Tuesday March 29 - San Jose Sharks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 1
The big news of the day: your Vancouver Canucks are now tied for last place in the NHL!
I hadn't realized that the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing back-to-back games on Monday and Tuesday. After being shut out by Tampa Bay on Monday night, the Leafs roared back with a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers, moving them into a tie with Vancouver and Edmonton at 67 points.
The Leafs and Canucks each have six games left, and Toronto still has one less regulation win (22) than Vancouver (23). But with a 1-8-1 record in their past 10 games, it looks utterly plausible that the Canucks would indeed lock down the best-possible draft lottery odds when the 2015-16 season wraps up next weekend.
The Canucks were in the game for awhile against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, but were never in any real danger of winning. Here are your highlights:
Andrey Pedan drew into to the lineup after Nikita Tryamkin was a late scratch.
LINE-UP NEWS: Tryamkin blocked a shot during morning skate and won't be available tonight. #Canucks
With his rugged playing style and the heavy workload he has taken on since arriving in Vancouver, I'm not surprised that Tryamkin's a bit broken down. He was missed on the ice last night—especially on the power play. I hope we haven't seen the last of him this season.
After spending two of the last three games in the press box, Pedan chalked up six of the Canucks' 20 hits in the game and made an early impression thanks to a first-period fight with the Sharks' Micheal Haley.
In the fourth meeting between these teams in less than a month, there was definitely some bad blood between the two sides. Haley also fought Derek Dorsett back on March 3 in Vancouver.
I think that growing testiness is also what got the better of Jake Virtanen. The rookie received a five-minute interference penalty and game misconduct after this late hit on Roman Polak.
Yeah—there's no sign of the puck in the frame. And Polak didn't seem to see the approaching freight train until the last second. The good news—Virtanen did not make contact with Polak's head, and after lying on the ice for a long time until the penalty was assessed, the defenseman returned to the game six minutes later, seemingly no worse for wear.
Seconds before the hit, Virtanen was parked in front of James Reimer, on the forecheck while Brenden Dillon controlled the puck behind the Sharks' net. Virtanen was a couple of feet away but his stick was drifting towards Reimer's pads. Polak skated between Reimer and Virtanen, knocking Virtanen's stick out of his hands and slowing him down as the play went up the ice in the other direction.
Jason Botchford has a clip of the incident in front of the net in the latest edition of The Provies.
I suspect Virtanen was looking to exact a measure of revenge, though he denies it. "I wasn’t frustrated. I hit lots of guys all the time," he told Botchford.
This is the first time that Virtanen has been charged with recklessness in an NHL game, but the reputation he built during World Juniors is not going to help him in his hearing with the Department of Player Safety. My guess is that Jake will get to add "first suspension" to his list of rookie-season memories after today's hearing is complete.
The lone offensive bright spot of the night came when Chris Higgins took a page out of his playbook of old, scoring Vancouver's only goal of the night on a great individual effort while the team was killing off the Virtanen major.
The goal is just the third of the season for the 32-year-old, after going 12-24-36 last year.
Overall, I thought Higgins played his best game since his recall from Utica on Tuesday, and Alex Burrows had another strong effort. I think both these players have an urgency to their game as they fight to make their case to play out the last year of their contracts next season rather than being bought out—which would cost them a third of their final-year salary and put their NHL future in serious jeopardy.
What else?
Logan Couture was the star of the night for the Sharks, earning his first-career hat trick thanks to a late empty-net goal.
sharks empty-netter. Couture for the hat-trick. One hat thrown. #Canucks down 4-1.
No practice today. The Canucks are travelling to California to finish off their series against the Sharks on Thursday, then meet up with the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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