Last night, Canucks fans got a serious dose of the medicine they were hoping to avoid this spring—a monster performance from Ryan Kesler as the Anaheim Ducks inch to within one game of the Stanley Cup Final.
Kesler was named first star with a goal, an assist and seven hits in 17:29 of ice time. His goal was a pretty tip from the slot to put the Ducks up 2-0 during their dominating first period. The assist was his shot off the rush early in overtime that set up Matt Beleskey's winning goal just 45 seconds in—after Jonathan Toews had tied the game by scoring twice late in the third period.
Kesler was also terrific on draws—14-for-19 on the night. He was perfect against both Brad Richards and Antoine Vermette and went 6-for-11 against Toews.
Though this Ducks/Hawks series is generating great hockey, it's a tough one for Canucks fans to pick a horse. I'll still root for the Blackhawks to come back on Wednesday—can't stand the thought that Kesler will get everything he wanted when he chose one team on his trade list last spring.
Over in the Eastern Conference, ex-Canuck Jason Garrison is also one game away from reaching the Final with the Tampa Bay Lightning. This doesn't hurt as badly, since Garrison was asked by the Canucks to waive his no-trade clause.
The man with the big shot has just one goal in the playoffs and hasn't generated much attention along the way, but he is third in ice time among Lightning defensemen behind Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman, playing 19:34 per game including both power play and penalty-killing duties.
Garrison's not especially physical and hasn't come close to matching his 16-goal season with Florida in 2011-12, but he did put up a solid 30 points during the regular season and was a gaudy plus-27 with the Lightning—the best number of his career and tops among Tampa Bay defensemen.
Garrison and a couple of other spare parts were traded to the Lightning for the 50th pick in the 2014 draft—the pick which was then moved to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Linden Vey.
At 23, Vey lands smack in the middle of Jim Benning's target age range of 22 to 24-year-olds needed to help set up Vancouver's future. The only problem is that he wasn't very good this year—he had trouble holding his own in the heavy Western Conference.
In hindsight, what do you think of the deal? It certainly seems to have worked out well for Steve Yzerman's Lightning.
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One other ghost from the past has also surfaced today—Lindsay Kramer at Syracuse.com caught up with Tom Sestito.
Click here to check it out.
Living close to Utica in his hometown of Rome, N.Y., Sestito admits that he chose not to attend the Comets' Game 7 win against Oklahoma City. He says he understands why his year unfolded the way it did, but is eager to get back to the NHL.
He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he makes clear he hopes to sign with a Western Conference team.
All the better to bump into the Canucks a few times.
"I will be back. And I have stuff to prove against them,'' he said. "I didn't get a chance to prove myself. I definitely deserved better. I got put in a bad situation.
I'll be surprised if he can find a spot to realize his goals, but I can certainly see how, at age 27, the big guy feels that he's not finished with hockey.
Worth noting—former Arizona Coyotes enforcer Paul Bissonnette is currently toiling on the in AHL playoffs with the Manchester Monarchs, who are fighting for the Eastern Conference title.
• Rough night in Utica for the Comets on Monday as they fell 4-2 to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Eighteen-year-old Dylan Larkin scored twice for the Griffins in just his second professional game, and Jacob Markstrom was pulled with the score 4-0 before the Comets mustered a couple of goals in garbage time.
Both teams now get three days off to regroup as the series shifts to Grand Rapids for the next three games, starting Thursday.
• Big night for Edmonton Oilers prospect Leon Draisaitl on Monday. He had two goals and an assist as his Kelowna Rockets hammered the Rimouski Oceanic by a score of 7-3. The Rockets are tonight's opponent for Cole Cassels and the Oshawa Generals, who can still advance directly to the Memorial Cup Final with a win over Kelowna tonight.
Game time is 4:30 p.m. PT. The game is televised nationally on Sportsnet.
Click here for a feature story on Cassels from Bill Beacon of the Canadian Press—staying focused on his Memorial Cup experience rather than looking too far ahead to his future with the Canucks.
Cassels was also on TSN1040 last night with Scott Rintoul.
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