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Jaroslav Halak steps up; Canucks open road trip with big win vs. Avalanche |
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Wednesday March 23 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Colorado Avalanche 1
Thursday March 24 - Vancouver Canucks at Minnesota Wild
I'll admit it.
I shuddered when I saw that Bruce Boudreau was tapping Jaroslav Halak for the front part of this week's back-to-back, against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.
Boy, I was I wrong.
Halak was a force in Denver, backstopping the Canucks to an impressive 3-1 win and handing the powerhouse Avs just their fourth regulation loss of the year at Ball Arena.
Colorado did outshoot Vancouver 33-27. And that's actually not bad, considering the Avs had five power-play opportunities compared to just one for the Canucks.
But the game was scoreless through 40 minutes. Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller struck quickly to build a 2-0 lead early in the third. Nazem Kadri then replied on the power play with more than 13 minutes to go, giving Colorado plenty of time to stage one of their comebacks. In this case, they weren't trailing after two, but when they are, they have the best comeback record in the league at 6-9-2 for a .353 points percentage.
The Avs can often turn it on and bury opponents late in games. But that didn't happen on Wednesday — not even after a couple of missed empty-net attempts by Vancouver.
Bo Horvat finally carried the puck right to the goalmouth for the dagger, with 18 seconds left on the clock.
Rather than wondering where *this* Halak has been all season, I think I'll just be grateful that he's here now. And the 32-save performance bumped his save percentage for this season all the way up from .886 to .894.
A couple more games like that, and he will reach the .905 mark that he needs to cash that last $250,000 bonus in his contract. And if he can contribute some quality starts down the stretch and help the Canucks to a playoff berth, that also helps set him up to earn another contract next season — whether it's in Vancouver or elsewhere.
Of their 17 remaining games, the Canucks have three more back-to-back sets on the schedule:
• April 6-7: on the road against Vegas and Arizona
• April 18-19: home to Dallas and Ottawa
• April 28-29: closing out the regular season at home to L.A. and on the road in Edmonton
Wednesday's win didn't move the Canucks up the standings, but it did allow them to keep pace with their rivals. Wins this week over Washington and Edmonton have moved Dallas into the second wild-card spot, with 83 points. Vegas was shut out on the road in Minnesota and Winnipeg earlier this week. With losses in seven of their last nine — and a serious salary-cap crunch now that the Evgenii Dadonov trade to Anaheim has been voided — the Golden Knights are sitting ninth, and could very well miss the playoffs for the first time in their five-year history.
The Canucks will face them three times in April, which could be hugely advantageous if Vegas continues to struggle.
The Jets also remain in the mix — tied with Vancouver with 70 points, but ranked higher in the standings because they've played one fewer game.
And Edmonton holds down third place in the Pacific with 75 points — not tooooo far away, but also not any closer. The Oilers and Canucks share identical 5-3-2 records over their last 10 games.
Everybody's in action on Thursday:
• Dallas is at Carolina (4 p.m. PT)
• Winnipeg hosts Ottawa (5 p.m. PT)
• Edmonton hosts San Jose (6 p.m. PT)
• Vegas hosts Nashville (7 p.m. PT)
And of course, the Canucks are in Minnesota — making their first visit to Boeser territory since Feb. 6, 2020 — a 4-2 loss with Alex Stalock earning the win.
The Wild have changed so much since then — and since Vancouver took them out in the Edmonton playoff bubble. Bill Guerin has been ultra-aggressive as a general manager, and the Wild are now an explosive offensive team thanks to Kirill Kaprizov and a resurgent Mats Zuccarello.
Lately, they've also been very good in net. Cam Talbot went through a rough patch but is now back on his game. He's riding a personal six-game winning streak, and has given up just three goals in total in his last three games.
Talbot is set to get the start against the Canucks, squaring off against Thatcher Demko, with Marc-Andre Fleury backing up. That's a fascinating turn of events — especially since Fleury was on the other side last season, when the Wild pushed Vegas to seven games in a hard-fought first-round playoff series.
In addition to picking up Fleury, the Wild also made a couple of lower-profile trade-deadline moves. They added some forward skill by acquiring Tyson Jost from Colorado in exchange for big Nico Sturm, then amped up their toughness by adding Nicolas Deslauriers from Anaheim.
You might remember him from his two-goal night against Vancouver in that 7-4 loss to the Ducks last month?
Deslauriers' calling card is his 90 penalty minutes much more than his six goals this year. But he scored what proved to be the game-winner against Vegas in his Wild debut on Monday night. And I thought he made a great first impression as a good teammate with this hilarious approach to protecting his goaltender.
As for the Canucks' new guys — obviously, a win in Colorado is a great way for Travis Dermott and Brad Richardson to kick off their tenures.
Wearing Matt Cooke's old No. 24, Dermott was paired primarily with Brad Hunt at even strength. Thanks to 2:27 of penalty-kill time, he finished with a couple minutes more ice than Hunt, at 15:43. He and Hunt were the defense pair on the ice for Boeser's opening goal, early in the third.
Last time Richardson was with the Canucks, he wore No. 15. That's Matthew Highmore's number now, so Richardson slid into No. 13 — last worn by Griffen Molino for five games in the 2916-17 season, as John Shorthouse pointed out on the broadcast.
With Tyler Motte gone, Richardson slotted in with Highmore and Juho Lammikko — officially, as the centre. He and Lammikko both took some draws: Richardson was 5-for-8 in the circle, while Lammikko was 3-for-5. And Richardson also took over Motte's penalty-killing time, playing 3:35 of his 15:25 while the Canucks were shorthanded.
And with the Canucks' penalty killing causing them trouble all year, both new guys did great against the uber-threatening Avs. The group that was on the ice when Colorado did score its power-play goal was Pettersson and Horvat up front, with Schenn and Myers on defense.
That being said, I thought Pettersson looked great on the kill on Wednesday, and had a very strong, energetic game overall. He still hasn't scored since missing those two games with his presumed wrist injury a couple of weeks ago, but he was skating well against Colorado — in that thin mile-high air, to boot — and wasn't hesitating on his opportunities. He finished with six shot attempts, and earned the primary assist on Boeser's goal.
I hope we see more of that in Minnesota.
One other quick note before I sign off for today: the NCAA men's hockey tournament has begun, and all games are streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
Of note for Canucks fans — No. 4 Northeastern's matchup against No. 1 Western Michigan, which goes at 9 a.m. PT on Friday morning. That game will feature Aidan Mcdonough, who was drafted 195th overall by the Canucks in 2019. Now a 21-year-old junior, the left winger led the Huskies in scoring this year with 24-14-38 in 37 games, and he has NHL size at 6'2" and 205 pounds.
If the Huskies win on Friday, they'll play their second-round game on Sunday. As soon as they lose, Mcdonough's season will be over — and it'll be time to see whether the Canucks can get him signed to an entry-level contract.
I know there has also been some talk about Canucks prospect Linus Karlsson breaking Elias Pettersson's rookie goal-scoring record in the SHL, but I'm not going to get toooo excited about that news just yet. Much like we've seen overagers in the CHL put up big goal totals that don't translate at higher levels, I'm not sure a 22-year-old Karlsson should be compared to a 19-year-old Pettersson.
Nevertheless, nice to have another potential prospect in the mix. Fingers crossed!
And enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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