Saturday March 4 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Los Angeles Kings 3
It started with some lucky bounces but it was Nikolay Goldobin's breakaway goal that stood up as the game winner as the Vancouver Canucks hung on to beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 on Saturday night.
Here are your highlights:
It was a rough night for Kings fans. Their team was hindered more than it was helped by its two trade-deadline acquisitions. Ben Bishop was handcuffed twice by pucks that snuck past him after bouncing off his own teammates, while Jarome Iginla's overly aggressive game earned him two undisciplined penalties and a minus-two for the night.
After a lackluster game in San Jose on Thursday, the Canucks showed signs of life throughout the lineup. Ryan Miller forced Kings fans to wonder if he might have been the better choice to back up Jonathan Quick down the stretch, facing 44 shots including 25 (!) in the second period.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a single-period shot tally ever hit the 20s before The Canucks had 21 shots in the entire game.
In the third game of the post-Burrows era, Bo Horvat wore the "A," and he wore it well. He collected three assists on the night—and was briefly credited with his 20th goal of the season before the scoring play was changed to give it to his linemate Sven Baertschi.
That ended up being Baertschi's second of the night and 15th of the season—tying his output from last year. He's now at 30 points, which is a career high.
Even Loui Eriksson looked lively playing with Horvat and Baertschi. He led the Canucks with four shots on goal and also collected two assists.
Most excitingly, we have the new guy. Nikolay Goldobin got just 5:51 of ice time in his first game as a Canuck, but his stat line speaks volumes about the kind of player he is. One shot. One goal. Plus one. And that's it—on this night, at least, he is a pure, golden goal scorer.
Ben Hutton made a nice pass to set up the play, but Goldobin also does a great job of getting control of the puck and setting himself up for the shot he wanted—low blocker, apparently, is his thing.
It's certainly not out of character for Willie Desjardins to limit a new player's ice time—especially a young player. But the situation was exacerbated on Saturday once the Kings started pushing for the comeback in the third period.
Four Vancouver penalties in the final frame meant that Willie wasn't able to roll his lines in any sort of normal rhythm. Plus, it was all hands on deck defensively during the 2:29 that Bishop was pulled for the extra attacker. That included L.A.'s third goal, scored shorthanded, which pulled the home team within one with 1:21 left on the clock.
After the game, Goldobin said all the right things to Ben Kuzma of The Province.
"It feels great and I’m happy to play my first game and get the first win. I think it went well."
With the win, the Canucks stay within distant sniffing distance of the Western Conference playoff teams—seven points behind the Kings, who sit in the second wild-card spot. L.A. has now fallen six points behind Calgary and will continue to face pressure from the St. Louis Blues and—surprisingly—the surging Winnipeg Jets, now just two points back.
The Blues can bump the Kings back out of the playoff picture today with a win over the Colorado Avalanche, who were smoked 6-1 by the Jets on Saturday. If you're wondering how it's even possible that Colorado can have only 37 points this season and a minus-88 goal differential, check this out:
Onwards...
Sunday March 5 - Vancouver Canucks at Anaheim Ducks - 5 p.m. - Sportsnet
Vancouver Canucks: 64 GP, 27-30-7, 61 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Anaheim Ducks: 64 GP, 33-21-10, 76 pts, third in Pacific Division
After starting Vancouver's last six games, Ryan Miller finally gets a rest as the Canucks finish off their California road trip with the usual Sunday afternoon visit to Anaheim.
Bachman will start Sunday vs. Ducks, says coach. Was the plan before this game.
Richard Bachman has appeared in just one other NHL game during his two-year tenure with the Vancouver Canucks organization—a 4-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes on October 30, 2015, when Jacob Markstrom spent the first month of that season on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
All told, 29-year-old Bachman has 43 games of NHL experience—he was with the Dallas and Edmonton organizations before signing on as an unrestricted free agent with Vancouver. He's 12-11-0 with the Utica Comets this year, with a 2.60 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.
I don't imagine we'll see any other lineup changes for the Canucks tonight. By the way, after discussing the prospect of Philip Larsen's conditional trade value in yesterday's blog, he was scratched last night in L.A. With just 18 games remaining on the schedule, it's now impossible for him to reach 42 games played this year, so Edmonton will be receiving Vancouver's fifth-rounder in exchange for Larsen.
As for the Ducks, they're in a dogfight for position in the Pacific Division playoff standings—currently two points behind Edmonton and two ahead of Calgary. Their last game was a 5-2 win over Toronto on Friday night.
Every time I tune into a Ducks game, they seem to be hammering away on their opponents, physically. I guess that's no surprise when I think back to that 2007 Anaheim team that won the Stanley Cup under coach Randy Carlyle and featured bruisers like Shawn Thornton, George Parros and Brad May as well as rugged then-youngsters like Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.
Sure enough, the Ducks are currently ranked second in the NHL in penalty minutes per game, averaging 11:15 to Calgary's 11:24. But I guess I shouldn't put that on Carlyle—the Ducks actually led the league at 12:28 per game in 2015-16 under Bruce Boudreau, so this is nothing new. It's that often-referenced "heavy game" that frequently takes a toll on the Canucks roster when they head south for these back-to-back contests.
We'll probably see a battle of the backups tonight, as John Gibson has been sidelined for the last three games with a lower-body injury.
Status quo with John Gibson. Getting treatment daily. Most likely not available for remaining two games on homestand.
Jonathan Bernier has been steady during Gibson's average, and made 37 saves to deliver the win against the Leafs on Friday. He'll likely get the nod today.
The Ducks' only major move during the trade deadline was to pick up winger Patrick Eaves from Dallas. He has one goal in two games so far with Anaheim. Other than that, the Ducks are basically healthy—defensemen Simon Depres and Clayton Stoner remain on the sidelines with long-term injuries and face-off demon Antoine Vermette is serving his 10-game suspension for abuse of an official.
The Canucks are 1-2-0 against Anaheim so far this year, with the win coming in overtime at Rogers Arena on December 30. In their lone visit to Honda Center so far this year, Vancouver was outshot 37-19 and dropped a 4-2 decision to the Ducks back on October 23.
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