Saturday April 6: Vancouver Canucks 2 - Los Angeles Kings 1
With 20 third-period shots, the Vancouver Canucks accomplished the improbable when Brad Richardson's late goal against his old team gave the home squad a 2-1 win on Saturday at Rogers Arena. Here are your highlights:
My favourite moment of the game came midway through the second. Ryan Kesler was thismuch ahead of the play as the Canucks entered the zone, so he hurled himself onto the ice, chest-first, to stop his forward momentum. Lying there as a snow-angel, he was able to keep the tip of his skate blade on the blue line. He prevented the offside and the team was able to get into the zone successfully and set up a play.
It was a small moment, but showed so much "try." I don't really understand why this bunch hasn't given up on their season or what outcome they really hope to achieve, but there was no shortage of effort on Saturday night.
Another note on Kesler: for all the fuss about Mike Gillis and John Tortorella's media appearances this week, Kesler was on TEAM1040 with Scott Rintoul on Friday night. VanCityBuzz has trancribed the key moments of the interview.
Click here for the whole article.
When asked if there has been conversation about leaving the team, here is his response:
Yeah there has been, but I definitely don’t want to leave this city.
I, for one, am glad to hear it. I don't want to see Kesler traded unless it's for a much more impressive package than the ones we heard bandied about at the trade deadline.
It was also nice to see the Sedins back working together for the first time in what seems like an eternity. They had a couple of periods together against Buffalo on the night as Daniel came back and Henrik got hurt, but Saturday was their first full game since before the Heritage Classic.
They worked well together on a much more dynamic power play on Saturday, setting up Alex Edler for the tying goal early in the third period. Edler also drew the second assist on Brad Richardson's game-winner, so he finished the night with a plus-one. Progress!
All that being said—I do not think the Kings team we saw on Saturday night competed with the same ferocity that we saw earlier in the season. Dustin Brown still got in his share of mix-ups and there were moments when Los Angeles turned on its physical game, but this is a team that's locked into third place in the Pacific Division and was about to head home for three days off before returning to Canada to face Edmonton and Calgary later this week. Not a lot to play for.
Also, I suspect the outcome could have been different if Drew Doughty had been on the blue line instead of Andrew Campbell. Doughty always gets fired up to play Vancouver and gives the Canucks a rough ride both offensively and defensively. He's out with an injury so he was replaced by Campbell, a 26-year-old playing in his first-ever NHL game. Campbell was on the ice with Slava Voynov when the winning goal was scored.
I wonder if he'll ever get another chance from Darryl Sutter? Just as I wonder if Yannick Weber has played his last game as a Canuck?
Weber was reported to have suffered a finger injury at Friday's practice, causing him to miss Saturday's game. From Saturday's pre-game skate:
Though replacement Frank Corrado took two interference penalties on Saturday—one of which led to the Kings' only goal—Torts got behind Corrado in a big way in his postgame press conference. He was a bit cryptic about Corrado's official status as an "emergency call-up," but promised that he'd be here for the rest of the season—and that he'd play.
To me, that means that Weber has gone from "nicked up" to "dismissed." I wonder if it's his finger, or if he's also paying the price for that awful missed dive for the puck while playing the point on the power play against the Rangers on Tuesday? Weber's a restricted free agent at the end of the season and made just $650,000 this year. Will the Canucks qualify him and keep him around?
Saturday's win gives the Canucks 81 points—still 11th in the Western Conference and 22nd in the league. Had they lost, they could have moved down the standings last night thanks to wins by Winnipeg, Ottawa and Nashville. The Canucks won't be able to reach the bottom five, but they still have a chance at 25th, currently held by Carolina.
After all the drama over the past few days, I'm pretty amazed that the Canucks were able to come out and put together a solid game of hockey. It may not be the best thing for #TankNation, but I am respecting the effort and commitment over the past month. It's too bad it couldn't have happened sooner.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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