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Vancouver Canucks Game Review: Cruisin' Past Arizona, Bring on the Flames! |
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Thursday April 9 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - Arizona Coyotes 0
The first time Willie Desjardins' Vancouver Canucks met the Arizona Coyotes in preseason, the Desert Dogs skated out of Rogers Arena with a 4-2 win—and caused a healthy amount of early panic among the faithful.
The Canucks wrapped up their season series against the worst team in the Western Conference with a tidy 5-0 win on Thursday night, highlighted by back-to-back power-play goals by Yannick Weber just 1:28 apart in the second period.
With his 10th and 11th of the season, Weber becomes the 12th Canuck—and first defenseman—to break the 10-goal plateau. He has shown potential as an undersized power-play quarterback. I wonder if it is worthwhile to bring him back in that role next season?
I guess we'll see what he can do in the playoffs. I still haven't completely absorbed the idea that there's more high-stakes hockey still to be played this season.
Nice to see Dan Hamhuis break his goal-scoring goose-egg with a power-play goal of his own, too. The Canucks went three-for-four on the night with the man advantage to boost their power-play efficiency to 19.6 percent—now EIGHTH in the NHL. That's an area that has seen massive improvement over the last couple of months.
The game was far from a guaranteed win. The Coyotes played well in the first period, outshooting Vancouver 11-10, but after Eddie Lack survived the opening few minutes without giving the opposition the first goal, he was able to shut the door the rest of the way for his second shutout of the season and another first star award.
Considering the anticipation surrounding the upcoming playoff games, I was impressed to see the arena relatively full—and pretty enthusiastic—on Thursday night. Slowly but surely, the festive atmosphere is returning thanks to winning hockey.
Daniel Sedin posted a goal and an assist during the game to move up to 74 points—now alone in ninth place in the NHL scoring race—and two points behind Jiri Hudler of our new nemesis, the Calgary Flames. If Daniel feasts on the Oilers on Saturday as he has done in some past season-enders, he could still move up before the end of the year. I'd like to see him get past Hudler, at least!
Last night, of course, the Flames were our best pals as they handed the Los Angeles Kings a 3-1 loss—eliminating the Kings from playoff contention and locking themselves in as Vancouver's first-round opponent.
Who would have thought that the Kings would go down in flames (hehe) thanks to three straight losses to the Western Canadian teams—taken out by Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary??
It's gonna be a long summer down in Manhattan Beach.
I wonder how many Los Angeles players will be announcing they're having surgery on one thing or another over the next couple of weeks? I also wonder how many changes will be made in the Los Angeles roster. 2014 Conn Smythe trophy winner Justin Williams' bargaining power as an upcoming UFA just took an enormous hit.
The Canucks and Flames are the only playoff matchup that's locked in so far. With just two games on the schedule tonight, everything else will be determined on Saturday, when all 30 teams are in action. It's a great way to wrap up the year, with lots of meaningful games.
For their part, the Canucks still have home-ice advantage to fight for. They sit two points ahead of Calgary, but the Flames would hold the advantage in the tiebreaker if they beat Winnipeg on Saturday afternoon while Vancouver loses to Edmonton. With a single point on Saturday, Vancouver can lock in second place and home ice for Round 1.
Willie's giving the boys some time to rest before that game:
The other big news from Thursday's postgame:
I'm okay with this. The Canucks have to see where Miller's play is at, so better to do it in a regular-season game than wait for the playoff pressure-cooker to kick in.
After the success that Lack has had over the past two months, there's no doubt that the $6 million man will be motivated to prove that the crease still belongs to him.
Assuming Saturday night is reasonably successful, my guess is that the old-school crew of Benning and Desjardins will want to go with Miller to open the playoffs. Here's hoping he earns their trust—along with home-ice advantage for Vancouver next week.
To wrap today—a quick note on Sven Baertschi, who subbed in for an ailing Shawn Matthias on Thursday night. Seeing him in person for the first time, his speed was certainly noticeable. He had a couple of good chances through the game and was on the ice as part of the second power-play group for the Hamhuis goal in the third period.
After his acrimonious departure from Calgary, here's another player who's going to be motivated to bring his best in the playoffs. It'll be interesting to see if he can become a stealth offensive weapon.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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