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Is it all-but-over for the Vancouver Canucks after losses to Coyotes & Avs? |
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Thursday February 28 - Arizona Coyotes 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2
The talking points are starting to take a turn toward the curious as the Vancouver Canucks' playoff hopes fade away.
On Thursday, it was all about ex-Canuck Brad Richardson's four-goal game as Vancouver dropped a 5-2 decision to the Arizona Coyotes. Here are your highlights:
Richardson is an unlikely figure to join Patrik Laine as the only two players to have scored four or more goals in a game this season. Laine had five against the St. Louis Blues back on November 24 and though he's not living up to his own lofty standards this season with "only" 29 goals in 63 games so far, Laine is duking it out with Nikita Kucherov for second place in goal-scoring behind Alex Ovechkin over the three seasons since he came into the league. Ovechkin has 126; Laine and Kucherov are currently tied at 109.
Meanwhile, Richardson's outburst on Thursday gave him a new career high of 16 goals in a year. His previous high was 14, set with the Colorado Avalanche during his second NHL season back in 2006-07—when Laine would have been eight.
As a Canuck, Richardson had a solid season under John Tortorella in 2013-14, the "whisky drinker" who played hard at both ends of the ice and collected 11 goals and 23 points. But in the second year of his two-year deal with Vancouver that paid him $1.15 million a season, Richardson played just 45 games due to a series of injuries. He still picked up 21 points, but didn't get on the scoresheet in the playoffs against Calgary.
Still, he got a nice raise and good term when he inked a three-year deal with the Coyotes that summer as a 30-year-old unrestricted free agent, making just over $2 million a season. He hit a career high with 31 points in 2015-16, but played just 16 games the following season and could have seen his career end after suffering that gruesome broken leg when Nikita Tryamkin fell on him at Rogers Arena in November of 2016.
To his credit, he made it all the way back, but scored just three goals in 76 games last season. Over the summer, he took a pay cut to $1.25 million but got a two-year deal and trade protection to stay in Arizona. He has now rewarded the Coyotes with what will probably shape up to be the best season of his pro career at age 34—in no small part because he has gotten quality ice time thanks to all the injuries the Coyotes have suffered. He's averaging 15:42 of ice time per game this season—a career high for him—and played 16:07 on Thursday against Vancouver, including 1:18 on the power play and 2:11 on the penalty kill. He's also working with some quality linemates. Vinnie Hinistroza and Richard Panik both served as great set-up guys for Richardson on Thursday.
Safe to say he was feelin' it all round. Richardson's four goals came on just six shots, and he only had one shot attempt miss the net on Thursday. He also picked up three takeaways, a block, and went 11-for-20 in the faceoff circle. He was matched up primarily against Bo Horvat, and went 7-for-12.
All four of Richardson's goals came at even strength, and Horvat and Boeser were on the ice for all four. Safe to assume that Bo's tank was running on empty after he logged an insane 25:46 at altitude against the Avalanche the night before?
Not sure moving Boeser off of Elias Pettersson's line had the desired effect, either.
Travis Green did offer Jacob Markstrom a respite after his 43-save night in Denver on Wednesday—and after starting the team's last seven straight since the Mikey DiPietro debacle. The Canucks managed just a 2-3-2 record over that stretch, but Markstrom allowed just 15 goals over those seven games, which is part of what makes it a bit tough to assess Thatcher Demko's performance on Thursday. Demko certainly didn't come close to stealing the win, but he was playing behind a very tired group against a team that's bursting with confidence right now—and a goalie, in Darcy Kuemper, who has had the Canucks' number and been among the league's top netminders over the last few months.
With their fifth-straight win, the Coyotes are now within one point of the second wild-card spot in the West—although they're still 10th in the standings, one behind Colorado as well as Minnesota. With their 8-2-0 record in their last 10 games, they've also made up ground on third-place Vegas in the Pacific; the Golden Knights squeaked out a 6-5 win over Florida on Thursday to stay five up on the Coyotes, but are just 4-5-1 in their last 10 games.
The Canucks face Vegas next as they wrap up their road trip with a Sunday matinee. They're 3-5-2 over their last 10 and remain 12th in the West, five points out and now just two ahead of Edmonton after the Oilers beat Ottawa on Thursday.
It sounds like Green will have his work cut out for him to get his team believing in itself to try to make one last push during its long stretch of home games in March:
Tanner Pearson, can you put the team on your back? The new acquisition was one of the few bright spots on Thursday, picking up his first goal as a Canuck.
Despite the lopsided nature of the game, Pearson, Adam Gaudette, Antoine Roussel and Ashton Sautner all finished the night at plus-one. Roussel had Vancouver's other goal—his second in as many games. He has now tied his career high of 29 points with 17 games left to go.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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