Friday September 4 - Vegas Golden Knights 3 - Vancouver Canucks 0
Vegas wins best-of-seven series 4-3, advances to Western Conference Final
On a melancholy day, I'm going to lean on a tried-and-true cliche: "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."
Thinking back to when the NHL season was paused on March 12, we had no idea when we'd see hockey again. It has now been nearly eight weeks since the Canucks kicked off their Phase 3 training camp on July 13 — eight weeks of hockey talk virtually every day. I'm not even sure we would have gotten that much if the season had played out as originally scheduled.
In the end, the Canucks played 17 postseason games. They got to experience two thrills of victory and one agony of defeat after staving off elimination twice.
In the end, despite another incredible performance from Thatcher Demko, Vancouver didn't quite have enough gas in the tank to get the better of the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.
Here are your highlights:
Broadly speaking, the flow of the game looked a lot like Game 5 — get wildly outshot, and hang on for dear life. It basically worked for 54 minutes, too.
The Canucks were given every opportunity to win. Nothing to gripe about with the officiating — each team had successfully killed off two power-play opportunities before Ryan Reaves was assessed what has gone into the books as a match penalty for his hit to the head of Tyler Motte late in the second period. It was originally announced as a major for a hit to the head, plus a game misconduct.
It was the right call, and there's talk on Saturday that Reaves could face supplemental discipline that might see him miss some time in the Western Conference Final against Dallas. That could be significant, considering how important he was in setting the tone in Game 1 against the Canucks.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who got flashbacks when Vegas was assessed that major penalty. Remember Game 7 against San Jose last year, when the Sharks were down 3-0 midway through the third period as Cody Eakin was erroneously penalized for injuring Joe Pavelski?
It took San Jose seven seconds for Logan Couture to get the first of its four power-play goals during that major to take the lead, then eventually win the game in overtime. Remember how he shouted "That's one!" to his bench when he scored, sending Vegas reeling?
Of course, current Vegas coach Peter DeBoer was on the Sharks bench that night — and after knocking off Vancouver on Friday, he's now 5-0 all time in Game 7s.
Pete DeBoer has been fired by three NHL teams. Through it all, he has won 11 of the 16 playoff series in which he has coached. He is a perfect 5-for-5 in Game 7 of these series.
We saw DeBoer make a savvy move when he called his time out before the Golden Knights' third period power-play opportunity — and set up a situation where, even after losing the offensive-zone draw, it took just five seconds before Shea Theodore beat Thatcher Demko for what proved to be the game winner, with 6:08 left to play in the third.
Travis Green said after the game that he thinks he became a better coach this summer, and I agree. He proved to be an excellent motivator and an impressive tactician who was able to counter what he was seeing from his opponents. He used time outs pretty judiciously through the season to change momentum, too — specifically, I remember how he settled down his team when it started to implode following Josh Leivo's injury in that game against Vegas just before Christmas.
Considering what a tough time the Canucks had been having in generating offense on Friday, even on their previous power plays, perhaps a time out before the five-minute power play began could have been impactful?
But ultimately, there are so many little things. We can shoulda-woulda-coulda until the cows come home.
That's why I'm not going to fuss about the scheduling. Yes, the five games in seven nights was brutal — but the playing field was level for both sides. And Vegas still came out with a high-energy game on Friday night. Final shots were 36-14 and final hits were 45-27 for Vegas — and those margins were both even more pronounced in the first period, when it was time to set the tone.
After dropping Games 5 and 6 and being unable to find a way to solve Thatcher Demko — and after blowing that 3-1 lead last year — all the pressure was on Vegas. They could have come out tight and tentative, but they absolutely stayed true to their game plan, kept their composure after Reaves was tossed, and waited patiently for their opportunity.
Again, as Travis Green would say, "Give 'em credit. They're a good team."
Now, we can take a minute to appreciate what this group of Canucks has learned — and how impressively they showed that they're ready for the battle that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Unless the league dramatically increases the number of minutes required to make the "Goaltending Leaders" chart, I feel confident that Thatcher Demko's 0.64 goals-against average and .985 save percentage is going to keep him at the top of that list for the rest of the playoffs. Two goals against in three games, and Shea Theodore was the only player to beat him. What a great way to go into the offseason!
On the skater side, Bo Horvat's 10 goals are still tops in the playoffs so far. Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller leave in a tie for fourth place with 18 points each. Quinn Hughes is tied with Theodore for second among defenseman, with 16 points. Miro Heiskanen is the defensive leader with 21 points — and might be my Conn Smythe choice at the moment, depending what happens in the next round.
As far as the Canucks' future goes, Dallas is now the model that they'll hope to emulate. After a double-overtime Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Blues in the second round last year, the Stars advanced in overtime over Colorado on Friday in a wild game thanks to a hat trick from unheralded Finn Joel Kiviranta, who was inserted into the lineup when ironman Andrew Cogliano was deemed unfit to play.
I do wonder how much Kiviranta's fresh legs gave him an edge in that game?
After their loss last year, the Stars added two battled-tested vets in Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry. I thought they were crazy. Look at them now...
We don't know when we'll see the Canucks in action again. We do know that the team will look different, with so many big lineup decisions ahead in the offseason.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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