Wednesday December 9 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - New York Rangers 1
The first two periods were nothing special, but a jam-packed third ended with a nail-biting 2-1 win for the Vancouver Canucks over the New York Rangers at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night.
Here are your highlights:
After getting their shot totals back to a respectable level against Buffalo on Monday, Vancouver took a step backwards in the first period against the Rangers, getting outshot 15-7. But the first wasn't filled with the sort of odd-man rushes and Grade A scoring chances that we saw when the Rangers came to town last December and built a 3-0 lead before the game was seven minutes old. This time around, Ryan Miller efficiently stopped pucks and limited secondary scoring chances, but didn't need to make any highlight-reel saves.
The playing field levelled out in a relatively lifeless second period, where the shots were 8-7 for the Rangers. The Canucks dodged a bullet when a last-second Rangers point shot beat Ryan Miller, but the buzzer had already gone to end the period.
In a scoreless tie after 40 minutes, I figured the hockey gods were giving the Canucks every possible chance to break that ugly losing streak against the Rangers at Rogers Arena.
The fireworks all came in the final frame, ignited when Dominic Moore hooked Henrik Sedin at the 1:32 mark. During the Canucks' power play, penalty-killer Jarret Stoll went down to the ice to smother the puck. With all five Canucks poking at him to try to jar it loose, he kept the puck pulled into his body and the referee eventually lost patience, whistling him for delay of game.
It would be an understatement to say that the normally easygoing Alain Vigneault was unimpressed with the call. For a couple of minutes there, he was channeling his inner Torts!
Alex Edler unleashed a rousing chorus of the Hives' "Tick Tick Boom" when he potted the game's first goal just 22 seconds into the ensuing 5-on-3, and AV's frustration earned him an unsportsmanlike call that kept the Canucks up two men.
Ryan McDonagh took another penalty 40 seconds later but the refs went easy on him. It could easily have been a double-minor when he cross-checked Alex Burrows in the mouth as he worked to screen Henrik Lundqvist but—you know—Burrows.
Naturally, an even-up call was in order. With the Canucks still on their 5-on-3, Burrows was whistled for interference on Mark Staal at 4:43, allowing the hypercharged energy to ease for a few minutes.
At 8:54, a scramble around Ryan Miller led a Rangers penalty shot when Chris Tanev was accused of covering the puck in the goal crease. On the replay, it looked to me like he scooped the puck out of the blue paint, but even Rangers' beat writer Pat Leonard was uncertain about the call.
Where on earth did AV get the idea to use Dan Boyle on the penalty shot???
Henrik was furious about the call and went after the ref before the penalty shot. That's the biggest reason why I was so surprised to see his line come out and exact revenge just 30 seconds later. The game-winning goal is one of the prettiest you'll see all year. What a pass!
Still stirring things up, AV used his coach's challenge to take another look that second goal. There was no interference, but I think he needed a time out at that point to settle his team down anyways so hey, why not call for the coach's challenge on the off chance that the call might go his way??
The Rangers did turn up the juice and were pressuring well when Dan Hamhuis was injured with 7:33 remaining.
I'm not going to embed the video of Hamhuis getting hit in the face with the Dan Boyle slapshot. In the moment, my eye was on the ensuing scramble in front of the net before I saw Hamhuis face down on the ice, kicking his feet in obvious distress. He got off the ice under his own power, but left a lot of blood in his wake.
No further update yet beyond this, from after the game.
A broken jaw for Christmas is a grim possibility. My first fear was concussion related. The Hockey News website is a great resource when going over players' past injuries.
Click here for Hammer's history, which includes two stretches of time missed due to concussions during the 2010-11 season.
Hamhuis has certainly been up-and-down this season. He missed three games in late October with a lower-body injury and I wonder if something was nagging at him even before he got hurt last night. In addition to taking two penalties against a potent Rangers team, he was having one of those puck-is-a-grenade kind of nights.
For now—best wishes to him and his family. Hopefully the injury will ultimately turn out to fall at the lower end of the severity scale.
With everything going on during that play, no one really knows why Alex Burrows got hit with a delay of game penalty. Did he push the net off during the scramble around the crease?
Whatever the reason, the Canucks successfully killed their fifth penalty of the night and shut the door the rest of the way to preserve the win.
I didn't even mind Vancouver's high-risk shots at the empty net during the dying minutes. It felt good to see the Canucks trying to get one more insurance goal instead of hanging on for dear life.
Thanks to their two-game winning streak, the Canucks have vaulted for the moment back into second place in the Pacific Division, one ahead of the San Jose Sharks and three up on Arizona and Anaheim.
The team will enjoy a well-deserved day off on Thursday, then practice at Rogers Arena and visit B.C. Children's Hospital on Friday before heading to Chicago on Saturday ahead of their next game on Sunday. This is the gap in the schedule that'll allow some of the teams around them to make up their games in hand, so it's hard to know where the Canucks will sit in the standings next time they take to the ice.
I suspect that also means it'll be a day or two before we hear if the Canucks are calling up a depth defenseman from Utica to help make up for Hamhuis' absence. The team did announce on Thursday morning that Ronalds Kenins has been reassigned to Utica.
Yesterday, Willie acknowledged that Sbisa's hand injury will keep him out "a little longer than we thought." Not sure if that means he's unavailable for the whole road trip? We'll have to wait and see.
After a dark stretch, it's good to see the Canucks playing with more determination—and catching a few breaks along the way. Hopefully they'll be able to pack up the positive vibes and bring them along on the road!
Let's wrap up today with a tasty goal from Nicklas Jensen in the Utica Comets' 4-3 win over Rochester on Wednesday night.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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