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Canucks grind out hard-working win over Oilers, now hit the road for 4 |
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No one mentioned whether the Canucks wore their workboots to the rink again on Saturday night. But the footwear choice would have been appropriate for the gritty effort that the undermanned club brought to Rogers Arena in their 2-1 regulation win over the Edmonton Oilers.
The group looked disengaged in its 5-1 loss to Montreal on Wednesday and as a result, were put through the gears by Travis Green at practice on Friday.
They also lost a couple of bodies to injury on Wednesday night. Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel were both absent from the lineup against Edmonton, replaced by Zack MacEwen and Loui Eriksson. Brandon Sutter had been questionable after missing a chunk of Wednesday's game, but he suited up and was impactful in the faceoff circle, going 14-for-21.
Sutter also played 4:14 on the penalty kill, the most of any forward. He was on the ice for Edmonton's lone goal, which came shortly after the end of a 5-on-3, but helped hold the Edmonton power play that's clicking at 26.5 percent to just the one goal on four opportunities.
At 20:21 of total ice time, Sutter played more than any other forward except J.T. Miller (21:24), frequently matched against the McDavid/Draisatl pair on a line with Miller and Brock Boeser.
Another early sign that the Canucks weren't messing around: diving shot blocks by unlikely suspects Bo Horvat and Quinn Hughes on Edmonton's first two shot attempts of the game — both slappers by defensemen from the blue line. Travis Hamonic and Adam Gaudette would also join the blocking brigade before the Oilers were finally able to get their first shot of the game through to Thatcher Demko, 3:26 into the first.
That commitment held up right till the final buzzer. Trailing by a goal, with Mikko Koskinen on the bench for the extra attacker, the pressing Oilers didn't manage to get one shot through to Demko during the last minute of play, thanks to three blocks from Alex Edler and one each by Miller and by Tanner Pearson.
It was the least they could do after all the times that Demko has bailed them out over the past few weeks, quite frankly.
In the end, the Oilers still outshot the Canucks 35-28, despite the fact that Edmonton was playing its third game in four nights. On top of that, Vancouver hit a season high with 25 blocked shots, led by six apiece for Edler and Hamonic.
In fact — the Canucks' four busiest shot-blocking nights of the season have all come in the last week: also 22 blocks against Toronto last Saturday and Montreal on Monday, then 19 against the Canadiens on Wednesday. I wonder if there's a correlation there, where players are more willing to sacrifice their bodies when they see how Demko is giving them a chance to compete in every game?
With two days off after the loss to Montreal, the schedule advantage probably helped the Canucks hang in until the final buzzer. But they also handed the Oilers their first loss in five games — and their first loss to a team that's not Toronto in nearly a month, when the dropped a 6-5 decision to Winnipeg back on Feb. 15.
The stretch run is starting to look interesting in the North Division.
After the Leafs lost their fourth game in their last five to Winnipeg on Saturday night, they're now sitting just four points above both the Jets and the Oilers.
Meanwhile, two straight wins for the Flames over the Habs have Calgary just two points behind Montreal, with one additional game played. And Vancouver's only one back of the Flames, although they've played three more games that Calgary. They're still tops in the league with 31 games played, and have another 4-in-6 ahead on the road this week.
It sounds like the expectation is that they'll still be shorthanded up front as they begin the road trip. Big centre Tyler Graovac was activated to the taxi squad on Saturday after having been recalled from the AHL's Manitoba Moose. He had nine points in his first nine games with the Moose before landing in concussion protocol at the beginning of this month. He has now cleared that, and cleared his Covid quarantine, so he'll be able to travel east with the Canucks.
We also had a Tyler Motte sighing this week:
There's some talk that he might be ready to get back into game action later in this trip. He's been out since Feb. 6, and his energy has been missed in the bottom six.
No update yet on Elias Pettersson. He did post a view of the game on his Instagram Story on Saturday, but that doesn't give us any sense of where he's at if his injury is to his wrist or forearm, as suspected.
The first stop on the trip is in Ottawa, for games on Monday and Wednesday.
Of course, the Canucks trounced the Senators early in the season, by a total score of 16-3 on home ice back in January. This is their first visit of the year to the Canadian Tire Centre.
While the Sens have had some promising moments over the course of the season, they're currently back in the doldrums. They've just returned home after a six-game road trip that saw them go 1-5-0 against Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton. And they'll be on a back-to-back when they host Vancouver on Monday — the Leafs are in town on Sunday night.
Injury issues have also set the Sens back a bit. Veteran centre Derek Stepan, brought in to be a steadying influence, has undergone season-ending shoulder surgery. Backup goaltender Marcus Hogberg has been sidelined since Feb. 21 with a lower-body injury, but is getting close to returning. And young centre Colin White is currently listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury after awkwardly going feet-first into the boards in Edmonton last week.
For all the trades and tinkering that general manager Pierre Dorion undertook during the offseason, it's still the kids that are carrying the load. Workhorse defenseman Thomas Chabot is leading the team in both points and icetime, followed by roommates Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle — with 22-year-old rookie Drake Batherson now in the mix as well.
With any luck, the Canucks will be able to continue their success against the Sens before travelling on to Montreal for their final two games of the year against the Canadiens, later in the week.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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