Tuesday January 9 - Washington Capitals 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
Do you remember the old days when the Vancouver Canucks were playing at the Pacific Coliseum? The circus would come to town every January, pushing the Canucks out onto the road, and their season would fall apart as they lurched from city to city.
There's nothing scheduled at Rogers Arena this month until the Canucks come back to play the Los Angeles Kings on January 23. That's an unusually long dark stretch, so I'm going to guess that there's either some major work being done in or around the facility or else that it's being used for some private purpose. Concert rehearsals? A film shoot?
Whatever the reason for such a long stretch away from home, the Canucks' month of January is looking a lot like those Stick-in-Rink and Flying V days. Vancouver is now 0-3-1 in 2018 after a 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
Here are your highlights:
The game got off to a good start, with the Canucks outshooting the Caps 14-11 in the first period and taking a 1-0 lead when Daniel Sedin converted an Alex Edler point shot for the team's second 5-on-3 goal in the last three games.
But Vancouver went to the dressing room in a 2-1 hole after a weird goal that saw Jacob Markstrom trapped after his net tipped forward and Michael Del Zotto did his best to get it back in place as John Carlson fired a slapper from the point.
I thought Travis Green had a reasonable case when he challenged for goalie interference. If Markstrom is prevented from doing his job because the net has tipped up on its pegs, isn't that the same as if he's impeded by a player in his way in the crease?
The league ruled that the goal was good, but check out this video:
Yes, it's Nic Dowd that tips the net up as he falls into it behind the net, but it happens because he's elbowed in the head by Nick Backstrom. The angle in the NHL video shows Dowd's head snapping back pretty clearly.
Jason Botchford asked Dowd about the play after the game, and printed his response in The Provies:
Dowd: “I’m going to go out on a limb and say Marky would have saved that shot (if not for the net).
“I’m not going to comment on the refs.”
It kind of looks like he elbows you in the head…
“I’ll leave it up to what you guys think it was.
“I should have closed the play off in the corner, then none of that would have happened.”
Dowd has gotten a bit of a rough ride from Canucks Nation since he rode into town last month, but my guess is that the situation will take care of itself before too long. Word is that Brandon Sutter is finally close to 100 percent and is flying out from Vancouver to meet the team this week. Dan Murphy suggested on the broadcast last night that Sutter could play in Columbus on Friday, which would probably bump Michael Chaput back to Utica and cut Dowd's ice time. Once Bo Horvat is back, Dowd will most likely become an extra forward.
The other galvanizing moment for Canucks fans in last night's game was Ben Hutton's big hit on Brooks Orpik, which led to a fight with Devante Smith-Pelly.
You play in the Eastern Time Zone, in the U.S., and moments like this get picked up by non-hockey-exclusive national outlets like Deadspin:
Two things here:
• First, we got a taste of this new Hutton when he flattened Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings back in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago.
• Second, there's no doubt that some of Hutton's aggression is borne from the frustration of being healthy-scratched for the first time in his NHL career—four times in the last nine games. I'm sure Hutty is trying to make sure that he's not the first guy on Travis Green's scratch list when Chris Tanev comes back into the lineup.
From Botchford:
Asked about how it made (Hutton) feel after the stretch he’s endured he said “it feels good” before forcing a lengthy breath through his teeth which, if you listened close enough, sounded like relief.
“It brings confidence. I know it brings the guys up on the bench. They’re always happy to see a big hit,” Hutton explained.
“We didn’t have a good second.
“There was an opportunity for a big hit early in the third.”
Erik Gudbranson concurred:
“That’s helluva job. That’s a big man he ran over and that was a man’s fight he got into after, sticking up for himself for out team … and our logo.”
Brown and Orpik are not easy targets, which is probably part of the reason why Canucks and Caps followers were so wildly divided on the nature of the hit. I loved this tempered exchange between Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press, who's based in Washington, and Vancouver's Josh Clipperton of Canadian Press:
In the Deadspin article above, the hit was described as "a probably illegal elbow."
For his part, Smith-Pelly wasn't so quick to judge:
Hutton's new intensity is a bright spot in this dark time.
To wrap up today, Botchford has an update on Jim Benning's recent absence from the team—serious and sad.
His wife’s mother fell recently and as a result suffered brain hemorrhaging. Not long after, she was in a coma.
Jim returned home and was with his wife, Rhonda, and their family, when her mother died.
The service was (Tuesday).
Jim will be returning to Vancouver and his work this week.
Condolences to Rhonda, Jim and the rest of the Benning family.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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