A tired first period led the way to a goal-filled second, as the Canucks beat the Blackhawks 4-3 in their Sunday matinee. With a third line that’s clicking, and another goal by tie-for-the-league-lead Brock Boeser, the Canucks maintained their point streak another day. Here’s the highlights:
The Canucks came out on the better side of their first matchup with local boy Connor Bedard, edging the Blackhawks on the second leg of their matinee back-to-backs. The boys, however, were not sharp in the first, staking the Hawks to a 10 shot lead before their first. The coach and players weren’t too happy with how the first shook out, but were happy enough with the end result.
Tocchet took responsibility for the poor starts, needing to find ways to get the team better prepared: “I have to think of different ways to get the team ready. Whether it's different stuff in the gym, maybe less me, I don't know. We have to definitely address it. Getting three points out of these two games in the back to back, you know, we're happy about getting the points. But we have to clean up our game.”
Boeser, who scored his 23rd of the season and moved back into a tie with Auston Matthews for the league lead, added to that sentiment, saying, “It just came down to will and effort. We didn’t like our effort in the first period and we had a good response. We knew it was going to be hard to close it out. They made a push and we hung in there well. I’m just proud of the way we responded. We found a way and that’s all that matters.”
After trailing 2-1, it was the Canuck’s third line that pulled them back to even – the only line that hasn’t really been juggled with recently, and for good reason. The trio of Blueger, Joshua, and Garland have put up 16 points in the last seven games, which is solid contribution for a 3rd line. The players are happy with it, and so is Tocchet.
“They dragged us into the fight – Dakota, Gars, and Teddy,” Tocchet emphasized after the game.
“That was just when we weren't scoring,” Garland explained of their line’s ‘keep rolling the dice’ phrase. “Just stick with it and it's going to go in eventually. If we go through something like that again, we know that if we play well, (the scoring totals) don't really matter.
“It doesn't matter to me; it's more about winning. I'm at a point in my career where I'm getting older and I just want to be able to have a chance to win. When you play well, you help the team win whether you're producing (goals) or not.”
“We’re a good defensive line that can chip in from time to time. We just hung on and had a lot of chances. A couple of more could have gone in,” Garland added.
Blueger agreed, saying, “I think we're on the same page as far as mindset, you know? Just going to work and trying to outwork the other team. You want to make skilled plays, but I think kind of priority is to make sure we're outworking the other team.”
It’s helped the Canucks build to a 5-0-1 run the past few games.
On another note, big Z made a nice impression, standing up for Petey after a big hit. Petey was happy with it:
“I appreciate it so much,” Pettersson told Sportsnet after the game. “It's not that it was a bad hit or anything — I don't mind a good hit — but it just shows he's going to back me up no matter what. It shows that you're playing for each other. It shows your teammates and everybody. It's what a good teammate does.”
Bring on the team toughness. Next game goes tomorrow in Nashville.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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