Tuesday February 3 - Vancouver Canucks 3 vs. Winnipeg Jets 2 (OT)
Despite a good deal of doom and gloom rolling into Tuesday night's game, the "soft, old and slow" Vancouver Canucks got the better of the "tough, young and fast" Winnipeg Jets in an entertaining OT thriller.
Here are your highlights:
At this time last year, Vancouver was limping its way through a seven-game losing streak (which included a 4-1 loss to Winnipeg) in the final stretch before the Olympic break.
Last night, we saw the Canucks' new blood raise the team's compete level and, ultimately, earn two important points to move back into third place in the Pacific Division.
I wasn't at the game last Friday, but against Minnesota on Sunday and again last night, Ronalds Kenins has been Mr. Third Period—something this team has desperately needed.
On Sunday, he was the guy who got the scoring started after Alex Edler's disallowed goal, giving the Canucks a sniff of a chance at a comeback that didn't quite materialize.
Last night, after taking a holding penalty on massive Zach Bogosian early in the third period that led to Winnipeg's go-ahead goal (thanks, in large part, to some bad luck with an Alex Edler broken stick), Kenins played like a man possessed once he got back on the ice.
Credit to Willie here. It would have been easy to bench the rookie after making such a costly mistake. Instead, after getting five shifts in each of the first two periods, Kenins and his linemates got seven in the third. He was penalized on the first one, skated miles on them all, and scored on the fifth, tying the game with 7:28 remaining in regulation time.
Going into last night's game, we wondered if Kenins has really passed Zack Kassian on the Canucks' depth chart.
For now, I'd say he has. There's no way he's coming out of the lineup if he keeps playing like this.
Add in the impressive contributions from Derek Dorsett and Bo Horvat game after game and just like that, the Vancouver Canucks have a young, energetic fourth line that can play a physical game, drive puck possession and chip in with goals.
It was also nice to see Alex Burrows play a strong game lined up with the twins. He was much more prominent all night long, and his hardworking goal reminded me of old-school Burrows.
I also liked what he had to say after the game, about the team's push-back and giving props to Kenins, Eddie Lack and the group that put together the OT game-winner by Luca Sbisa.
The power play is still a mess. And the penalty kill faltered for the fourth straight game—ever since Kevin Bieksa's injury. The rough-and-tumble Jets looked undisciplined as they handed the Canucks six power-play opportunities, but Vancouver stood up to the most penalized team in the league.
Derek Dorsett seemed like he was all alone on Toughness Island yet again when he stood in with gigantic Anthony Peluso in the first period after the Jet hit Dan Hamhuis into the boards from behind. But his teammates rallied around him as the game went on, and hopefully that's a sign of things to come.
I wondered if the hit was part of the reason why Hamhuis had a less-than-stellar game. Or was it the fact that he was paired with Luca Sbisa, who was also playing his wrong side?
Either way, the pair made up for their shaky moments when they combined with Radim Vrbata for an unexpected—but excellent—overtime winner, sending the crowd home happy.
For all the talk of cheap tickets and a disappearing fan base heading into the game, I bet the organization was thrilled to see tweets like this afterwards:
If the Canucks can turn in a similar performance on Thursday against the Sharks, we might smell a whiff of optimism drifting through this town once again.
The Canucks have a day off today, to ice their bruises and celebrate the win.
Quick Hits
• Vancouver wasn't even the most dysfunctional team on the ice last night, after the announcement that Evander Kane of the Jets was an unexpected healthy scratch. For all the speculation that the incident could have been due to late-night activities, Steve Ewen suggests that Kane may have been late for a team meeting
here in
The White Towel.
The article contains all the links you'll need to the men who cover the Jets on a daily basis, offering up Kane's bumpy history with the team and their assessment of coach Paul Maurice's decision.
The move certainly amps up the trade rumours around the big guy once again. I feel like he's received a bumpy ride from the media in his career so far, but this incident was definitely not media-generated.
• In case you missed it, Yahoo's Puck Daddy ran an interesting interview a couple of days ago with one of their favourite whipping boys, referee Tim Peel.
Click here for that story—a refreshingly honest look behind the scenes of a referee's life, which is deliberately kept quiet.
A few days later, I saw a tweet from the
Sporting News that the NHL had suspended Peel indefinitely for meeting with Puck Daddy editor Greg Wyshynski, but that's not the whole story. Wyshynski follows up
here, explaining that the NHL quietly pulled Peel from just one game, he's already back working, and the whole situation was blown way out of proportion by a French language radio station in Montreal.
Not sure why they got so up-in-arms about the situation, but I'm glad to see that Wysh set the record straight.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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