The Conference Finals are grinding on here in Edmonton, and we're now back to a similar situation that we saw in Round 2: heading into Game 5, the Vegas Golden Knights and New York Islanders are already on the brink of elimination after both falling behind 3-1 in their respective series.
I think Thatcher Demko is still living in the heads of the Golden Knights. From the beginning of the postseason up to Game 4 of the second round against Vancouver, Vegas was tied for second in production, averaging 3.75 goals per game.
Since Demko showed up for Game 5 on September 1, Vegas has gone 2-5. Their goals against has actually dropped, from 2.42 to 1.71 goals allowed per game, but their scoring has dropped even more. They've scored just 10 goals in seven games including the two empty-netters in Game 4 against Vancouver, giving them an average of 1.43 goals per game.
The empty-netters were scored by Alex Tuch and Paul Stastny. Of the eight remaining goals, four have come from defensemen — three from Shea Theodore, including the series winner against Vancouver, and one from Alec Martinez. Just four forwards have managed to score on a goalie over the seven-game span: Stastny, Mark Stone, William Karlsson and Tomas Nosek. Nosek missed Game 4 with an injury and Stone's status for Game 5 is uncertain after he was hobbled by a shot block on Saturday.
But the shortage of scoring is not for lack of trying. Vegas leads all teams in shots on goal in the month of September, averaging 36.7 shots per game. And that's not completely skewed by all the rubber they put on Demko. They're averaging nearly 10 shots a game more than Dallas in their current series — 32.5 shots per game vs. 23.
Click here to read my story from Game 4 from
The New York Times, which includes a look at Anton Khudobin's remarkable run during these playoffs.
When Vegas eliminated Vancouver, I was at peace with the outcome because I believed the Golden Knights were serious Stanley Cup competitors. Through good times and bad, Dallas has been a notoriously difficult matchup for the Canucks for quite a few years now, so I'm not sure the Canucks would have had any better luck against the Stars. But I certainly thought Vegas would have the upper hand, and that they'd bounce back after looking tired and lethargic without Ryan Reaves in Game 1.
Even though Vegas was only down by a goal in the third period in Game 4, their signature chatter was noticeably absent in Saturday's game. The bad luck around the net seems to have sapped the swag that's such a key part of their identity.
It'll be interesting to see if Peter DeBoer can get his group fired up to avoid elimination on Monday night. In his career, DeBoer is 11-5 in elimination games. But since the NHL adopted the current conference playoff format in 1981-82, only one team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series — the New Jersey Devils, against the Philadelphia Flyers, in the 2000 Eastern Conference Final.
Of course, the Devils went on to win the Stanley Cup that year — knocking off the defending championship Stars, who haven't been back to the final since. And if it means anything, the GM of those comeback Devils, of course, was current Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello.
There has been a rivalry between the Canucks and Stars' ownership groups since the Aquilini family froze out their one-time partners Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie when they first purchased 50 percent of the Canucks in 2004. Gaglardi went on to buy the Stars in 2011.
This year marks their first time past the second round since Gaglardi took over. They're doing it under the guidance of head coach Rick Bowness, who took the reins after Jim Montgomery
was fired for behavioural issues related to alcohol abuse.
The Stars were 17-11-3 when Montgomery was fired on December 10, sixth in the Western Conference. Bowness guided them to a 20-13-5 record the rest of the way, and they finished fourth in the West by points percentage. With two fewer games played, they were four points behind third-place Vegas — but scored just 180 goals on the year, compared to a whopping 227 by the Golden Knights.
Dallas turned up the offense against the banged-up Calgary Flames and Colorado Avalanche, scoring 14 goals in their last three wins against the Flames and 28 in seven games against the Avs.
Against Vegas, scoring has been even in the series so far with six goals for each team — an average of just 1.50 goals per game. Timing has been everything and in that regard, the Stars are on the correct side of the ledger heading into Monday night.
Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press put together a great story about how Bowness'
many connections through his NHL career make him the Kevin Bacon of the NHL — without even needing those six degrees of separation.
Canucks fans, of course, remember him for his seven seasons running the defense for Alain Vigneault in Vancouver, first as an assistant coach, then an associate. He has never been closer to the Stanley Cup than Game 7 against Boston in 2011, although he also went to the final with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2015, when they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks.
I thought Vigneault had a good chance to make a case for the Cup this year, but his season with the Philadelphia Flyers ended just one day after Vancouver's — also with a Game 7 shutout loss.
Bowness coaches on — and if these 3-1 leads hold up, either he or his old boss, Jon Cooper, will be hosting the Cup in a couple of weeks' time.
The only other Canucks connection still alive in the final four is Luke Schenn, who so capably stepped in on the Vancouver blue line at the end of the 2018-19 season after being acquired from the Anaheim Ducks organization as part of the Michael Del Zotto trade.
After the Canucks chose not to bring him back, Schenn signed a league-minimum deal worth $700,000 with the Lightning. He spent a bit of time in the minors, but was mostly a healthy scratch as an extra defenseman in Tampa, as well as getting into 25 regular-season games.
Schenn cracked the Lightning's playoff lineup during Game 2 against Boston as a seventh defenseman, and hasn't left. That's eight games now, averaging 10:36 a game. Coming into this year, Schenn had just 12 playoff games on his resume, but he's bringing the same physical presence that we saw when he was in a Canucks uniform.
He's also now one game away from a chance to play for the Stanley Cup after watching his brother Brayden celebrate with the St. Louis Blues last year.
Speaking of last year — at this time last year, I was taking in the 2019 Canucks training camp in Victoria.
Remember this?
That early-season work ethic paid nice rewards for Zack MacEwen, Tyler Motte and Elias Pettersson over a campaign that came remarkably close to spanning an entire year. Hopefully the same will be true down the road for Jett Woo and Carson Focht, whose identity in that tweet got disguised by auto-correct.
Woo, a second-round draft pick in 2018, has been signed to his entry-level contract but has not yet played a pro game. Focht, also 20, was drafted in the fifth round in 2019 and has not yet been inked to a contract.
Both these players haven't played a game since the WHL season was paused in March. With the AHL's plans for this year still in limbo, they'll be waiting awhile longer to find out when and where they'll be able to get back on the ice.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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