|
Sedins showered with love as their farewell begins vs Vegas at Rogers Arena |
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday April 3 - Vegas Golden Knights 5 - Vancouver Canucks 4 (S/O)
That was a night to remember! Emotions ran high at Rogers Arena on Tuesday, bringing back memories of a decade's worth of sellouts as the crowd on hand roared its appreciation for Daniel and Henrik Sedin and willed the Vancouver Canucks to a third-period comeback to earn the team's first point of the year against the Vegas Golden Knights.
I thought it would be sad, but the night was a celebration of everything the twins have brought to the Canucks, the city of Vancouver and the hockey world. Here are your highlights:
We've had other sellouts at Rogers Arena this year—officially, 12 of them before Tuesday night. But the energy before this game hearkened back to the Presidents' Trophy years, when even warmup was a sight to behold.
The twins would be treated to several spontaneous standing ovations by the crowd during the game, even as the Golden Knights dominated through the first 40 minutes.
By the end of the second period, Vegas had amassed a 3-1 lead and outshot Vancouver 27-12, with their aggressive, fast-paced style on full display. Playing his first NHL game of the year after spending most of the season in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, Brandon Pirri scored twice in the first two periods, showing that the Golden Knights have still more untapped offensive potential ready to unfurl in the playoffs.
Nikolay Goldobin got the Canucks into the dressing room in a 1-1 tie after one period with a beauty for his seventh of the year, off a juicy feed from Brandon Sutter.
Ashton Sautner also looked like he had his first career NHL goal to narrow the margin to 3-2 late in the second, but it was called back after Gerard Gallant successfully challenged the play on an offside that had occurred 32 seconds earlier.
The scoring play was up on the game sheet briefly while the challenge was taking place—with both Sedins assisting. Even though it didn't count, it should be a sweet story to tell when Sautner's hanging up his own skates at the end of his career.
With Ben Hutton now healthy, Travis Green confirmed on Wednesday morning that he was choosing to keep Sautner in the lineup. That means Sautner changes from an emergency recall to a regular recall—and is the fourth and final call-up available to the Canucks this year.
With Jonathan Dahlen on the ice in Sweden for Timra as I type this (2-2 after two periods), it's already virtually impossible that he could have made it to Vancouver in time for Thursday's night's home finale, even if Timra loses today. Presumably, he'll make his transition to North America in Utica sometime next week, so there's no harm in using up that last recall.
It's definitely not a good sign for Hutton, though—who started the season as one of Green's most-used defensemen but fell out of favour as the year wore on. Hutton picked up a mittful of healthy scratches before a foot infection a couple of weeks ago looks to have essentially ended his season—and his tenure in Vancouver?
The fancystatters argue that Hutton's possession numbers are solid, but I see a guy who surprised by making the Canucks out of training camp when the team was desperate for blue-line depth in the autumn of 2015, but didn't really develop his game going forward. He had one goal and 25 points in his first season and was a minus-21, averaging 19:52 of ice time. In his second season, he bumped up slightly to 20:30 and had 24 points, including five goals. But all his goals came at even strength and he stayed consistent at minus-22.
This year, he pared that plus-minus number down to minus-8, but managed just six assists on the year and no goals. He wasn't generating offense, he wasn't providing a physical presence, and there has been chatter that Travis Green was displeased with his conditioning and work ethic.
Given that Travis worked with Sautner in Utica for two seasons before taking over the Canucks, it's not surprising to me that he'd be interested in bringing in a player that he had personally groomed—who had obviously left a good impression.
I've liked what Sautner has brought to the table during his time in Vancouver. Yes, the winning streak has come to an end—the Canucks are now 4-0-1 in the Sautner era. And maybe it's unfair to judge him when there's not much to play for at the end of the year. But I feel like he has made more of a difference in a third-pairing role than Hutton does when he's in the top four. In addition to choosing him over Hutton last night, Green keeps giving him more responsibility. After jumping to 15:05 of ice time against Columbus on Saturday, he played 15:17 against Vegas. He was on the ice for Tomas Tatar's 3-1 goal in the second period but got his plus-minus back to even—and picked up his second NHL assist—on Goldobin's second of the night, midway through the third.
The deficit had grown to 4-1 early in the third, when a Boeser-like 5-on-3 snipe by William Karlsson put him three goals behind Alex Ovechkin in the Rocket Richard race with this 43rd of the year.
Karlsson also had two assists on the night but what really jumped out at me over the course of the game was his defensive play, believe it or not. He blocked two shots and was tenacious at chasing down pucks—which got me thinking that may have been why he had been cast in a bottom-six role before he got to Vegas. He's sort of like...a high-end Jannik Hansen? Or what Markus Granlund could be in a perfect world?
Whatever the comparison, he's legit, even though his shooting percentage is through the roof this year at 23.6 percent; the next-highest for a player with at least 20 goals is Brad Marchand at 19.7. But he looks like a tremendous all-round player—exciting to see, one game after Seth Jones' equally impressive performance for Columbus last Saturday. More fantastic young talent bubbling to the surface around the league!
Those performances are also good reminders that the Canucks aren't being competitive in these final games because their opponents aren't trying. Sitting within earshot of the visiting management in the press box, I can tell you that there were exclamations of jubilance as the Blue Jackets mounted their comeback on Saturday—and just as many profanities last night when the Canucks cranked it up. And I could hear those cuss words over the roars of the faithful in the arena, who had clearly parked the tank for the night as they urged the Canucks back into the game.
Fittingly, the shots at the end of regulation were 33-22.
In the end, Travis bailed on playing to win in favour of giving the people what they wanted, sending both Sedins out for yet another failed round of shootout attempts.
It didn't matter. And the sting of the loss was eased by the fact that it was Langley's own Shea Theodore who beat Jacob Markstrom to finish things off with the only successful shootout attempt at either end of the ice.
The overtime and shootout extended a game that I don't think anyone wanted to end. When it was finally over, the Sedins took one more twirl around the ice—and nearly escaped before James Neal led his team in a handshake line.
Even the jaded old scribes on hand were moved by all the emotion.
I echo Ed's sentiments heartily.
If you have a chance to get a ticket for Thursday's sendoff against the Coyotes, by all means, do so. It's going to be an extraordinary night.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»