Sunday March 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - Anaheim Ducks 1
Looks like the book has not yet closed on the Vancouver Canucks' 2016-17 season. One day after hanging on for a win over the Los Angeles Kings, Richard Bachman was spectacular in net with 43 saves as the Vancouver Canucks swept the Southern California portion of their road trip with a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Here are your highlights:
Let's start with the good stuff—like the fact that this weekend marked the first time all year that the Canucks strung together two straight wins on the road!
Also, making his first NHL start in 17 months, the 29-year-old journeyman Bachman had plenty of personal motivation to make a good showing.
"You never know when it's going to be your last time."
It's not about the money—Bachman's on a one-way contract that pays him $575,000 this season whether he plays at the NHL levels or in the minors.
He signed a one-year extension last July that'll take him through the 2017-18 season that carries a $650,000 NHL salary and $450,000 in the minors. The plan is that he'll be the goalie the Canucks are required to expose to Las Vegas in the expansion draft, while protecting Jacob Markstrom. As good as Bachman looked last night, I don't expect anything will change on that front.
The Canucks will enjoy a day off today, then kick off a nicely spaced-out five-game homestand on Tuesday, starting with the Montreal Canadiens. I imagine Ryan Miller will probably carry most, if not all, of that workload.
The physical Ducks make teams pay the price when they visit the Honda Center. On Sunday, Loui Eriksson was the victim. After a strong game playing with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi on Saturday at Staples Center, Eriksson left the game just 2:52 into the first period on Sunday with what appeared to be a knee injury.
Watching Eriksson unable to get to his feet on his own, then putting no weight on his left leg, it's not hard to imagine that this could be the last time we see him this season. His first year with the Canucks certainly hasn't lived up to expectations after he was signed to a six-year contract with a cap hit of $6 million per season as an unrestricted free agent last summer.
Early word, though, is that maybe the injury may not be as bad as it looked...
Initial diagnosis of Loui Eriksson's injury was that it was not that serious but he'll be re-evaluated today. #Canucks#CanucksOn1040
Short term, Eriksson's injury necessitated 57 minutes of line-juggling by coach Willie Desjardins. After coming under fire from the Twitterverse for his limited use of Nikolay Goldobin against the Kings on Saturday, Willie went ahead and put the flashy rookie into Eriksson's spot with Horvat and Baertschi—with positive results.
Goldobin finished up on Sunday with 12:41 of ice time, including 2:07 on the power play, also in Eriksson's spot. He had two shots on goal, one missed shot—and made a smart defensive decision on Vancouver's first goal of game. Goldobin hung back at the point to cover for a roaming Alex Biega as he carried the puck deep into the Anaheim zone, then moved to the net as Biega returned to his position, passing in front of Jonathan Bernier while Bo Horvat was shovelling the puck into the net for his 20th of the year.
You can see Goldobin starting to move in just as this clip begins. I believe he also originally advanced the puck out of the defensive zone to start the sequence.
I'm probably as excited by this defensive awareness as I was by his slick goal on Saturday in L.A. I was also pleased to see him making some sharp, hard passes over the course of the game. At one point, he caught an unprepared Luca Sbisa by surprise, causing the puck to bounce off Sbisa's stick, but the execution looked good from Goldobin's side.
The game-winning goal was scored by Markus Granlund off the rush midway through the second period—an individual effort that he put right through Bernier for his 17th of the year.
After the Canucks' disappointing effort to kick off post trade-deadline life in San Jose last Thursday, I was worried that we were going to see a disheartened team mail it in for the last 20 games of the season. I'm really impressed to see that wasn't the case on the weekend. That buy-in we keep talking about from the players is still there—they're still playing hard.
With Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen gone, Bo Horvat has taken his leadership role to the next level. It's visible on the ice, with his drive and his scoring. It's also visible in smaller ways—he's now the guy who's standing by the bench giving high-fives and keeping his teammates pumped up. And the previously quiet youngster is stepping up behind the cameras and the microphones, preaching messages of hope and insisting that the even the playoffs could still be within reach.
After seeing the Sedins with their chins dragging on the ground earlier this week after Burrows and Hansen were shipped out, I've been blown away by the fact that Horvat now has the confidence and desire to step up and keep the tone positive.
The St. Louis Blues snapped their five-game losing streak on Sunday, so they've reclaimed the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. That means the Canucks are still six points back but they did leapfrog the Dallas Stars on Sunday, so only two teams are now in their way—L.A. and Winnipeg.
SportsClubStats still pegs the Canucks' playoff odds at an infinitesimal 0.6 percent, so there's no need to start clearing time on your April schedule just yet. But I like to see this battle level and I love the fact that Horvat is continuing to push himself down the stretch. He's got good reason, too, as he's playing for that new contract that'll be drawn up this summer.
Hopefully this also means we'll see some good hockey on the upcoming homestand. The Canucks are entertaining some quality opponents over the next two weeks—Montreal, the Islanders, Pittsburgh, Boston and Dallas.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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