|
Hughes gets 2 points but Canucks lose to Preds, finish season Sat vs. Blues |
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday April 4 - Nashville Predators 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Quinn Hughes recorded his first multi-point night in the NHL, but a last-minute Troy Stecher miscue brought the Vancouver Canucks' three-game winning streak to an end on Thursday night in Nashville.
Here are your highlights:
The Canucks got off to a great start, outshooting Nashville 16-9 in the first period and going 2-for-2 on the power play—ending a 10-game streak of perfect penalty killing for the Predators.
Even more remarkably, both goals came from the much-maligned second power-play unit—driven by primary assists from Quinn Hughes.
There was also a little luck involved in the second goal, which was credited to Tanner Pearson after the puck bounced into the net off Pekka Rinne's back.
The luck started to shift in the Preds' direction as soon as the puck dropped to start the second period. Thirty-seven seconds in, North Vancouver's Colton Sissons was awarded his 14th of the year after it was ruled that the play was 'continuous' despite the whistle having blown.
Full credit to the Preds for turning up the juice after that. They kept the pressure on, and outshot Vancouver 11-0 through the first 14:11 of the second period, but had to wait until the third before ex-Canuck Nick Bonino tied the game with 4:20 left to play on another questionable play—with Austin Watson bumping Jacob Markstrom as he dove through the crease.
The Canucks challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal was allowed to stand.
The winner was awarded to Port Moody's Ryan Johansen after his pass attempt was deflected past Markstrom off of Troy Stecher's stick.
Truly—great moves from Filip Forsberg along the boards to set up that goal. He has the ability to raise his game in clutch situations, and the Preds needed those two points. St. Louis won on Thursday and Winnipeg lost in overtime, so the win gives Nashville a one-point lead atop the Central Division standings, with one game left on the schedule for all three teams.
As for new guy Brogan Rafferty, he finished the night with 12:03 of ice time and had one shot, one takeaway and one giveaway. His ice time was all at even strength so he saw less action in the second period, when the Canucks successfully killed two penalties. He saw a regular shift in the third, but was on the ice with Ben Hutton for the Bonino goal.
Saturday April 6 - Vancouver Canucks at St. Louis Blues - 1 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 81 GP, 35-36-10, 80 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
St. Louis Blues: 81 GP, 81 GP, 44-28-9, 97 pts, third in Central Division
Since the Canucks will wrap up their 2018-19 schedule with an early game on Saturday, I'll set that up now as well.
The St. Louis Blues will be the first of the three Central Division contenders to take to the ice on Saturday when they host Vancouver; later, Nashville will host Chicago, then Winnipeg will visit the Coyotes in Glendale.
As I mentioned above, seeding for those three teams is still very much up for grabs. The Blues don't control their destiny but with a win and a little help, they still have a chance to win their division despite having been last in the entire NHL on January 3.
Last time the Canucks visited Enterprise Center, the Blues were still a mess. That was Elias Pettersson's five-point night as Vancouver cruised to a 6-1 win on December 9. The Canucks went on to beat St. Louis 5-1 at home on December 20.
Suffice to say, things are different now. Craig Berube took over as interim head coach on November 20, and things started to click for his team at the beginning of the new year. With a 29-10-5 record for 63 points over 44 games, the Blues have collected more points than any other team in 2019, although they also played three more games than the Tampa Bay Lightning (62 points), two more than the Boston Bruins (61 points) and one more than the Carolina Hurricanes—also very impressive with 60 points in 43 games so far in this calendar year.
Jordan Binnington has been the big story, of course, in net. He was originally called up from San Antonio in December, but saw just two games of action. After a one-week return to the minors at the end of that month, he returned to the Blues for good on January 5 and promptly went on his big tear. In his 31 games played, the 25-year-old is 23-5-1 with a .927 save percentage and a 1.89 goals-against average.
The general consensus I've seen is that Binnington's great second half still shouldn't put him ahead of Elias Pettersson in the Calder Trophy voting for two key reasons. First, his body of work isn't large enough—the same reason that Connor McDavid wasn't named rookie of the year in 2015-16 when he was limited to just 45 games due to injury. Second, I've heard some chatter that Calder voters want to try to reward the player who's going to ultimately have the biggest long-term impact on the league. Though Elias Pettersson's production and his highlight-reel moments have slowed down in the second half, he's still widely seen around the league as a very special talent. I think there's more skepticism about whether the 25-year-old journeyman Binnington is really now suddenly establishing himself as one of the NHL's elite netminders.
Binnington has been a little more ordinary over the last month or so. Since the beginning of March, he has given up three goals or more in five of his 11 starts, with a save percentage of .912 and a 2.35 GAA. But his record over that time is 8-3-0 as the Blues have offered good run support to both him and Jake Allen. Since March 1, they're fourth in the NHL with 59 goals scored and great special teams: a 27.7 percent power play (second overall) and an 86.8 percent penalty kill (sixth overall).
By contrast, the Canucks have scored 40 goals over that same stretch (24th), but their special teams have also been good. The power play has been clicking at 24.4 percent (tied for sixth with Boston) and the penalty kill has been working at 87.8 percent (fourth overall).
Jacob Markstrom's numbers have also dropped off since March 1. He's 5-5-1 with a 3.05 GAA and .908 save percentage. But Markstrom played his 60th game of the year on Thursday in Nashville, hitting that mark for the second-straight season. It's expected that'll put a bow on his year, and Thatcher Demko will finish things off in St. Louis on Saturday.
A couple of other quick notes to finish off today:
I'm now more optimistic than I was about the possibility that Will Lockwood might still eventually become a Vancouver Canuck after reading these comments he made on Sportsnet 650 this morning:
Now that the Canucks are officially eliminated from the playoffs, we're starting to hear more about players who might take part in this year's World Championship in Slovakia. Alain Vigneault has already been confirmed as Canada's head coach; there's talk that Travis Green might join him as an assistant. It sounds like Quinn Hughes is confirmed for a second spin with Team USA—and could be joined by his brother, Jack. Jacob Markstrom has made it clear that he wants to play for Sweden, and Rick Dhaliwal is reporting that the injured Chris Tanev is on Canada's radar. Not likely to play: Bo Horvat, who's getting married this summer. Brock Boeser and Alex Edler are also unlikely since they won't want to risk injury while they don't have contracts in place for next season. Last I heard, Elias Pettersson said he was undecided.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»