After a sluggish start, the Canucks put in a clinical effort to easily roll over the Ducks to a tune of 5-1. It was a solid effort from all the forward lines, with five different forwards potting a goal. If for some reason you bailed on the team before the 10 minute mark, here are your highlights:
The Canucks are now 5-1-0 on the road this season. For all their lackadaisical showings, they’ve cobbled together a pretty good record to date. Last night in Anaheim they put together one of their more dominant efforts. Now, it was against a team that is bottom of the barrel in most statistical categories, but it was a needed show of strength for a team that’s still searching a bit for its identity. It takes time for all the new players to gel and things to settle, so hopefully this trend continues as the month progresses – especially as the Canucks have paper thin matchups this month. But, when you get top-to-bottom contributions, you take it and build off it.
“All four lines contributed and it was a well-managed game,” said Tocchet. “We had good video sessions and practice and that’s the key for this team. We played a north-south game. Odd-man rushes have been a problem and when we limited them tonight, that really helped us.”
The defense has been a shell of what it was compared to last year, though I feel as if that will be addressed both by Tocchet as the weeks go on and by management sooner than later. However, one reason it hasn’t looked as bad as it has has been the play of Lankinen. With how things have started this year, he might be the team MVP at the moment. Though he only had to see 22 shots on the night, he was there when he needed to be and has been consistent since his signing in training camp. It wasn’t long ago people were wondering who was going to be the start between him and Silovs… doesn’t seem like much of a debate anymore. He’s currently sporting a 2.09 goals against and a .923 save percentage. Damn.
On the other side of the ice, Petey, DeBrusk, Heinan, Boeser, and Sherwood all potted goals, but the accolades of the evening go to Quinn Hughes. Not only did he have 3 assists on the night, he became the third fastest defenseman ever to reach 300 assists, accomplishing the feat in just 376 games. That is pretty, pretty impressive.
“He obviously controls a lot of the play, a special player, and he gets a lot of shots off and that’s hard to do when teams are keying on you,” Tocchet said of Hughes. “I’m not shocked. He’s a pleasure to coach and always tries to work on his game. That’s what I love about him.”
"It means a lot," Hughes said of the milestone. "I’ve had a lot of great teammates and people that have helped me. I’ve made some great friendships over the years and hopefully we can just keep going the way we’re going."
As the team ramps up its game, it looks as if Pettersson is as well. He looked more engaged last night, more dangerous, and got a tipped goal for his effort of going to the net. All good things for himself and the team, and Tocc was pleased as well.
“Those are the ones you want to get,” said Tocchet. “They’re not going to all be pretty.”
The fans and media have been trying to understand what’s happening with Petey, and Kuzma wrote about his conversation with Bruce Boureau about it over at the Province. Here’s a little quote from it:
“He doesn’t look excited when he plays and gets frustrated very easily,” Boudreau said Monday. “I’ve always said when you’re a coach, you’re also like a psychiatrist. Your job is to see what makes 23 guys tick. I told J.T. Miller: ‘I’m going to come after you like the head of a snake and he said put it on me.’
“He wants that and I don’t think Petey likes that kind of thing. You have to treat him differently. My first game there, he said he’d be a good penalty killer and I gave him a chance. Then he wanted to play against the best. It’s communication and Rick (Tocchet) might be doing the same thing. I don’t know. It’s not working.”
If you’re interested, you can find the whole article here: https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/bruce-boudreau-solutions-elias-pettersson-struggles
The Canucks finish their California road trip against the Kings on Thursday night.
Until then, we have the comments to talk about HOCKEY, there are other places for other discussions:
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