Sunday January 14 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Minnesota Wild 2 (OT)
Riding the momentum of the Minnesota Vikings' final-play victory over the New Orleans Saints in Sunday's NFL playoff game, the Vancouver Canucks overcame a late deficit and Brandon Sutter played hero in his first game back from injury in a 3-2 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday at Xcel Energy Center.
Here are your highlights:
For the most part, the game was a snoozer—just like the last time Vancouver visited Minnesota, when they escaped with that 1-0 win back in October. Final shots were 25-23 for the Canucks and it wasn't due to a lot of misses or blocks. Both teams, for the most part, kept their opponents to the outside, for a night of low-event hockey.
We knew Brandon Sutter would be back in the lineup but we didn't expect that Daniel Sedin would be a late scratch in the game, due to back spasms.
Daniel, Henrik and Luca Sbisa were the only Canucks to play in all 82 games last season.
In Daniel's absence, Henrik skated with Jake Virtanen and Loui Eriksson, and Markus Granlund took Daniel's spot on the first power-play unit during Vancouver's lone man-advantage opportunity in the game. That generated three shots, including two by Brock Boeser, but no goal.
With the Canucks heading into their five-day break, Travis Green's expecting that Daniel will be good to go when the team reconvenes next Saturday in Edmonton.
The Wild also got just one man advantage—but for the second straight game, the Canucks fell behind on an early power-play goal—this time, Jason Zucker's 17th of the year.
Vancouver's first goal of the game came 12 minutes later, about a minute after Minnesota's successful penalty kill. Loui Eriksson scored his first goal in 19 games on a nice one-timer off the rush—just like the scouting reports say, right?
The goal was Eriksson's sixth of the year. He also earned an assist later in the game, so when added to his assist from Friday in Columbus, the $6-million man is up to 16 points in 33 games. If he continues his current pace, he'll get to 13 goals and 34 points in 70 games this season—still grim considering his price tag, but that'd be an improvement of more than 40 percent over his 24 points in 65 games last season. Incremental improvement?
All kidding aside, Eriksson does seem to be a guy who needs some time to adjust to his surroundings. In his three seasons with Boston, he went from 37 to 47 to 63 points—so there may still be a chance that he'll evolve into a valuable contributor in Vancouver.
Here's hopin'.
Click here to shudder at CapFriendly's buyout terms for Eriksson's deal. Because his contract is loaded with signing bonuses, if he was bought out this June, the Canucks would save just $500,000 in cap space for each of the next three seasons.
The terms do get a little less onerous if the buyout is delayed to 2020, so it looks like the Canucks and Eriksson have to stay married for at least the next two seasons.
Back to the game.
The highlight of the watching-paint-dry second period was an uuuugly defensive shift for the Canucks in the second, where they ended up on the wrong end of what brought back memories of vintage Sedin cycle play.
The shift lengths:
• Michael Del Zotto - 3:04
• Erik Gudbranson - 3:04
• Sam Gagner - 3:25
• Brock Boeser - 2:42
• Thomas Vanek - 2:42
Remarkably, the shift started after the Canucks changed bodies after a Minnesota icing, but Eric Staal beat Gagner on the draw and the play quickly moved to the Vancouver end of the ice.
Tired as they were, the Canucks were mostly able to keep the Wild players to the outside. Minnesota got five shot attempts over those three minutes—three of them on goal—but Jacob Markstrom weathered the storm, nothing came from in close and there were no big scrambles for rebounds.
Once the Canucks finally did get the clear for the line change, the play went on for another two minutes before the next whistle. The Canucks regrouped to get the last three shots of the second period, relieved to have been spared after surviving that dangerous sequence.
In the third, Jacob Markstrom cranked up his game, earning plenty of praise from Sportsnet colour man Garry Galley along the way. But the next goal went to Dan Winnik with 7:46 left in regulation, after the Wild won a couple of board battles against Gudbranson and Del Zotto to retain possession in their offensive zone.
Brock Boeser didn't get a point in the game—stretching his drought to a season-high three games—but he would have earned the third assist (if there was such a thing) on the Canucks' Hail Mary goal—off the stick of adopted Minnesotan Thomas Vanek with 3:12 left in regulation.
I assume that Vanek's animated celebration originated not only from the game situation, but also from the fact that his Minnesota-based family was watching—and that the Wild bought him out of his contract with them at the end of the 2015-16 season. Back to
CapFriendly, which reminds us that Vanek is getting $2.5 million not to play for the Wild this year, in addition to the $2 million he's being paid by the Canucks.
Finally, cue the Sutter heroics—a goal that came at 2:50 over overtime, after a brilliant stretch pass from Alex Edler. It's just the second win after regulation for the Canucks this year.
So, the Canucks go into their break on their first two-game winning streak since December 5, the game where Bo Horvat was hurt.
They're getting healthier, and even Bo is back on skates.
The expectation is that he'll be back after the All-Star break—so, sometime around the end of this month.
Now, we keep an eye out for Instagram posts of sun and fun as the players disperse to recharge their batteries. As previously discussed, Boeser's staying in Minnesota since he'll be headed to Tampa to play in the All-Star game in two weeks' time.
As for you draftists, don't get too concerned about these four points. The Canucks remain locked in seventh place in the Pacific and 14th in the West—nine points out of the Wild Card with six teams to pass and only one (Edmonton) within shouting distance. That should set up a fun four-pointer next Saturday when play resumes.
SportsClubStats currently pegs the Canucks' playoff chances at 0.3 percent—better than only Buffalo and Arizona. So some positive vibes show no sign of interfering with the plan for a high draft lottery pick.
Also, don't worry about what we'll talk about during the game-free week. Teams are starting to make more significant player moves as the trade deadline creeps closer—the Sharks put veteran defenseman Paul Martin on waivers this morning and Logan Shaw was claimed by Montreal after Anaheim exposed him to make room for their waiver pickup J.T. Brown from Tampa Bay over the weekend.
I'll take a look at the latest whispers surrounding the Canucks' prime trade targets, and we'll also have time to check in with the prospects and muse further on Jim Benning's future with the team.
If you're in a hockey mood today, there's plenty of action stretching through the day, since it's Martin Luther King day in the U.S. As I finish this off, Boston and Dallas are still scoreless in the second period in their matinee in Beantown.
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