Thursday March 31 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - San Jose Sharks 2
It wasn't quite the 5-0 victory I'd dreamt about the night before, but the Vancouver Canucks were able to win their sixth straight game in the Shark Tank when they dusted San Jose by a 4-2 score on Thursday night.
Here are your highlights. Yes, there are highlights!
I got a little panicky when Jannik Hansen broke the 2-2 tie in the Canucks' favour with 5:03 to play in the third period, but I made my peace with the win pretty quickly.
I thought Hansen was starting to look dangerous again in Tuesday night's home game against the Sharks. It was good to see the first line start to click again offensively and excellent to see Hansen bury one of his patented breakaways to hit the 20-goal mark for the first time in his career.
Hansen has worked hard to get to that level and if the team does try to trade him this summer, that milestone should help to increase his market value.
I was also happy to see Bo Horvat match his output from last season with his 13th goal of the season.
Just as a point of reference, Henrik had 36 points in his second season; Kesler had 23. Horvat just got point number 34. #Canucks centres.
Even Markus Granlund's empty-netter came off a good hustle play to take the wind out of the Sharks' sails as they tried to make their final push.
Overall, on Thursday night we saw a San Jose team that was pretty sloppy defensively—and the Canucks were able to take advantage. I expected them to get outplayed in the third period—again—and was not surprised at all to see Logan Couture tie the game midway through the final frame, but the Canucks stayed out of the penalty box when the game was on the line and were able to deliver the win.
Given everything that has gone wrong this season, I felt like the team deserved that reward for the mud they've been slogging through as a beat-up group over the past three weeks.
I think things started to look a little better when Hansen came back into the lineup. Add in Granlund and—last night—Chris Tanev, and the Canucks are starting to look like a hockey team again. Tanev and Dan Hamhuis formed a solid shut-down pair and Nikita Tryamkin also returned to the lineup. After missing one game due to injury, he was limited to 13:58 of ice time.
The only real bad news for the night: Sven Baertschi left the game in the first period with what was termed a lower-body injury. There's no word yet on whether he'll be able to play tonight against Anaheim.
With Virtanen suspended, #Canucks have no extra Fs on trip. If Baertschi out, spare D Pedan or Weber may go up front FRI.
Both Yannick Weber and Andrey Pedan have been pressed into duty at forward in emergency cases at other times this season.
The Leafs lost last night, and so did the Blue Jackets, so the win moves the Canucks up to 27th place in the league standings. They're now tied with Winnipeg at 69 points and one point behind Calgary. The Jets are hosting the Blackhawks tonight; the Flames' next game is against Edmonton on Saturday so at least two points will be dispersed to the Alberta teams on the weekend...
Friday April 1 - Vancouver Canucks at Anaheim Ducks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 77 GP, 28-36-13, 69 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Anaheim Ducks: 76 GP, 43-23-10, 96 pts, second in Pacific Division
Now, on to Anaheim, for the last meeting of the year against Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa and the rest of the Ducks.
Despite their terrible start to the season, Anaheim's coming off an 8-3 thrashing of the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night at the Honda Center and is battling Los Angeles for top spot in the Pacific Division and a chance to avoid a California matchup in the first round. The Kings shut out the Flames 3-0 last night to regain first place but Anaheim holds a game in hand, so the battle is very much on.
The Ducks, however, are getting hammered by injuries in the late going.
INJURY UPDATES: Perron (separated right shoulder) is out 4-6 weeks from his time of injury (March 20 at WPG).
Taking full advantage of now having their AHL farm team down the road in San Diego, the Ducks have recalled Anton Khudobin to back up John Gibson, and Chris Wagner to step in for Rakell up front.
Defensemen Kevin Bieksa, Simon Despres and Josh Manson were also missing from the Anaheim blue line against Calgary on Wednesday. Since the Ducks didn't recall a defenseman to replace Lindholm, I'd assume that at least one of those three players will be able to go tonight.
.@Ryan_Kesler on today's news: "Ducks hockey - it's never easy. Go the hard way, not the easy way."
The Canucks are 2-2 against the Ducks this year, but Anaheim has collected six of a possible eight points to date. Both Vancouver wins came in shootouts with Alex Burrows scoring the winning goal—in Anaheim back on October 12 and at Rogers Arena on New Year's Day.
It is a new month. Can the Canucks put their 4-11-1 month of March behind them and finish the season strong or will the tank get revved up and put back into gear tonight?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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