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Game 3 of Flames series: Canucks salvage a point but let the win slip away |
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A point earned, or a point lost?
If you'd told a Canucks fan last week that Vancouver would earn three points in the first three games of its series against Calgary, I think that would generally have been taken as positive news.
And even though the Canucks beat the odds with a late shorthanded goal to earn a point on Monday, it was tough to watch that solid first period and 2-0 lead evaporate in the second.
With Quinn Hughes sitting in the penalty box — about the only rest he could get after playing 9:31 in the third period — Brock Boeser scored his 11th goal of the season with 31 seconds left to play in regulation.
But Hughes still had 38 seconds left in his penalty when overtime began — and we remember from the Sedin days how lethal a 4-on-3 OT power play can be.
Geoff Ward sent out a four-forward set, and it took just 23 seconds for Johnny Gaudreau to connect for his ninth of the year.
The goal came on his seventh shot of the game — he was buzzing all night, but had yet to find a way to beat Thatcher Demko. Like Boeser, he's bouncing back well from a tough 2019-20 season; in just 15 games, he's already halfway to last season's total of 18 goals. Three of the nine have come in the five games so far this season against Vancouver.
It is great to see Boeser back in his rookie-season form, isn't it? He also finished with 18 goals last season, and his 11 goals this year currently ranks him second in the league, behind Auston Matthews with 13. He also has seven assists, so his 18 points in 19 games are actually a better rate of production that his first season, when he finished with 55 points in 62 games.
He's also connecting on a remarkable 21.2 percent of his shots — the best shooting percentage of his career and more than double last season, when he was at just 9.5 percent. If there's a silver lining to this pandemic, it's that Boeser got all the time he needed to get his body back to peak condition — probably for the first time since that awful injury he suffered when he got hit into the open door of the bench nearly three years ago, on March 8, 2018.
With 19 games played, the Canucks became the first NHL team to complete one-third of the 2020-21 season on Monday night. Boeser's 52 shots in those 19 games are tied for 14th in the league (Connor McDavid and Brady Tkachuk are tied for the lead with 68) and his shooting percentage is the best in the league among players with more than 50 shots, showing some impressive consistency on a stat that often reflects good luck as well as good skill.
At the other end of the spectrum, the New Jersey Devils will play just their 10th game of the year on Tuesday night, as they return from the Covid pause that sidelined them for more than two weeks. Thirteen of 31 teams have played 13 games or fewer going into Tuesday night's action.
Taking a look at players with 30 or more shots on goal so far, it's amazing to see that 12 players are shooting at 20 percent or above — and six are in the North Division. Ageless Joe Pavelski leads everyone, with nine goals in 12 games and 28.1 percent. Gaudreau is second, at 25.7 percent. In addition to Boeser, the North Division list also includes Winnipeg's Kyle Connor (21.6 percent) and Mark Scheifele (20 percent), as well as Matthews (20 percent).
Those numbers are crazy. Pro-rating back to last year, the best shooting percentages for players with more than 150 shots were Leon Draisaitl and Mika Zibanejad, each at 19.7 percent.
While we're talking about stats — Quinn Hughes picked up the primary assist on Vancouver's first goal on Monday night, Tanner Pearson's net-front tip that opened the scoring on the power play at 3:51 — the first shot of the game for either team.
Quinn's now up to 19 points in 19 games, leading the Canucks' scoring race and four points ahead of the next-closest defensemen, Victor Hedman and Jeff Petry.
But Hughes was on the ice for Calgary's second and third goals of the game — for the second, with Jordie Benn, and for the third, with Nate Schmidt, although he was a long way from the miscue between Schmidt and Thatcher Demko that led to Dillon Dube's unassisted marker.
Nevertheless, that's another dash-two for Hughes, who's now a league worst minus-14 for the season — one below our old pal Erik Gudbranson.
I was happy to see the boys continue their 'work boots' approach to their pregame outfits.
Hopefully the single point is enough validation for them to continue.
As Travis Green typically does, he stuck with the same lineup on Monday after Saturday's win, including the third consecutive start of the year for Thatcher Demko.
After a quick twirl on the ice at Rogers Arena on Tuesday morning, the group now hops on the plane to Calgary, where the series against the Flames will conclude on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT.
Then, it's back home for another four games — two against the Jets and two against the Oilers — before March opens up with back-to-back games in Winnipeg.
And after a 6-5 shootout win on the road against Binghamton on Saturday, the Utica Comets will play their home opener on Wednesday against the Syracuse Crunch before traveling to Rochester to face the Americans on Thursday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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