Tuesday January 19 - New York Rangers 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2 (OT)
Ryan Miller couldn't stop the 49th shot he faced, but the Vancouver Canucks managed to escape Madison Square Garden with a point as they fell in overtime to the New York Rangers.
Here are your highlights:
The Canucks have now allowed 40 shots or more on all four games of this road trip, yet somehow they had allowed just 10 goals—one into an empty net—and scraped together five points.
Since their mid-December debacle in Minnesota, Vancouver is 8-4-3 and still hanging around the Western Conference playoff picture. Right now, they're one of four teams with 49 points along with San Jose, Arizona and Colorado but it's Vancouver who's on the outside of the postseason bracket because they have just 15 regulation and overtime wins—tied for second-worst in the league on the tiebreaker stat.
It has to be exhausting to be constantly chasing your opponent like the Canucks did at MSG on Tuesday night. After a comparatively even first period where Vancouver was "only" outshot 17-11 and took a one-goal lead into the locker room, the Canucks' offense and possession time disappeared almost entirely for the game's final 43:54. Shots were 13-6 in the second, where the teams traded goals, then the Rangers tied the game while outshooting Vancouver 16-2 in the third and earned the win when J.T. Miller completed a wraparound play on New York's third shot of overtime.
Sure, the All-Star Break is coming, but I'm not sure that'll be enough of a rest to recharge a group of players who must be wearing down as they're forced to chase the game night after night.
I'm not sure the Canucks are going to have enough gas left in the tank to keep this up for another two and a half months but on this night, there were some bright spots peeking out from a dominant performance by the Rangers.
First off—Ryan Miller is playing like a man possessed and was the biggest reason why the Canucks grabbed three out of four points from their visit to New York City.
I will continue to caution against overusing Miller—did you know he's now the second-oldest goalie in the league, behind only Roberto Luongo in age? Jacob Markstrom has shown that he can handle busy games too, and the Canucks need their netminders to be fresh if they're going to keep staring down these massive workloads.
Second—the Horvat/Baertschi/Vrbata line stepped up with Henrik Sedin on the sidelines. They led all forwards in ice time, Baertschi scored his sixth goal since December 18th and eighth of the season, and Radim Vrbata accounted for 25 percent of the Canucks' offense with his five shots on goal.
Bo went 11-9 in the faceoff circle and picked up his 12th assist and 20th point of the year on Baertschi's first-period goal. Despite the slow start to his season, Horvat now needs just five more points to match the total from his rookie year.
Third—also in the chemistry department—Etem/Vey/Burrows looks like it's a thing. Vancouver's second goal was an excellent team effort by the entire line, with Vey and Etem winning puck battles along the boards before feeding a wide-open Burrows at the side of the net for his first goal—and just his second point—since November 21.
Considering Burrows was questionable to even play on Tuesday, he did pretty well. He finished the night with three shots, three hits and a block, and was plus-one.
Etem's point, his first as a Canuck, caused some teeth-gnashing among the local media at MSG:
The dark spots:
Daniel Sedin might have to wait for his brother to get back into action before he's finally able to break Markus Naslund's franchise record for goals. Jared McCann's style at center doesn't look much like Henrik's; he's more of a Ryan Kesler "streak down the ice and shoot" kind of guy.
Maybe it was a matchup issue as well, but the top line wasn't able to generate much offense at all on Tuesday night. McCann and Daniel managed two shots apiece, while Jannik Hansen had none.
After Zack Kassian picked up his first goal and assist of the year and was named third star in Edmonton's 6-4 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday, the spotlight on Brandon Prust got a little brighter. Prust did play against his old team on Tuesday after it looked like he'd be the Canucks' latest healthy scratch but he was basically invisible with one shot attempt, two hits and two giveaways in 12:58.
Prust, Derek Dorsett and Adam Cracknell were the forwards on the ice when the Rangers finally scored their 2-2 goal in the third period.
Is Ben Hutton hitting the wall? In college, Hutton never played more than 39 games in a season. Tuesday marked his 40th with the Canucks and he celebrated—with five giveaways. No other Canuck had more than two.
Maybe it's nothing. Hutton finished the night with a plus-one, the same as on Sunday against the Islanders. His ice time has also kicked up now that he's back with Luca Sbisa—he played a career-high 22:15 on Tuesday.
Up next—the Boston Bruins on Thursday. Those games are always placid affairs, right?
Will we see another round of Prust/Marchand, or will Prust be banished to the press box?
To close today, let me draw your attention to this week's edition of
Elliotte Friedman's "30 Thoughts."
He takes one more turn around the John Scott All-Star saga, which I haven't really discussed to this point because I think the issue has been vastly overblown. I was happy, though, to see that the league is allowing Scott to play—say what you will about his hockey skills, he's a smart, affable guy who really wants to take part in the festivities.
I was a little worried, at first, that Scott would drag down the Pacific Division's chances of winning the 3-on-3 tournament but you know what? It doesn't really matter. Given that the best players in the game have a long tradition of putting out about 20 percent of their usual effort for traditional All-Star Games, I don't imagine that'll change with the new 3-on-3 format.
Scott's well-liked by his fellow players. I don't think anyone is going to go out of his way to show him up; if anything, it might turn out to be just the opposite.
Friedman's more relevant content for Canucks fans is found much further down the screen, in items 17 through 19. He speaks with Daniel Sedin, suggesting that "this has got to be the best hockey (the twins have) ever played, absolutely carrying a young Vancouver team despite their own injuries. They’ve got to be proud of what they’re doing."
“You’re right, we are proud,” Daniel said Monday, not long after coach Willie Desjardins announced Henrik’s injury would keep him out until after All-Star. “We leave it up to other people to rate the way we’ve played. But through turnover, changes, and the arrival of young guys, we’re expected to lead. (The franchise) puts a lot of trust on us, and we are proud to do it. We still have a long ways to go. The young guys need to take more steps and we have to help that.”
Daniel also talks about sharing his perspective on dealing with bad press:
“It’s not going to get any worse than what people said about us for the first two or three years of our career,” Daniel said, chuckling again. “Deal with it. Go out and answer the questions, deal with opinions good and bad. Show your face. Get your story our there. If people are going to make up stuff, they’re going to make up stuff. Stand up and answer, hold your head high.”
And—his thoughts on how much longer he and Henrik can keep going. Could they make it to age 40?
“Age is a number…The way our bodies feel, for sure, I think we could do it. The only thing that’s different is the travel and back-to-backs wear on you more. When you wake up, you’re more sore. We’ll see what happens, but travel is the one thing that could keep us from playing that long.”
It's interesting to see the Sedins slowly earning more respect from the national press in their role as elder statesmen of the game. About time!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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