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Vancouver Canucks defeated by Habs in wide-open game, prospect update |
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Sunday January 8 - Montreal Canadiens 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Strong play by Anders Nilsson gave the Vancouver Canucks a chance to stay in the game against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday but in the end, the box score shows another three-goal loss.
Here are your highlights from a game that was short on defense at both ends of the ice.
Final shots in the game were 45-36 for Montreal—and the Canucks blocked another 24, led by five blocks apiece from Alex Edler and Erik Gudbranson. All told, Montreal had 79 shot attempts in the game—that's an average of one every 45 seconds. The Canucks had 60—one a minute. That's a lot of rubber.
Montreal went to the dressing room after 20 minutes with a 1-0 lead after a point shot by Karl Alzner tipped past Nilsson off the end of Troy Stecher's stick. Bad luck.
In the second, Alex Galchenyuk extended the lead to 2-0 on an early power play, with a rocket from the right half boards that caught the far corner of the net. The Canadiens outshot the Canucks 15-8 in the second period, but Nilsson kept his team in the game until Carey Price gifted the Canucks with a giveaway that Daniel Sedin tipped past the goaltender to give Vancouver a sign of life with 6:56 left to play in the middle frame.
With Sven Baertschi returning to the lineup after missing 11 games with that fractured jaw, Travis Green juggled his forward lines on Sunday. Nikolay Goldobin was scratched and Baertschi started the game with the Sedins. Green shifted Baertschi to the Vanek-Gagner line in the second period and put Brock Boeser with the twins, which worked. Daniel recorded his first two-point night...since the last time the Canucks played Montreal, back in December. Later, the twins had gone off on a line change by the time Boeser converted the pass he received from Daniel to Michael Del Zotto, who charged into the slot and picked up his second goal of the year at 2:47 of the third.
Given how hard they'd worked just to tie the game, I felt like the Canucks should have received some sort of participation ribbon right then and there, but there were more than 17 minutes of hockey still to be played. Shots in the third were 17-17 as the teams traded chances. Brendan Gallagher scored the game winner at 8:44 on a big rebound off an Alzner point shot after a weak clearing attempt failed to get out of the zone. Alex Edler got dinged for the giveaway to Alzner but Sam Gagner was also pretty weaksauce on that play, which came after a defensive-zone faceoff following an icing call.
The Canucks pulled Nilsson as they pressed to tie in the late stages, but he was back in the net for Paul Byron's goal, which followed a the neutral-zone draw after a Vancouver timeout with 1:22 left to play. With Nilsson back out, Max Pacioretty added an empty-netter with 59 seconds remaining and Habs fans went home happy as their team heads into its bye week on a two-game winning streak.
With his impressive assist on Del Zotto's goal, Brock Boeser is now at 40 points in 39 games, still one point up on Mathew Barzal in the rookie scoring race. Game in and game out, he continues to be Vancouver's best player.
The Canucks now travel to Washington, where they'll take on the Capitals on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, nothing new to report on the Jim Benning situation. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, an under-the-radar detail that has escaped widespread comment is the fact that Benning is apparently at home right now, dealing with a family situation.
Based on this Tweet from last week, it certainly seems like the plan would have been for him to have travelled out east with the team:
I think this is a scenario that we need to keep an eye on. I hope everything works out for Benning and his family!
To close today, a quick look at the orbit around the Canucks.
After being re-assigned to Utica on Sunday, All-Star Reid Boucher scored a hat trick in the Comets' 5-1 win over Hartford:
Though he just spent the last three weeks with the Canucks, Boucher continues to lead the Comets in scoring by a wide margin, with 16-13-29 in 26 AHL games. Nikolay Goldobin has been with the Canucks since late November and is still second on the team with 19 points in 18 games.
Next—an update on Will Lockwood, who was injured in the outdoor game at the World Junior Championship.
Former Canuck Bill Muckalt is Lockwood's assistant coach at Michigan:
Lockwood had shoulder surgery at the end of last season. I'm not sure if this injury is on the same side.
Also from the NCAA, Adam Gaudette continues to excel. He's now tied for first place in NCAA scoring after a four-point night last Saturday, and four of his 15 goals are game winners:
Also, if you missed it last week, Vancouver's seventh-round pick from 2016, Brett McKenzie, was traded from the North Bay Battalion to the Owen Sound Attack.
McKenzie had 21 points in 34 games with North Bay as an overager this season. He moves from one middle-of-the-pack OHL team to another, but will now be teammates with another Canucks prospect—and newly-minted World Junior gold medalist—Jonah Gadjovich.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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