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Vancouver Canucks beat Oilers for 3rd straight win, prep for Blue Jackets |
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Thursday March 29 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - Edmonton Oilers 1
For the first time since December, the Vancouver Canucks have won three straight games.
The team remains perfect in the Ashton Sautner era after a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
Jacob Markstrom had another strong game, stopping 35 of 36 shots. The only one that eluded him was this creation from Connor McDavid, midway through the first period.
Not exactly great coverage from Gagner and Del Zotto on that play, but it really didn't even look like the puck was going to get through; Connor made something out of what looked like nothing.
The goal was McDavid's 41st of the year—not just maintaining his six-point lead over Nikita Kucherov in the Art Ross race but also moving him within four goals of Alex Ovechkin on the Rocket Richard side. But the Oilers have just four games left while Washington has five to play. I'll be surprised if he catches Ovi.
With no Derek Dorsett available this time around, Green's primary forward matchup against McDavid was Tyler Motte—a strong skater who was able to play shadow for a good portion of the game. The defense pair of Alex Edler and Troy Stecher was also effective against McDavid. Stecher also used his skating to keep a close gap while Edler delivered the goods physically.
McDavid finished the game with 22:22 of ice time, including 9:42 in the third period as the Oilers tried to generate the tying goal. He was thwarted several times in the dying minutes and was ultimately limited to six shot attempts in the game.
Motte's also an important part of a penalty-killing group that has now been perfect for the last six games—working up front in a group that also includes Brandon Sutter, Bo Horvat, Jussi Jokinen and Darren Archibald. The late-season acquisitions have been an important part of Vancouver's improved defensive play over the last month. As a team, they're also not taking a ton of penalties—just two again last night.
Motte still needs to sit out two more games before the end of the year in order to retain his waiver exemption. I hope Travis makes sure he's available for the last game of the year in Edmonton next Saturday!
Offensively, Sam Gagner hit double digits in goals when he lit the lamp for the second-straight game.
The rebound came off a Daniel Sedin drive, and has given Gagner three goals in four games since teaming up with the twins.
All of a sudden, I'm getting interested again in what the Sedins could bring if they come back next season and keep playing with Gagner.
I'm also paying heed to what Thomas Vanek said about his experience with Daniel and Henrik while he was here:
Word is that Daniel and Henrik are now going to meet with Jim Benning next week, before the season ends. I wonder if we'll get any clarity then? The pendulum keeps swinging but right now I'm more inclined to think that they will come back.
More on Vanek in a minute. Back to last night, Derrick Pouliot finished off the scoring early in the third.
The goal was Pouliot's fifth in the NHL—and all five have been game winners. That's an NHL record.
As for Adam Gaudette? He was just fine. He played a total of 10:39 on a fourth line with Brendan Gaunce and Reid Boucher, including 41 seconds of power-play time at the end of the second period. He finished the night with two shots on goal, a ripper from the slot that went high over Cam Talbot's net in the first period, one hit and one block.
Considering he hasn't even taken a full practice with the Canucks yet, I'm not too concerned about his lack of positioning. It'll come.
The Canucks are staying off the ice completely on Friday, ahead of their early game on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Since it's a rare 1 p.m. start, I'll set that up now:
Saturday March 31 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Columbus Blue Jackets - 1 p.m. - Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet 650
Standings through Thursday's games:
Vancouver Canucks: 78 GP, 29-40-9, 67 points, 28th overall
Columbus Blue Jackets: 78 GP, 44-29-5, 93 pts, third in Metropolitan Division
Thomas Vanek will make a triumphant return to Rogers Arena wearing his familiar No. 26 when John Tortorella and the Blue Jackets make their only visit of the year to Rogers Arena on Saturday.
Columbus has been on a tear for the last month. They lost their first two games after the trade deadline and looked like they were in danger of missing the playoffs before going on a run that has seen them win 12 of their last 13 games.
Vanek has been a big part of the team's success. Now settled onto a line with Alexander Wennberg and Boone Jenner, he's 7-7-14 and a plus-13 in his 15 games with Columbus and picked up a hat trick in the Blue Jackets' 7-3 win in Edmonton last Tuesday.
Different players are shining on different nights. On Thursday in Calgary, Pierre-Luc Dubois broke Rick Nash's Blue Jackets' franchise rookie scoring record with a hat trick of his own, which gives him 18 goals and 44 points on the season.
The Blue Jackets will also be coming into town armed with arguably the best young defense pairing in the league. Seth Jones, now 23, has already hit career highs with 15 goals and 50 points this year—and he's as good defensively as his is offensively. He plays with 20-year-old Zach Werenski, who has 14 goals of his own.
By contrast, the entire Vancouver defense has a total of 20 goals this year, led by Michael Del Zotto with six.
The Blue Jackets are dealing with some health issues. Their captain, Nick Foligno, is out with a lower-body injury and Josh Anderson has a knee sprain. Several other players are questionable for Saturday including Jack Johnson, Brandon Dubinsky, Lukas Sedlak and Dean Kukan.
After hitting rock bottom in Vancouver, Torts is living the high life once again:
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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