Nice work by the Canucks, picking up a pair of wins against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For their next trick, they're going to have to see if they can find a way to slay the new dragon — the Montreal Canadiens.
The Habs, of course, are not the juggernaut that they were early on, when they started the season 7-1-2 thanks in large part to a 4-0-1 record against Vancouver.
Since Feb. 2, they've gone 4-5-4. But, they're 2-1-2 in the five games since Claude Julien was dismissed and Dominique Ducharme took over behind the Montreal bench. They have points in their last four games and found their scoring touch again on Saturday, when they thrashed Winnipeg by a score of 7-1.
And yes, Tyler Toffoli's on the upswing again. He was a minus-3 in Ducharme's first game behind the bench and pointless in Ducharme's first two games, but has scored in all three games since then, and tallied the game winner on Saturday.
It's actually Brendan Gallagher who has lit his offensive fuse, with six points in his last three games to now give him 16 points for the year. Tomas Tatar is right behind with five points in three games, and now is at 15 for the year.
Overall, though, Toffoli is second in Canadiens scoring for the season, with 21 points in 23 games. He's one point behind defenseman Jeff Petry, who could hit career highs at age 33, even in the shortened season. He has been solid, offensively, ever since he went to Montreal at the 2015 trade deadline. His best year was 2018-19, when he had 13 goals and 46 points. This year, he already has eight goals. And if he continues at his current pace, he'll hit 53 points in 56 games this year.
Despite being on the high side of 30 and playing big minutes on the blue line every night, Petry has remained a durable player. Since missing 28 games with a sports hernia in his first full season in Montreal in 2015-16, he missed just two games in 2016-17. Petry currently sits ninth on the NHL's
consecutive games played list, at 289.
The highest-ranking Canuck is Bo Horvat, sitting 24th at 215 games.
Petry's durability is par for the course for the Canadiens, who have been ridiculously healthy. Only nine man-games lost all season, through March 4.
Montreal's 23 games played are also fewest in the North Division so far this season — and, I think, the fewest of any team that hasn't had to deal with Covid-related postponements.
Vancouver was the first team to hit the halfway point of this season on Saturday, with its 28th game played. But other teams are starting to catch up. Eight teams have now played 26 games or more, including five North Division rivals (Winnipeg's at 24).
So while the Canucks' six points last week still have them sitting a a rather depressing .429 winning percentage, it's no longer quite so outrageous to look at the fact that they're just a single point behind Calgary — and four back of Montreal. Keep the streak going with wins on Monday and Wednesday, and the Canucks and Habs will be even in points.
The good news is that Vancouver's wins haven't come out of thin air, either.
Most importantly, Bubble Demko is back. He made 31 saves on Thursday and 37 on Saturday against the second-most potent offense in the league, and with the third-highest team shooting percentage, at 11.5 percent.
By comparison, Vancouver is currently tied for 18th in goals for, and 22nd in team shooting percentage, at 9.2 percent. Last year, they were at 10.4 percent.
Demko's now on a personal three-game winning streak, and has whittled his goals-against average down to 2.87 and his save percentage up to .913 — in a year where the league-wide average save percentage is .907 after finishing at .910 for the past two seasons.
And for the second time already this season, Demko has earned notice as one of the NHL's Three Stars of the Week. He was named First Star on Feb. 1 after going 3-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and .971 save percentage. On Monday morning, he was named Second Star behind Mark Stone of Vegas (10 points in 4 games). Once again, Demko was 3-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA, this time with a save percentage of .969.
In a season where scoring is up, goalies aren't getting many Three Stars awards this season. He's the only one so far from the high-flying North Division, and the only one in the whole league to have been acknowledged twice. In fact, only three other goaltenders have been lauded at all in the first eight weeks of the season: John Gibson of Anaheim (Jan. 23) and Vezina winners Marc-Andre Fleury (Feb. 13) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (Feb. 27).
Here's one more bouquet for Demko.
The Canucks are also seeing better results from their special teams. With Toronto's power play red hot, Vancouver stayed disciplined against the Leafs. They were shorthanded just three times in two games, and killed off all three of those opportunities.
And at the other end of the ice, they were perfect on their three power-play opportunities. In a pair of close, low-scoring games, special teams were the difference for Vancouver against Toronto. The power-play also went 1-for-2 in both games in Winnipeg earlier in the week, so there are some signs of life there — at last.
It would be helpful if they could stay as disciplined in these next two games: they were shorthanded 20 times in their first five games against Montreal, and gave up three power-play goals. But they did also have 20 opportunities of their own, and scored five times.
I'm also curious to see how Montreal will handle its goaltending over the next two games. Carey Price hadn't been looking himself this season, but the Habs also fired goaltending coach Stephane Waite last week, and replaced him with Sean Burke as the club's new director of goaltending. Price has earned the two wins over the last four games, giving up just one goal in each game, while Jake Allen has taken the overtime losses — and hasn't earned a win since Feb. 6.
We could be in for a real goaltending duel — a rarity, for sure, in the North Division this season!
And one final note, as Monday's morning skate begins: At first glance, it looks like Elias Pettersson will miss his third straight game.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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