Thursday November 6 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - San Jose Sharks 2
If this was still last year, that last-second third-period shot by the San Jose Sharks would have crossed the goal line in time, earned the Sharks a point, and forced overtime. Remember when Corey Perry scored at 4:58 of overtime to give Anaheim a 4-3 win over Vancouver last January?
The clock wasn't the only thing on the Canucks' side last night. Despite being outplayed, the team will enjoy its day off in SoCal on Friday after stealing a 3-2 win from the Shark Tank on Thursday night.
Here are your highlights:
There's only one reason the Canucks even had a chance to get into this game—Ryan Miller. Vancouver was outshot 15-8 in the first period and was under siege in the early going: it was to Miller's credit that he didn't allow the Sharks' first goal until James Sheppard scored at 10:26.
Also different from last season: skaters who seized the opportunity that was presented by that great goaltending performance. Just as Henrik Sedin was able to swing the momentum in Vancouver's favour when he got the Canucks' first goal with four seconds left in the second period in Denver on Tuesday, last night it was Radim Vrbata who kept his foot on the gas right to the buzzer.
After Vrbata's goal at 19:52, the Canucks escaped the first period with a 1-1 tie and plenty of hope that two points could be there for the taking.
The Sharks tightened up defensively in the second period, allowing only four Vancouver shots. But the Canucks scored on two of those shots: a power-play reply by Alex Edler just two minutes after San Jose had re-taken the lead, then another gorgeous snipe by Nick Bonino, which proved to be the game-winner.
San Jose fired another 14 shots in the third period but Miller remained in the zone for exactly 60 minutes. He seems so precisely wired, it's almost like that late shot got past him because his internal alarm had had already gone off and he knew the game was over.
Did you catch that moment—I believe it was in the second period—when Miller was yelling at the ref because he believed Antti Niemi had played the puck outside the trapezoid at the other end of the ice? It was hard to tell on the replay whether or not Niemi's stick had made contact with the puck, yet somehow Miller's X-ray vision was able to pick that up from 200 feet away?
There's no doubt that the Canucks stole this game. We sure didn't steal very many last year.
For all our fear about this scary road trip, the Canucks have already picked up four of a possible eight points. And the big bad Southern California teams are on a bit of an ebb right now. The Kings lost to the New YorK Islanders in a shootout on Thursday and Anaheim's decimated by injury, including to both their goaltenders.
This might not be so bad.
With Miller and Bonino turning into the season's breakout stars—and a back-in-action Luca Sbisa leading all Canucks with 20:48 of ice time on Thursday night (though he was a minus-one)—it's hard not to be impressed with the success of Jim Benning's offseason roster moves so far.
Apparently Elliotte Friedman is even talking about the "P" word:
Friedman also has a great quote from Radim Vrbata on playing with the Sedins in this week's
"30 Thoughts":
Vrbata said the Sedins really didn’t have many special instructions about fitting in with them. After a couple of exhibition games, the linemates made sure that whoever was in the middle on a rush made sure to drive the net. Other than that? “We decided we have to shoot more,” Vrbata said. Even Henrik? Vrbata paused, and you could hear the smile forming on his face over the phone. “When they said we have to shoot more, they were really saying I have to shoot more.”
After all our speculation about which forward would be scratched to make room for Alex Burrows' return, Zack Kassian ended up missing the game with what's being called a lower-body injury.
Kassian did take Thursday's game-day skate, so the issue doesn't seem too serious. It's assumed that it arose from this nasty-looking hit that he absorbed against Colorado on Tuesday.
Burrows had one assist and five blocked shots in 14:28 of action. In the same rink where he broke his foot blocking a shot on opening night in 2013-14, last night one of his blocks set up the transition for Bonino's winning goal.
Though he wasn't expected to play, Bo Horvat drew in for 13 shifts and 7:18 of ice time. He didn't play in the last seven minutes of the third period, when the game was one the line. Bo had two takeaways and a blocked shot, but went just 1-for-4 in the circle.
If you're still looking for causes for concern about this team, here's the tweet for you:
The numbers may be similar, but the team is not. These wins aren't being logged solely on the backs of an overloaded top line that's being played into the ground.
I guess we'll see what happens if injuries hit like they did last year. For now, I'm excited to see what the team can string together this weekend in Southern California.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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