Thursday March 9 - New York Islanders 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3 (OT)
For the fourth time this season, the Vancouver Canucks picked up points in four straight games after Troy Stecher's late goal forced overtime in what would turn out to be a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
For the second straight game, the Canucks came out of the gate well, but surrendered the opening goal. The Islanders looked like a team that was playing its eighth game of nine on the road as Vancouver took an early 10-3 lead in shots before John Tavares showed how quickly he can change the complexion of a game, picking up his 25th of the season with 4:59 to play in the first period.
Shots on goal were 14-4 for Vancouver in the first period and went on to be 39-28 for the game—the first time in six games the Canucks have surpassed the 30-shot threshold.
Vancouver grabbed the lead with two quick goals from the Bo Horvat line, early in the second period.
Goldobin out tonight with the flu. And yes #canucks testing for mumps just to rule it out for sure.
Goldobin's absence elevated his old junior linemate, Reid Boucher, up to the second line to play with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi, and he took advantage.
Boucher finished the night with 14:45 of ice time and picked up his second goal as a Canuck when he hammered home a loose puck from just outside the goal crease.
Less than two minutes later, Sven Baertschi gave the Canucks the lead as he walked in untouched to score his 16th of the season after a dreadful giveaway by Tavares.
Again, the Islanders were outshot in the second—this time by a margin of 16-10—but the visitors took a 3-2 lead into the dressing room after 40 minutes after a Jayson Megna giveaway set up rookie Anthony Beauvillier for a breakaway, then a seeing-eye point shot by Nick Leddy took several lucky bounces before beating Ryan Miller.
Once they gave themselves a chance to win, the Islanders picked up their play at both ends of the ice, outshooting Vancouver 13-7 in the third. Troy Stecher played hero with just 19 seconds left on the clock, pushing the Canucks to overtime with a late goal for the second straight game.
Stecher's patience and read on this play is impressive.
“I talked to (assistant coach Doug Lidster) last practice about maybe taking a step to the outside and making the forward re-adjust and that kind of opened up the lane,” Stecher told Ben Kuzma of The Province after the game. “Obviously with the goalie pulled, you knew we would have traffic and I found a way to get it (shot) in.”
Also for the second straight game, it was the Horvat-Baertschi-Hutton trio that was on the ice when the opposition scored the winning goal in overtime—this time, the scorer was Andrew Ladd.
“Obviously, it was a great pass in front, but I’ve got to pick up that stick in front,” Horvat admitted to Kuzma. “I have to be there and get my stick in the lane and it’s unacceptable for me to be on the ice for two goals in overtime — it’s not good enough.
“It’s tough (in overtime) when guys are tired and want to get off and it was kind of scattered coming into our end. It’s tough to sort out, but you’ve got to pick your guy and get in position. It was tough to give that one up.”
With the win, the Islanders remain one point up on Toronto in the race for the last wild-card spot in the East, while the Canucks' single point keeps them six points out in the West with 15 games to go.
Willie Desjardins and his players are approaching their games as if the Canucks still have a chance, but SportsClubStats says otherwise. Even after collecting six of their last eight possible points, the Canucks' playoff odds are holding steady at a dismal 0.2 percent.
Elliotte Friedman also mentions in this week's 30 Thoughts that the Canucks may look to shut some players down for the season once they're officially mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.
According to Friedman, "Vancouver may have a couple of candidates, including Chris Tanev, who is playing through multiple injuries."
In his postgame wrapup, Ben Kuzma mentions that "Markus Granlund is playing with something, Brandon Sutter is playing through a sore wrist and Chris Tanev has been playing hurt all season."
Kuzma suggests that all three could be shut down once the playoffs are no longer a mathematical possibility.
The Canucks did make a move today, recalling Alex Grenier once again from the Utica Comets.
Once again, plenty of bodies missing from today's practice:
No Gaunce, Goldobin, Grenier, Eriksson, Skille, Gudbranson, Dorsett, Miller or Markstrom.
Finally, a quick nod to the "Change Up" story that has been going around since yesterday, after Irish hurler Lee Chin told the Irish Times that he was shocked by the levels of drinking and fighting in the NHL.
No one's really disputing the fighting part, but the idea that management encourages slumping players to go out and get trashed in an effort to change their on-ice fortunes is a stretch.
I think Jason Botchford gets it right in this article in The Province, particularly where he points out that Chin spent most of his time with the Canucks alumni. I could see how those guys would weave a tale like the change-up, and I'd bet it even has some basis in fact, but I think that's about as far as it goes.
Henrik's response to the whole situation in The Provies is pretty priceless. What a year it has been!
“The change-up?. I’ve never had one in 20 years. I’ve never had 20 beers in a single night and never any the night before a game.
“I don’t know where he got those stories. Maybe it used to happen before.
“He spent the most part of his time with alumni.
“Most (current players) only met him quickly at a lunch.”
What did you think when you heard about it though?
“I thought it was a good change from the mumps stories,” Henrik said. “We got to talk about something else other than mumps so that was good.”
None of this is to say that drinking is not an accepted part of the general NHL culture. Check this week's 30 Thoughts for the story of how Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan cracked some brewskis with his players to get them on track for the 9-0-1 winning streak they're now enjoying.
We took the train from Montreal to Ottawa on the day off in-between…The players are in the front car and usually there is some beer. We took it off the car and everybody was mad. I walked up to the player car during that trip and saw that everybody had their headphones on, just staring forward, watching their movies or whatever they were doing. I talked to a couple of our veterans and said, ‘Do you guys need a beer here, or what?’ And they’re like, ‘Yup.’ So I went and got the beer tub and I set it down and said, ‘Take your headphones off, sit down and have a couple of beers, and let’s figure this thing out.’ Got them a little bit more lively.
That's what the Change-Up looks like in real life.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»