Tuesday March 13 - Boston Bruins 6 - Vancouver Canucks 3
The first two periods were pretty good. The Vancouver Canucks got two goals from Markus Granlund and built a 3-2 lead before surrendering four third-period goals to fall 6-3 to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
Granlund was flying as he returned after missing Saturday's game against Pittsburgh due to food poisoning. Returning to his top-line spot with the Sedins, he came perilously close to tallying a first-period hat trick.
Granlund's goals were his 18th and 19th of the season—career highs—and put him one goal behind Bo Horvat for the Canucks' team lead.
Each time Granlund has a scoring outburst, I see it mentioned that Jim Benning deserves more credit for the trade that brought Granlund to the Canucks in exchange for Hunter Shinkaruk. The deal happened on February 22, 2016, just over a week before the 2016 trade deadline, so it got lost in all the uproar over Benning's inability to deal Dan Hamhuis and Radim Vrbata.
Granlund turns 24 in April, so he's a year and a half older than Shinkaruk, who will be 23 in October. Shinkaruk, chosen 24th overall by the Canucks in 2013, is 8-15-23 in 38 games with the AHL Stockton Heat this year. He has one assist and is a minus-three in the seven games he spent with the Flames back in November.
The other nice thing about Granlund: he's a bargain at $900,000 and is signed for another year at that rate. He'll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the 2017-18 season, so he'll be in line for a big raise in a year's time if he keeps improving at his current pace.
With two assists each, the Sedins made an impact on the scoresheet for the first time in awhile. Daniel hadn't tallied a point in six games, while Henrik's last assist came against the Islanders last Thursday. The last multi-point game for both twins was on February 9, back in Columbus.
At the other end of the ice, Boston opened the scoring on David Backes' goal at the 6:48 mark of the first period. The puck clearly enters the net off of Backes' skate—and that looks like a kicking motion to me. That's not a play that a coach can challenge, but why wasn't the goal reviewed?
Somewhat surprisingly, the Canucks' struggling penalty kill had gone four games without allowing a goal before the Bruins stormed out to tie the game 3-3 just 58 seconds into the third period. With new Canuck Drew Shore in the penalty box on a holding call, Brad Marchand tallied the first of his three third-period goals, which eventually resulted in a smattering of hats being tossed on the ice at Rogers Arena during the last minute of the game.
The memories of the 2011 Stanley Cup still fuel Marchand, who has played annoyingly well in his last two visits to Vancouver:
March 14, 2017: 3-1-4, game-winning goal, plus-two in a 6-3 win
December 5, 2015: 1-0-1, game-winning goal, plus-three in a 4-0 win
The third-period hat trick also moves Marchand into a tie with Sidney Crosby for the Rocket Richard Trophy. Both players have 35 goals but Marchand has the late-season momentum on his side.
It's actually 25 goals in his last 28 games for Marchand. Even more insane in the membrane than previously reported
He's also now one point behind Connor McDavid in the Art Ross Trophy race. Madness!
Nikita Tryamkin had a chance to get into it with Marchand during a first-period scrum behind the Vancouver net, but the officials broke things up before tempers flared. I was disappointed that I didn't get a chance to see the big Tree and Zdeno Chara shoulder-to-shoulder at any point in the game, so I could give them a proper visual comparison...
As for new arrival Drew Shore, he had a pretty decent game considering his gruelling travel schedule from Switzerland. He picked up his first NHL point of the year on this setup of Alex Edler's fourth goal of the season, late in the second period.
Drew Shore with a nice cross-ice pass to spot Edler, who walks in, fires a slapper, gets it back and slips a softy through Rask. #Canuckspic.twitter.com/L75eyywYaf
So, let's leave the on-ice stuff there for now. Monday's loss means the Canucks hold at 65 points with 13 games to go. They're currently in 25th place overall, one point ahead of their next opponent, the Dallas Stars, who they'll host on Thursday. The Stars are in Edmonton to take on the Oilers tonight.
The Canucks announced another signing on Monday—inking 20-year-old Jalen Chatfield to an entry-level contract. Chatfield's an undrafted defenseman currently playing for the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL.
Chatfield's a late bloomer who didn't reach major junior till he was 18 years old. He's the co-captain of the Spitfires and is said to be a two-way defenseman. His contract won't take effect until the 2017-18 season, so the signing doesn't count against the Canucks' 50-contract total for this year. They're currently at 47, so they have three spots left to fill.
One of those spots will not be going to NCAA breakout star Adam Gaudette, who has announced that he plans to stay in college for another year.
Gaudette : "More development is best option for me, put on more weight and get faster and quicker." #Canucks
Gaudette will be playing his junior year next season, but he doesn't seem to be angling toward unrestricted free agency. He's encouraging his teammate Zach Aston-Reese to give the Canucks a good look this week.
Gaudette says he told his teammate Zach Aston-Reese to sign with the #Canucks, "I put the thought in his head, sign in VAN."
Aston-Reese is being touted as the top NCAA prospect available this year, and is expected to announce his decision in the next 24 hours.
Friedman believes it's "probably" down to PIT, EDM, ANA, SJ & the #Canucks for the services of Zach Aston-Reese in his latest '30 Thoughts.' https://t.co/srctRDmnX9
Meanwhile, talk is heating up that Brock Boeser will be signed by the Canucks as soon as his NCAA season comes to and end, and could play some NHL games this season.
Boeser's North Dakota Fighting Hawks are the defending NCAA champions from 2016, but have iced a much younger team this season, so it's no sure thing that they'll be going back to the Frozen Four this year. If they do, though, they'll be playing well into April, which won't leave time for Boeser to join the Canucks before the end of the regular season. For his part, Boeser is remaining non-committal.
Boeser on rumours he will sign with #Canucks soon : "That's an option but not my focus, when time comes I will make a decision." #Canucks
Boeser also clarified to Rick Dhaliwal that the games he missed a couple of weeks ago were a flare-up of the wrist injury he'd suffered earlier in the season.
Boeser says he is not worried about his wrist long term, "I jammed it in practise and that's what irritated it." #Canucks
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