Whether or not the Vancouver Canucks make the playoffs, they've been a lot more fun to watch in March than they were in February.
On Wednesday, the Canucks swept their two-game series against the Ottawa Senators with a 3-2 shootout win.
In their 33rd game of the season, the Canucks climbed to one game below .500 for the first time since Game 13. They also moved one point ahead of the Calgary Flames, into fifth spot in the North Division, after the Flames dropped a 7-3 decision on home ice to the Edmonton Oilers.
With Montreal salvaging a point against Winnipeg on Wednesday thanks to Tyler Toffoli's tying goal with 1:25 left in regulation, Vancouver lands at the Bell Centre for back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday sitting just two points behind the Canadiens, who hold down the last playoff spot in the North Division.
Now at 7-3-0 in their last 10 games, the Canucks are the hottest team in the North. But while the Canadiens have just four regulation wins since Claude Julien was fired on Feb. 24, they've done a great job of managing their losses, like they did on Wednesday. At 4-2-4 in their last 10 games, they have 12 points compared to Vancouver's 14.
Meanwhile, the Flames' loss was their first since Darryl Sutter arrived behind the bench last week, and comes after three wins. They're 5-4-1 for 11 points in their last 10 games.
After Thatcher Demko essentially stole the two points on Monday in a game where Ottawa outshot Vancouver 46-28, the efforts were much more even on Wednesday night. Shots ended up at 32-29 for Ottawa and the Canucks were deeper into the game physically, recording 30 hits and 21 blocks.
Demko wasn't even named one of the game's three stars!
Bo Horvat earned first-star honours with a goal, an assist, a 19-for-30 performance in the faceoff circle, four shot attempts, three hits and two blocks, while leading all forwards with 23:38 of ice time. That is, indeed, a very complete game.
After the Canucks took a 2-0 first-period lead, Ottawa's Ryan Dzingel scored his sixth of the year to get the Senators on the board, earning second-star honours. And Adam Gaudette was named third star as the only player to connect in the shootout.
He gave Vancouver the win on his just second career shootout attempt, on a move he said goaltending coach Ian Clark helped him to devise.
Brock Boeser opened the scoring for the Canucks, tallying his 15th of the year just 2:29 into the first period. And Nils Hoglander deserves style points for his tenacious takeaway as he stripped Thomas Chabot of the puck, then hustled down the ice before threading a perfect pass through to Horvat.
Sens fans say Chabot was tripped. I'd say, in general, that officials seem to be letting a lot go these days, although the stats disagree. According to
Hockey Reference, we're seeing an average of 3.09 power-play opportunities per game — and I assume that's per team. That's up from 2.97 last season, and the highest number since 3.11 in the 2015-16 season. I wonder if there's much variance from one division to the next?
The Canucks currently lead the league in penalty minutes for the year, at 323. But since they're one of the league leaders in games played, they do drop to third with 9:47 penalty minutes per game, behind Boston and Tampa Bay.
But the Canucks have trended in a very positive direction in this area as the season has gone on. In January, they were comfortably first, averaging 14:10 in penalty time per game. In February, they dropped to seventh at 8:46, and so far in March they're 28th, averaging just 5:53 per game.
And when they do get penalties, they're killing them off. Overall, the Canucks are 10th in the league with an 81.2 percent success rate. Their kill rate actually hasn't changed all that much — it was 79.6 percent in January, 81.8 percent in February and has risen to 83.3 percent in March. Really, the bigger impact on the score sheet is the fact that they're simply shorthanded less often.
It was nice to see P.K. ace Tyler Motte back in the lineup on Wednesday after missing 17 games with a high ankle sprain. With Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel both out of the lineup, he and Brandon Sutter took the No. 1 penalty-killing detail up front, playing 2:43. J.T. Miller and Tanner Pearson covered the rest, with 1:17.
But Pearson didn't finish the game — hobbled by an ankle injury, his last shift ended with 13:11 to play in the third period. Motte ended up taking his spot on the second power-play unit during a third-period man advantage. He also finished with four hits and four blocks, demonstrating his usual high-energy tenacity.
With Motte's return, and Wednesday's waiver pickup of forward Jimmy Vesey, the Canucks returned Loui Eriksson and Marc Michaelis to the taxi squad before the Ottawa game, and kept defenseman Brogan Rafferty in Canada by loaning him to the Manitoba Moose.
As it turned out, Vesey's immigration paperwork was not completed in time for puck drop, so even though he hopped a Covid-safe car service from Toronto and got to Ottawa in time to take warmup, he wasn't permitted to play. Jalen Chatfield got the nod in his place, his first game action since Feb. 6, but played just three first-period shifts for a total of 2:13 of ice time.
Zack MacEwen also played just 7:45, but managed a team-high five hits on his 13 shifts. An impressive ratio!
No word yet on whether Pearson's injury will cause him to miss time. Antoine Roussel is also on the road trip and there's a chance that he could play this weekend.
And Vesey will do his first availability with Vancouver media on Thursday.
The big winger was a big deal when he came out of college as the 2016 Hobey Baker winner and captain of Harvard's team. Rather than signing with the Nashville Predators, who drafted him in the third round in 2012, he elected to go the free-agent route, and signed on with the New York Rangers.
Over three seasons with the Rangers, he got up to 17 goals and 35 points before being traded to Buffalo in exchange for a third-round pick at the beginning of the 2019-20 season. After nine goals and 20 points in 64 games, the Sabres elected not to re-sign him, and he latched on as a depth forward with the Leafs on a one-year free-agent deal at $900,000.
Vesey did play in every game for Toronto, scoring five goals and adding two assists. But his ice time dropped to single digits in six consecutive games before he was put on waivers on Tuesday. His last point was his goal against the Canucks in Vancouver on March 6.
When injuries strike in a normal year, the Canucks would turn to the farm, and call up a prospect to fill out the roster. With their forward depth now stretched thin this year, it made sense for the club to grab a waiver option like Vesey, who can play right away without having to go through quarantine, whose salary is cap friendly, and who is just a short-term commitment — and unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, who's turning 28 in May.
He may be just a stop-gap solution, but he does have 334 games of NHL experience and he's durable (knock on wood). It's too bad that the Kole Linds and Jonah Gajoviches of the world won't get a look that they probably deserve, but Vesey is a pretty good way to fill a hole in a time of sudden need.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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