Monday December 30: Philadelphia Flyers 4 Vancouver Canucks 3 (S/O)
Can't win 'em all. The Vancouver Canucks outshot their opponents 44-27, but great performances from goaltender Steve Mason and captain Claude Giroux were enough for the Philadelphia Flyers to steal the win at Rogers Arena on Monday night. Here are your highlights:
It was a game of chances and bounces on both sides. Tom Sestito savoured the opportunity to taunt the team that waived him last season when he scored Vancouver's first goal of the night. The twins and Jannik Hansen combined for the other two markers—once again, starting to show some signs of chemistry. Hansen's moving from being a liability to an asset on the top line.
Vancouver had plenty more opportunities through the game. Chris Higgins was denied on a point-blank opportunity in the first period, Ryan Kesler led the team with seven shots on goal, and David Booth skated well throughout the game.
On the negative side, Chris Tanev was badly outmuscled by the 172-pound Giroux along the boards to lead to the Flyers' first goal—something that I'm surprised doesn't happen to Tanev more often with his build. Dan Hamhuis was the goat on Philly's second goal, with a bad pass that was intercepted by Michael Raffl and pushed forward to Giroux, who again showed tremendous strength in getting his shot away with Hamhuis draped all over him.
Philadelphia's late equalizer came with 47 seconds left in regulation, when Kevin Bieksa lost his man Matt Read on the defensive-zone draw. Read shoveled the puck to the net, where Brayden Schenn was eventually able to convert.
Bieksa took a puck to the face with seven minutes to go in the first period and left the ice for a stretch to get stitched up. He returned to play one shift before the end of the frame, and finished the night with 26:26 of ice time. With so many injuries to the blue line, you know he'd fight to play even if he wasn't 100 percent. Did the injury factor into him messing up on the winning goal? I'll keep an eye on him on Wednesday—I'm sure we'll be able to see just how bruised and swollen his face is from that puck.
If anything good comes from the incident, I hope it convinces Bieksa to add a visor.
Even before Bieksa went down, rookie Frank Corrado was on the ice for his first NHL game of the season, and looked pretty solid. He saw just 7:26 of ice time and played only two shifts when the game was on the line in the third period, but was on the ice for the Hansen goal, so he finished with a plus-one. Yannick Weber also played just over 10 minutes so even with the back-to-back, the core D-men played huge minutes. Dan Hamhuis finished with 32:30, Garrison was 29:34 and Chris Tanev played 21:41.
Torts had a little colour in his cheeks at his post-game press conference, where he sounded a lot more like the Torts we knew in New York. He was clipped with his answers and chintzy with the information, but refused to throw his any of his players under the bus despite the late collapse.
The Canucks will spend New Year's at home, with a day off on Tuesday before facing Tortorella's "other" old team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, on Wednesday at Rogers Arena.
Tony Gallagher of
The Province was
postulating on Monday that all these days off might actually be a key component of the Canucks' success this year. As a veteran writer who has been covering hockey on the west coast since the 1970s, Gallagher understands the rigours of the Canucks' travel schedule better than most, and sounded the alarm early when Torts started playing his stars for big minutes. Here, he's acknowledging that giving the team lots of full rest days might be finally be the cure for the grind that the team has always endured.
Thought the Canucks didn't hold a team skate before Monday's game, Kevin Woodley of NHL.com was on hand at Rogers Arena to see Roberto Luongo and Alex Edler go through their paces on the ice.
Click here if you missed that story. It sounds like Luongo's coming along and could be ready to play in the back-to-backs this weekend. Edler's progress is not as clear, but a little extra depth on the blueline would go a long way in L.A. and Anaheim.
The Canucks are now halfway through their 2013-14 season, with a record of 23-11-7, good for 53 points and sixth place in the Western Conference—now just one back of the Los Angeles Kings. They'll need to keep up the pace to contend for a decent playoff position, but let's keep this in perspective. If Vancouver finishes the year with 106 points, that would be their third-best point total in franchise history, right behind the two Presidents' Trophy years and only five behind the 111 points that captured that award in 2011-12. Not bad when you look at it like that, though anything can still happen...
Quick Hits:
- I'm sure you've heard by now—Team Canada came back from 3-1 deficit to beat Slovakia 5-3 on Monday at the World Junior Championships. A character win, which is great—but they shouldn't *need* to build character against Slovakia! Still, the win may have inspired some confidence. As I type this, Canada has just gone up 3-1 on Team USA in the the third period of Monday's game. Nick Petan opened the scoring and has been supported by goals from Connor McDavid and Curtis Lazar. Our boy Bo Horvat got the primary assist on McDavid's go-ahead marker, which came right at the end of an American penalty. The 3-1 goal did come with the man advantage, so the Americans look to be having some trouble with late-game discipline.
It's also worth noting that Canada isn't the only favourite that's had some trouble in the round robin. On Monday, Russia fell to Finland while the Germans shocked the Czechs. The Swedes and—to this point—the Americans are the only teams to go undefeated, while Canada is 2-0-1.
New Year's Day will be a day off in the tournament, then the medal round begins on January 2.
- Canada's Spengler Cup journey came to and end on Monday when the team lost 6-5 to eventual champion Geneve-Servette in the semifinal. Ex-Canuck Byron Ritchie was a standout in the tournament, potting two goals in the 6-3 quarterfinal win over the Rochester Americans.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»