Friday January 10: Vancouver Canucks 2 St. Louis Blues 1
One thing I am certainly enjoying about this year's Vancouver Canucks is their unpredictable ability to pull out wins in the most unlikely situations. For the second time this season, the Canucks got the better of the St. Louis Blues despite some prohibitive circumstances. Here are your highlights:
The Blues came into Friday night's game riding a seven-game winning streak that started right after the Christmas break. The Canucks were 1-2-3 in the same stretch. St. Louis looked to be firing on all cylinders after an easy 5-0 win in Calgary on Thursday night. They got off to a strong start in Vancouver.
The heavy rainstorm seemed to make for a lot of latecomers at Rogers Arena on Friday. On this night, they missed out on the worst part of the Canucks' effort.
By the first TV timeout, the shots were 6-1 in favour of the Blues. Not long afterwards, Torts started some creative line-juggling, moving Zac Dalpe up to the first line to play with the twins while Mike Santorelli dropped into the bottom six. In the end, the move paid dividends for both players.
The rest of the first was a more even affair and ended with a 12-5 shot advantage for the Blues. Not great, but still scoreless, with plenty of chance for the Canucks to get into the game.
The team was able to capitalize early in the second when Dalpe teamed up with the twins. He took the draw—and won it, then the puck cycled down deep into the zone. Henrik took a shot that was turned aside by Brian Elliott, then the rebound bounced out to Daniel near the left point. He floated the puck towards the net, where Dalpe deflected it past the helpless goaltender for his second of the season.
See? Anybody can score with the twins!
Just six minutes later, the Blues got on the board thanks to a sweet slap shot from the point by Alex Pietrangelo, who had a strong game from start to finish. As well as potting his team's only goal, the first-time Olympian led the Blues with 25:42 of ice time and recorded seven shots and five blocks on the night. His ascension is more than just hype.
The play remained pretty even for the rest of the game. Shots were 9-8 for the Blues in the second period and 10-9 in the third and the Canucks got the only additional goal. Five minutes into the final frame, Vancouver's fourth-line group of Weise, Santorelli and Archibald was able to force a giveaway off Blues' tough guy Ryan Reaves. Jason Garrison fired a seeing-eye shot from the blue line that found Santorelli's stick in front of the net and for the first time in weeks, the Canucks took a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
By taking the lead at the 5:56 mark of the third period, the Canucks gave their fans plenty of time to wonder whether we'd see another heartbreaking collapse in the final minutes. The defense of the lead started off well, as St. Louis took a number of icing calls, but the twins caused some hearts to race during a late third-period power play, when Jay Bouwmeester was sent to the box for deliberately knocking the net off the moorings on a good rush by Chris Higgins.
For the first minute of the man advantage, the Canucks moved the puck well, getting one shot through while a couple of others were blocked. Then Daniel and Henrik got the puck down low onto the boards and decided to simply kill some time. The casually passed back and forth, not even trying to score—a risky move with only a one-goal lead and a team's propensity to surrender the late lead.
Questioned about it after the game, it's clear that Torts doesn't exactly agree with the strategy. But he's also willing to give the twins enough rope to let them do their thing:
What do you think?
Once the goalie was pulled, the Canucks still scrambled to get to the final buzzer, but this time, they did it! It's another statement win against a formidable foe that makes me think it's too simplistic to write off this group as being unable to play against the elite teams in the Western Conference.
That optimism will be put to the test once again as the Canucks head back to California to face the Kings and Ducks again next week. Can they keep the shots to less than 40 this time around?
Quick Hits:
- One defining moment from the late stages of Friday's game was the hip-check that Dan Hamhuis laid on Max Lapierre while the Blues were killing their final penalty. That physical part of Hamhuis' game has been on the back-burner ever since he was injured trying to take out Milan Lucic in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final back in 2011. It's nice to see him confident enough to start using it again.
- David Booth was a healthy scratch for a second straight game, while Dale Weise drew back into the lineup. Weise talked about being on a short leash when he was benched, so I worried he'd end up riding the pine after he took a hooking penalty midway through the second period.
Weise played just one more six-second shift in the second, but worked his way back into the coach's good graces in the third. At one point, his line was hemmed in the defensive zone and struggling to clear the puck. Weise went after it along the boards, thought about firing it wildly into the center of the ice, then paused and made the smart play...digging in with some physical effort until he was finally able to manhandle it across the blue line and out of danger. A small sign that maybe some of Torts' teachings really are sinking in.
- Friday's win should make it a little easier for the Canucks to put on a cheerful show for the kids at their annual SuperSkills contest at Rogers Arena on Saturday afternoon. Doors open at noon with an alumni scrimmage, then the skills competition gets underway at 1:00. The action will be streaming on canucks.com if you're interested in watching how the boys do with the following events:
Fastest Skater Contest
Accuracy Shooting Challenge
Breakaway Relay
Puck Control Relay
Power Play
Hardest Shot
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