Friday February 2 - Nashville Predators 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3 (OT)
Alex Edler set a new team record and Daniel Sedin continued his torrid scoring pace, but the Vancouver Canucks ultimately dropped a 4-3 decision in overtime to an undermanned Nashville Predators group on Friday night at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
With Nashville riding a six-game winning streak but playing its third road game in four nights, coach Peter Laviolette decided to take advantage of his deep and healthy roster to make some adjustments to his lineup before Friday's game. Defensemen Roman Josi and Yannick Weber and forwards Craig Smith and Scott Hartnell were all given the night off, with Anthony Bitetto drawing in for just his 25th game of the year on the blue line, while Matt Irwin played his 39th. Up front, Mike Fisher played his first game of the year after coming back out of retirement, and Miikka Salomaki also drew in after being scratched for Nashville's two previous games.
The Canucks got off to a good start against their disinterested-looking opponent, outshooting the Predators and building a 2-0 lead by the 15:04 mark of the second period off a power-play tip by Bo Horvat and a dangle from Brandon Sutter.
But a two-goal deficit is NBD to these Predators. Just like they did in Winnipeg and Edmonton earlier in the week, they erased it to earn the win and keep their streak alive, moving four points up on Vegas at the top of the Western Conference and just one point behind league-leading Tampa Bay.
Fisher kicked off the comeback in the late stages of the second, then Kevin Fiala scored his 21st of the year during four-on-four play while Ryan Johansen and Sutter were in the box serving penalties after Johansen's spear to Gudbranson's lower region. Once the Canucks got onto their subsequent three-minute power play, Daniel picked up his 21st of the year—and Edler earned that historic 326th career point, passing Mattias Ohlund on the Canucks' all-time list of top-scoring defensemen.
It took Ohlund 770 career games to get to 325 points. Edler passed him a little more quickly—in 741 games, according to
QuantHockey. His 26 points this season already give him his most productive season in the last three years. He has moved him from fifth to first on that all-time Canucks list this year, also passing Jyrki Lumme (321 points), Dennis Kearns (321 points) and Doug Lidster (307 points).
Pretty impressive for a player who was initially selected 91st overall, in the third round, back in 2004. Only 12 players from Edler's draft year have played more games—and seven of them were first-round picks. The only defensemen from that draft class with more points are Mike Green (460), Mark Streit (434) and Alex Goligoski (343).
Edler even made a rare appearance in front of the media cameras after the game.
A couple of other numbers to note:
• The penalty kill has dialled back in following that brutal outing against the Avalanche at Rogers Arena last week. The Canucks have given up just three goals in 17 subsequent shorthanded situations over the last five games, and they've been perfect on the penalty kill for the last two games.
• Daniel Sedin's current five-game scoring streak ties his career high. With 8-6-14 in his last 10 games, Daniel's just one point off the league lead in scoring since February 11. Taylor Hall, Nathan MacKinnon, Evgeni Malkin, Reilly Smith and Aleksander Barkov each have 15 points, while Daniel, Eric Staal, Evgenii Dadonov and Blake Wheeler have 14.
And one more injury to add to the list.
Baertschi has 14-15-29 in 53 games this year. As an RFA at the end of the year, his bargaining power for his new contract will be lessened if he misses much time between now and the end of the season.
The Canucks are off today, given some time to spiff themselves up ahead of tonight's snazzy Dice and Ice fundraiser, which has been moved to the Parq hotel this year.
To wrap up, let's check in on the prospects:
That goal is Pettersson's 51st point of the season. He's now three points behind Kent Nilsson's record—with three regular-season games left for Vaxjo. Next one's on Tuesday, against Frolunda.
Meanwhile, over at Northeastern, Adam Gaudette's working hard:
Northeastern wrapped up its regular-season schedule last weekend with back-to-back shutout wins over New Hampshire—8-0 at home last Friday, then 4-0 on the road on Saturday. Gaudette had a goal and two assists on Friday, then a goal and an assist on Saturday, so he finished his regular season at the top of the NCAA scoring race with 29 goals and 56 points in 34 games, eight points ahead of his teammate Dylan Sikura in second place.
Now, the playoffs begin. Northeastern's best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal goes next weekend, kicking off on Friday against a still-to-be-determined opponent.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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