Saturday March 5 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - San Jose Sharks 2
The Vancouver Canucks are pretty good on the road. The San Jose Sharks are pretty bad at home.
Add in a strong 32-save performance from Jacob Markstrom and the end result was a 4-2 win for Vancouver in the Shark Tank on Saturday night.
Here are your highlights:
In the big picture, the most important moment of the game may have been Henrik Sedin's first-period collision with Brent Burns and the referee.
You can see the video of the incident in this Sportsnet story from Daniel Goffenberg.
Henrik stayed down after the hit—most unusual—but after he made it to the bench under his own power, he played four more shifts before packing it in for the night with 6:30 remaining in the first period.
Henrik Sedin won't play in Los Angeles on Monday. Heading back to Vancouver for further evaluation. Injured Tanev is with club. #Canucks
They're calling it an "upper-body injury." The hit seemed reasonably innocuous, so I'll take a guess that it aggravated whatever was hobbling him earlier in the season—his back or hip, perhaps?
In the short run, Henrik's absence accelerated our glimpse into the future of the team, especially on the power play. Hockey Night in Canada colour man Garry Galley pointed out numerous times that the Canucks hadn't scored a power-play goal on the road since January 14 against Washington, but without Henrik, a mostly-young group with Daniel screening in front of the net went 3-for-7, generating all the Vancouver offense except for Alex Burrows' empty-net goal.
It has been a loooooong time since Vancouver got seven power-play chances in a game—the last time was November 27 against Dallas—so some of the credit for the night's outcome goes to the Sharks' undisciplined play. But check out this list of players who logged the most ice time with the man advantage on Saturday night. Change is here!
• Linden Vey - 7:38
• Daniel Sedin - 7:41
• Ben Hutton - 7:48
• Sven Baertschi - 7:10
• Markus Granlund - 6:27
Just as Ben Hutton has stepped up to show us what he can do while Alex Edler's out of the lineup, Vey picked up the slack for Henrik on Saturday.
I felt like his name was being called constantly, so I'm not surprised to see that he played 23:31—by far the most minutes of his career—and was the only forward other than Daniel Sedin to top 20 minutes. A goal, three shots, two blocks, 50 percent in the faceoff circle (best on the team) and even 1:42 on the penalty kill. He really did it all.
Making fun of Linden Vey isn't a thing anymore is it? #Canucks
Baertschi and Hutton also continue to please me with how they're handling their increased roles.
And—pretty cool to see the veterans Dan Hamhuis and Alex Burrows, who have both had pretty trying weeks, pick up goals as well. Hamhuis' game-winner was his first of the season and Burrows' empty-netter was his first in 15 games. It came after Iain MacIntyre published this story in the Vancouver Sun about how the end of his NHL career may be nigh for Burrows, who turns 35 in April.
I also enjoyed the fact that after three meetings in a week, the Sharks were clearly aggravated by the Canucks—not the other way 'round. We worry that our team isn't tough to play against, but Micheal Haley was gunning for Derek Dorsett early on to avenge perceived wrongs from Thursday night and Brent Burns lost his temper with Burrows in the third period.
If they get thrown off their game that easily, San Jose is once again going to have a tough time going toe-to-toe against L.A. or Anaheim in the playoffs. Did you catch the first period line brawl in Saturday afternoon's Ducks/Kings game?
As for Chris Tanev, he left the game with about just over 12 minutes to play in the third period. Here's all we know so far on that front:
So, the Canucks ended Saturday night with two points they don't really want, but I think the win was valuable. The players who will carry this franchise going forward deserve some positive reinforcement for their efforts—and the win should increase the intensity of the rivalry for the two remaining Sharks/Canucks games on the schedule this season—March 29 in Vancouver then back in San Jose on March 31.
The win also doesn't affect the Canucks' position in the standings too dramatically. Arizona, Winnipeg and Calgary also won on Saturday, while Buffalo lost in overtime, so the Canucks remain in 23rd place overall.
My other big takeaway from Saturday night was seeing the Canucks take control of their message—and use the big stage of Hockey Night in Canada as their platform.
Rather than let the season devolve into an endless stream of coach-bashing, the organization has proactively stated that Willie Desjardins and the rest of his coaching staff will be returning next season. Hockey Night in Canada broke the story, then Ben Kuzma followed up with this piece in The Province.
Here's Trevor Linden:
We’ve seen improvement and that speaks to the staff and the older players and some mentoring there. I like the fact he connects well with the players and he understands them and respects them. And these are tough circumstances. Our group for the most part has played hard and he gets the most out of them.
Travis Green will also be welcomed back in Utica next season, though apparently he has an out clause where he can move on if an NHL team should come calling.
Also on HNIC, Elliotte Friedman took some time in the second intermission to revisit how the Dan Hamhuis non-trade went down. Linden had mentioned at Friday's Town Hall that he took umbrage at Elliotte's report in last week's 30 Thoughts.
I suspect this is the bit that particularly riled the organization:
Calgary was ready. Vancouver wasn’t. That’s probably the biggest lesson the Canucks need to recognize, from ownership down. When you are in such a tight spot, you’ve got to make a fast decision. Get the best you can or say, “We’re not getting fleeced.” Don’t leave yourself hanging.
In his TV rebuttal, Friedman acknowledged Linden's position that, as long as Kris Russell was available to Dallas, there was no deal to be made—and that any real opportunity to made a deal with Chicago was kiboshed as soon as the Andrew Ladd deal was done—and the Hawks wanted Ladd more than Hamhuis.
I also agree with this characterization of the last-minute offers that the team was said to have received from the Blackhawks and Stars:
My guess is the Dallas offer was something like a third-round pick. The Canucks GM knew that wouldn’t fly, and invoked the Brian Burke/Mike Cammalleri rule of, “I’m not trading a good player for nothing, because then other teams will think they can do that forever.” The Blackhawks’ package was more complex. It involved unwanted contracts like Bryan Bickell and Chris Higgins. Remember when Toronto and Vancouver tried to make a Robert Luongo trade tight to the end? It didn’t work because things were too complex. Same here.
It's nice to see the Canucks going out of their way to get their side of the story out to the media. That hasn't always happened—or happened effectively—in the past. If they can keep it up, it could make a real difference in changing how the team is perceived across Canada and around the NHL.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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