2 in save percentage among starters (.925).
Bo Horvat: No. 1 in playoff goals (8) and faceoff wins (177). 59.4% win rate in the faceoff circle.
Elias Pettersson: No. 2 in points (16 in 12 games), behind only Nathan MacKinnon.
• I'm still not sure what's up with J.T. Miller's...hand? He did take two draws on Tuesday and even won one — beating William Karlsson during a third-period penalty kill. He had just one draw in Game 1, also a win. But he's obviously not being used in the circle at his usual level. And he's not shooting much, either. He had 24 shots in the first nine playoff games, so that's nearly three shots a game. In the last three contests, he has had just one shot in each game.
He's still playing significant minutes — 20:07 on Tuesday — and picked up an assist on Pearson's empty-netter. And he definitely has found other ways to contribute:
Hopefully he's getting treatment for whatever's bothering him, and can get his faceoff and shooting touch back!
• All the good news on Tuesday overshadowed the fact that it was another quiet night for Quinn Hughes. He also picked up one assist, on Toffoli's goal, but didn't have a single shot attempt on the night and finished up as a minus-one, with one giveaway and one block. Seems like he still hasn't found a way to counter against Vegas' relentless pressure up high in the zone.
That'll be something for Travis Green and his staff to work on ahead of Game 3, especially when they have the last change. Pete DeBoer is a smart tactical coach, with a ton of playoff experience — trips to the Stanley Cup Final with the New Jersey Devils in 2012 and the San Jose Sharks in 2016, and to the Western Conference Final just last year.
He knows what it takes to make in-series adjustments and to capitalize on moments that present themselves. Now, we get to see how Travis Green and his players respond.
That question is a lot more fun to ponder when the playing field is back to level. We've got ourselves a series!
One last thing today, for you draftniks. I've been working for awhile on a story for The New York Times about the rise of German hockey — led this summer by Central Scouting's top European skater, Tim Stuetzle.
The piece is in today's paper. Click here to check it out.
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