Sunday March 8 - Columbus Blue Jackets 2 - Vancouver Canucks 1
Coming off a game in Edmonton that they probably should have won on Saturday night, the opportunistic Columbus Blue Jackets capitalized on a couple of mistakes to grind out a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks as they closed out their Western Canadian road trip on Sunday.
Here are your highlights:
I wrote the game story for CP last night, so feel free to read that here:
The Blue Jackets outshot Edmonton 46-24 in their 4-1 loss on Saturday, including 21-7 in a first period that ended with them trailing 1-0.
In Vancouver, it was the opposite story. Shots were 6-3 for Vancouver at the end of a scoreless first period. After 40 minutes, it was 15-10 for the Canucks, but the home team was down two goals. Pierre-Luc Dubois did some great work along the end boards to get the puck out to Emil Bemstrom in the slot for the opening goal, then Eric Robinson doubled the lead with 28 seconds left in the second.
Seemingly buoyed by their chance to head back to Columbus with two points in their pockets — and with Quinn Hughes in the penalty box after being nabbed for hooking with 12 seconds left in the second — the Blue Jackets came out with a burst of energy in the third.
Thatcher Demko kept the Canucks in the game when he made nine saves during the first four minutes of the third. The Canucks had just two long-range shots during that time, but got their break when an angry and determined Elias Pettersson burst out of the penalty box and rushed the puck into the offensive zone, refusing to be denied as he slid the puck through the legs of Elvis Merzlikins while falling to the ice.
The goal came at 8:19, on the Canucks' 21st shot of the game, and spoiled Merzlikins' bid for his sixth shutout of the year — which would have tied him with Connor Hellebuyck for the most in the league if he'd gotten it.
Merzlikins has played 33 games now and has a .923 save percentage. If the incredibly injured Blue Jackets make the playoffs, he should also be getting some Calder consideration.
Petey's goal gave the building a huge burst of energy, but the Canucks weren't able to do much with it. They managed just six more shots in the last 11:41 of the game, none especially dangerous. They squandered a power-play opportunity when Bemstrom was called for holding Quinn Hughes with 8:50 left to play, and got just one shot on Merzlikins after Demko was pulled with about two minutes remaining.
Petey had six shots blocked on the night, but Tyler Toffoli was the most snake-bitten. He had a total of 10 shot attempts on the night — including a squeaker in the second period that beat Merzlikins but got scooped off the goal line, and another point-blank chance that grazed the goalie's glove before going off the post. After the game, he said he felt he should have had three goals, but instead he was held pointless for just the third time in his nine games with Vancouver.
As one of the locker room leaders who has won a Stanley Cup and has 47 games of playoff experience, I thought Toffoli's postgame comments put a good point on where the Canucks are at right now.
We're in games. And we feel like we should be winning and we're playing good. But it's just the time of the year where everybody's playing good — if not great —and finding ways to win. So we have to kind of look at ourselves in the mirror and come together to say 'It's time to start playing great hockey and not just good hockey,' because it's that time of year.
We've just got to stick together and play as one unit. If we're doing that, we know what we can do. We've taken games over, we've beaten good teams. Find a way that we can, and play great hockey.
Almost all of their cushion is gone. Minnesota won again on Sunday, which bumped Vancouver down to the second wild-card spot. The Canucks' 76 points has them tied with Nashville and Winnipeg, but they're slotted above them in the standings by the narrowest of margins: they have the same number of games played and regulation wins as the Predators, but one more win in total, and they've played one fewer game than the Jets, but also have one fewer regulation win.
Then there's Arizona, still lurking in the weeds, just two points back at 74, but with one more game played and one less regulation win.
SportsClubStats has the Canucks' playoff odds at 68.1 percent on Monday morning — interestingly enough, ahead of Calgary, at 64.9 after losing to Vegas on Sunday.
The Flames are three points up on Vancouver, but have played two more games and have two fewer regulation wins.
Vancouver and Calgary meet head-to-head one more time this season: March 27 at Rogers Arena. The Canucks also host the Jets next Sunday in a crucial game and play Arizona twice on the road — this Thursday, as part of a back-to-back that also includes a visit to Colorado on Friday, and on April 2 in the second-last game of the year.
MoneyPuck is using a very different algorithm, giving Calgary an 80.2 percent chance of getting in while Vancouver is just at 47.6 percent — although the Canucks' odds are still better than the Preds, Coyotes or Jets.
Finally, over at The Athletic,
Dom Luszczyszyn has Vancouver at 45 percent. His model also has the Canucks ahead of Arizona and Winnipeg but he's bullish on Nashville, now at 62 percent.
The game to watch on Monday night: Arizona at Winnipeg, at 5 p.m. PT. The Coyotes can catch the Canucks with a win, but can't pass them, while a single point will be enough to boost Winnipeg ahead of Vancouver.
Also of interest: Vegas at Edmonton, at 6 p.m. PT.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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