Thursday January 12 - Philadelphia Flyers 5 - Vancouver Canucks 4 (S/O)
The Vancouver Canucks lost the special-teams battle and ultimately lost the game, in the shootout, in a penalty-filled affair against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
Here are your highlights:
In this game, Vancouver's power-play numbers actually look a little worse than they could have. The Canucks had a season-high eight opportunities with the man advantage during the game, though the Flyers only took six penalties. Two were first-period double-minors for high-sticking, and two sets of penalties overlapped for 5-on-3 advantages.
The Canucks scored on the first 5-on-3, when Daniel Sedin picked a spot over Steve Mason's right shoulder to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 9:21—with 10 seconds remaining in the first penalty.
The goal was Daniel's first since December 18 against Columbus, and Henrik's assist is Point No. 997 as he creeps toward that 1,000-point plateau.
Vancouver put 13 shots on net during that opening frame—as many as they managed during an entire game recently, if you recall. They went to the dressing room in a 1-1 tie after Travis Konecny got the Flyers on the board with a power-play goal of their own, while Nikita Tryamkin was in the box for a slash.
Vancouver's second 5-on-3 occurred late in the first, setting up 27 seconds of play with the two-man advantage to start the second period. Markus Granlund scored the first of his two goals on the night at the 1:51 mark of the middle frame—right as Michael Del Zotto's penalty was expiring. It counted as an even-strength goal but if it had come one second earlier, it would have been the second power-play marker of the night.
If the Canucks had gone 2-for-8 on the night, that would have been a 25 percent success rate, but they were denied by the blink of an eye.
By the midpoint of the period, the Flyers had taken advantage of a couple of defensive breakdowns to take their first lead of the game at 3-2, but that was short-lived. Markus Granlund and Brandon Sutter both put pucks past Steve Mason—both off primary assists from Jayson Megna—and the Canucks went to the dressing room after 40 minutes with a 4-3 lead.
Two things shifted the story in the third period:
1. Dave Hakstol pulled Steve Mason in favour of Michal Neuvirth, who shut the door. Neuvirth stopped 10 shots in the third period, four in overtime and all three in the shootout to earn the win for himself and his team.
2. The Flyers capitalized on a power play that had rolled over from the end of the second period, when Michael Chaput was whistled for interference with nine seconds left on the clock. Brayden Schenn tied the game 57 seconds into the third, and that's how regulation would end.
The Canucks had a chance to put the game away when they were awarded their eighth power play of the night with 5:59 left to play in the third, but they failed to record a single shot attempt during the two minutes. That's the memory that'll stick in fans' minds as the cries grow louder for Willie Desjardins to try something—anything—different with the man advantage.
Jason Botchford quoted a stat in last night's Provies that blew my mind, and it's true.
We all remember when the Canucks had the best power play in the league back in 2010-11, right? That year, the team had a 24.3 percent success rate. Pretty good the year before, too—fourth at 21.2 percent. And in their second Presidents' Trophy year, in 2011-12, they were fourth as well, at 19.8 percent.
But Jason Botchford reported—and I can confirm, looking at NHL.com—that from the beginning of the 2012-13 lockout season to today, the Canucks rank 29th out of 31 teams in the NHL over four-and-a-half seasons on the power play (Atlanta and Winnipeg are listed separately). Their 16.1 percent success rate looks pretty good compared to the 13.7 percent production they've recorded so far this year, but it's bad. And it has been bad for a long time.
Last night's game ended with Claude Giroux recording the only goal of the shootout—on his 29th birthday—to tally the win for the Flyers. With all the scoring, all the penalties and a good amount of physical play (the final hits were listed at 37-23 for Philadelphia), it was an entertaining game to watch—not dissimilar to the World Junior gold-medal game, actually, with the back-and-forth play, some sketchy goaltending and a shootout to decide things. The stakes just weren't nearly as high.
If nothing else, it should set up an engrossing rematch on February 19 when the Flyers visit Rogers Arena!
The single point did bump the Canucks into the second wild-card spot again for a hot minute but by the end of the night, they were back in 10th place in the Western Conference—L.A.'s dominating win over St. Louis put them back into eighth, and Nashville holds the tiebreaker with the Canucks and caught Vancouver at 45 points with a 2-1 win over Boston.
Two points over the last two games is better than nothing, but Vancouver doesn't play again till Sunday and is currently just one point ahead of Dallas—playing Minnesota on Saturday—and two up on Winnipeg—playing Arizona tonight. It's not inconceivable that the Canucks may lose all the ground they gained and be back in 12th place in the West by the time they hit the ice for their next game—and it looks like this is the rollercoaster we'll be on for the rest of the season.
The Canucks play New Jersey in a 4 p.m. game on Sunday, part of Rogers' Hometown Hockey series. The festivities kick off at 5:30 tonight with Bo Horvat signing autographs at the new Rogers store at Metrotown, and will feature two full days of activities on Saturday and Sunday.
Larwill Park is downtown, at the site I still think of as the old Greyhound station. It's basically a parking lot at Georgia and Cambie—across from the Sandman Inn and the Shark Club. Close to the arena!
Autograph signings over the course of the weekend are scheduled to include ex-Canucks like Kirk McLean, Jyrki Lumme and Darcy Rota as well as current players Ben Hutton and Troy Stecher on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking of Hutton, here's an update on his injury:
Hearing a microfracture on his hand for #Canucks defenseman Ben Hutton, 6 weeks is the worst case scenario. No surgery.
Sounds like it could be doubtful that we see Erik Gudbranson on the ice again before the end of the season, but Jannik Hansen should return before too long:
Benning: Jannik is going to be 2-3 weeks yet before he's back. Gudbranson, we don't have a timeline, but it's going to be months
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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