Thursday September 20 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Los Angeles Kings 3 (SO)
Bo Horvat scored twice in regulation and once in the shootout and Nikolay Goldobin notched the game winner as the Vancouver Canucks came from behind to record their first preseason win against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
True to their reptutation, the "heavy" L.A. Kings brought a much more physical game to the Canucks than they'd seen in their two earlier games this week. The hitting started early and happened often, but the new-look Canucks were ready to handle the physicality. By game's end, they'd outhit the Kings 38-31. Michael Del Zotto led the way with eight hits, Darren Archibald had seven, Jake Virtanen had six and Tyler Motte had four, while no Kings player had more than four.
In the past, we've seen the Canucks wilt as the game goes along in these types of situations. On Thursday, for the second straight night, they got better in the late stages—in this case, erasing a 3-1 deficit and coming back to pick up the win in the shootout.
It's early days, but I think this is a really good sign—of good fitness and a good dose of heart.
Bo Horvat says he was impressed by the character that the team showed in the third, and admitted the group talked about coming out stronger after a disappointing middle frame.
He had a good night with respect to making his case as the next Vancouver captain, also leading by example on the ice and taking it upon himself to chat with the officials while some third-period scrums were being sorted out.
With five points in two games, Horvat is currently tied with Kevin Fiala and William Karlsson for third place in the
preseason scoring race.
His first goal on Thursday came as the result of another ridiculous setup from wonderboy Elias Pettersson.
The Pettersson-Baertschi-Goldobin line was quiet at 5-on-5, but the new-look power play shows tremendous promise. Pettersson is basically the new Henrik Sedin, setting up on the half wall, but he shoots occasionally to help keep things interesting. Now playing Daniel's role: Sven Baertschi.
The group went 2-for-7 for the night even though the execution wasn't great in the first period. I also thought the Kings showed tremendous structure in their four-man box on the penalty kill, keeping things challenging.
It's interesting that Green chose to use Goldobin as his fourth shooter in the shootout even though he'd worked his way into the doghouse during the game. He had just two shot attempts in regulation, went for a stretch of nearly 10 minutes without seeing the ice in the third period, and was called out by his coach after the game.
Green moved Markus Granlund into Goldy's spot during the third—partly to help with faceoffs. Pettersson went 2-for-11 for the night but the whole team was getting torched through the first 40 minutes—14-for-44 overall with for a 32 percent success rate. Jay Beagle was 2-for-9 through the first 40 minutes and Bo Horvat was 5-for 14. Granlund was the best of the bunch in the early going at 4-for 9.
As a group, the team got better on the dot in the third—when the game slowed down and there were plenty of stoppages—and in overtime. They ended up 31-for-76 in the game, for a 41 percent success rate, so they were a solid 17-for-32 in the final 25 minutes (53 percent). Granlund finished up 9-for-20, Beagle was 9-for-19 and Horvat was 10-for-23.
Overall, Beagle got better as he went along in his first game as a Canuck. He played 14:43 in total and didn't record any shot attempts, but his piece de resistance was a goalie-style shot block in overtime, when he kicked out his left leg to thwart Jake Muzzin during the Kings' 4-on-3 power play.
In his first appearance of preseason, Darren Archibald made himself noticeable with his physical play. It hearkens back to this time last year—but I also remember how he became somewhat invisible when he finally earned his NHL call-up late last season. For now, I have him in the 'enigma' category.
The forwards battling for roster spots saw their window of opportunity open a little wider on Thursday, when it was announced that both Loui Eriksson and Antoine Roussel are expected to be out for a period of time. Eriksson is now officially week-to-week with a bone bruise after being injured while blocking a puck on Tuesday; Roussel is now being held off the ice as his concussion recovery isn't progressing as well as originally hoped.
If those two can't start the season, their spots will be open for others to claim—at least, temporarily.
Friday's the first day that NHL teams are able to put players on waivers for assignment to their minor-league clubs. The Canucks took advantage of that window to put goaltender Richard Bachman and centre Tanner Kero on waivers, as well as sending down six other players who don't require waivers:
No real surprises here. I thought Zack MacEwen looked pretty good in his game on Wednesday, and that Brisebois was pretty steady on Thursday, but these guys are one rung below the knocking-at-the-door group.
On Thursday, Michael DiPietro was officially re-assigned to junior, while Carter Bancks, Jagger Dirk and Jesse Graham were assigned to Utica. I assume Wacey Hamilton remains on the Canucks roster because he was injured on Wednesday—players can't be assigned when they're on the injured list. Same goes for Evan McEneny.
That brings the roster down to 37 players—33 of whom are healthy. Ten more cuts to go—one goalie, three defensemen and six forwards if the Canucks stick with their usual mix of 13 forwards and eight defensemen.
After four days of training camp and three straight games, the team gets a much-needed day off on Friday. After that, it's three games in four nights on the road, kicking off in Calgary on Saturday with puck drop at 6:30 p.m. PT.