Thursday December 27 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Edmonton Oilers 2
Coming out of their Christmas break, the Vancouver Canucks picked up right where they left off, cruising to a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers to kick off their six-game road trip.
Here are your highlights:
All four Vancouver goals came in the first period where the Canucks managed just six shots on Mikko Koskinen—two sexy ones from the Pettersson/Boeser/Goldobin combo and two greasy ones from the Motte/Roussel/Beagle group.
When all was said and done, Pettersson's wrister with 1:12 left to play in the first proved to be the game winner—his sixth of the year, which ties him with Jeff Skinner for second in the league in that category, one goal behind Gabriel Landeskog of Colorado.
Pettersson is on pace to shatter the NHL rookie record of 9 GWG, set by Marek Svatos (2005-06) & Steve Larmer (1982-83) https://t.co/uabZx0Yb9G
Pettersson also continues to keep pace with some huge stars through the early stages of his NHL career:
In his 34th game of 2018-19 (and of his career), Elias Petterson's 1G-1A effort for the @Canucks puts him at 38 points & 5th on this list with some amazing centre ice stars going back 30 seasons pic.twitter.com/LsF8rFCKaK
If you saw the video of Pettersson playing with Loui's brood of kids during the SuperSkills day earlier this month, it certainly looks like visits to the Eriksson home are not an uncommon occurrence. The team's annual holiday videos really drove home how much the Canucks have skewed toward a group of young guys who don't have kids yet. A little slice of family life during the holidays probably feels really good for a 20-year-old like Petey, who's a long way from home.
Putting the result aside for a minute, it's not like the Canucks played a terrific game—outshot 32-20 overall. But along with the Pettersson magic that we've come to expect, give full credit to the Beagle-Roussel-Motte line, which not only hit the scoresheet twice but also took on the shutdown role against Connor McDavid's line when Ken Hitchcock elected to move McDavid away from Horvat-Virtanen-Eriksson to start the game.
The Oilers were able to burn the Canucks' penalty killers twice, breaking the streak of 22 straight kills that stretched back to December 6, but Edmonton couldn't get anything going at all at 5-on-5. Roussel even goaded McDavid into Edmonton's only penalty of the game.
Under the circumstances, it's no small feat for Travis Green to have come out on top of a matchup battle, especially on the road in Edmonton.
Hirschy on the Canucks last month : Travis Green takes the cake in my opinion. How can he not be up for a Jack Adams right now? I've worked with Ken Hitchcock and I have seen him school young coaches many times. Green can go toe to toe with Hitch, and win.
With the win, the Canucks' record rises to 7-2-1 over their last 10 games, since they snapped their losing streak with that big win over Nashville. Believe it or not, that's the best record in the entire Western Conference over the last 10 games—Winnipeg is next-best at 7-3-0. So Vancouver has made a little bit of headway in the standings, leapfrogging Edmonton on Thursday to move into fifth in the Pacific Division but still ninth in the conference thanks to a 2-0 win for Dallas over Nashville.
The Preds, Avs, Ducks and Oilers are now all on losing streaks while the Blues, Blackhawks and Kings have started winning, which is compressing the standings. Just 10 points now separate seventh-place Anaheim (43 points) from last-place L.A. (33 points), with the Canucks now back at .500 with 40. No teams really seem undeniably bad this year, which could keep things very fluid as the run begins toward the trade deadline and eventually the playoffs.
The Canucks made their way to Calgary on Thursday night and are scheduled to have a full practice on Friday ahead of their matchup against the Flames on Saturday. It'll be interesting to see if Brandon Sutter and Sven Baertschi take spots on the regular lines and, if so, who comes out of the lineup.
For a guy who was healthy scratched twice in Vancouver's first five games this year, Tyler Motte has certainly carved out a role for himself. He played 18:48 on Thursday—fourth in ice time among forwards behind Bo Horvat (21:24) and his linemates Beagle (20:20) and Roussel (19:09).
Because he's waiver exempt, Adam Gaudette seems like he'd be a good choice to send down to Utica. He could probably benefit from playing significant minutes, too. I wonder if Tim Schaller could be a candidate for waivers? He has no goals and five assists in 29 games with the Canucks so far this season, and has been scratched for the last six games. But at age 28, it's not like the Canucks are concerned about making sure he gets a chance to develop. In that sense, he's a great guy to keep in the press box as an extra forward.
I'm off to Victoria today, where I'll check in on Tyler Madden and Quinn Hughes tonight as Team USA faces off against Kazakhstan at World Juniors. I made it to Rogers Arena last night to watch Canada hang on to beat Switzerland 3-2—and the best part of the game may have been listening to Swiss coach Christian Wohlwend hold court—again—about how proud he is of his players for holding their own against a much-larger hockey nation like Canada.
In Copenhagen last spring, I watched the Swiss senior men's team beat Canada in the semifinal and get all the way to a shootout against Sweden in the gold-medal game, so I was not counting out the juniors on Thursday as they scrambled to score the equalizer in the dying seconds against Canada.
They could spell trouble for one of the Big Five when we get to the quarterfinal stage.
Another fun part of Thursday's game was getting the opportunity to make the acquaintance of fellow HockeyBuzzer Trevor Shackles. Check out Trevor's game story from Canada's 3-2 win, as he switches hats from his regular role as the Sens' blogger:
Finally, to wrap up on a more sombre note: condolences to Jim Benning on the passing of their family patriarch, Elmer.
Heart goes out to the Benning clan on the passing of patriarch Elmer (Jim's Dad, Matthew's grandpa.) He was one of the great hockey men, and people, we've come to know in this game.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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