The Canucks’ chances of making the playoffs officially and mathematically died on Good Friday. Unlike Jesus, they weren’t miraculously resurrected on Easter Sunday.
No, the Canucks and their fans have a longer wait ahead of them, as they hope an angel named Matthews, Laine, or Puljujarvi can roll away the stone and see the Canucks step out into the sunlight. Until then, the Canucks will wait in sheol, stuck on Holy Saturday like some sort of twisted Groundhog Day sequel.
At least the Canucks’ dignity was resurrected, as they put up a good fight against the Chicago Blackhawks, as opposed to the way they rolled over and exposed their soft underbelly to the St. Louis Blues. I lost track of my Easter metaphor after I watched this game.
- The Canucks commitment to youth extended to the anthems tonight, with 11-year-old Lily Cave absolutely destroying both anthems, in the best sense of the word. And she did it while rocking a Daniel Sedin jersey. You were right all along, Roger Daltrey: the kids really are all right.
- Sidenote: Keith Moon did not give a flying crap about looking like he was really playing the drums in that music video.
- Whether it was the Canucks stepping up their game after Friday’s poor effort or the Blackhawks playing down to an inferior opponent, this was a surprisingly close game. Shots were even at 53 apiece, while the Blackhawks had the slight edge in shots on goal, 32-28. If you squinted really hard and maybe hit yourself in the face with a hammer repeatedly, you could almost convince yourself that the Canucks were the better team.
- Ryan Miller and the Blackhawks’ tendency to miss the net on great scoring chances kept the Canucks in the game early, as they were an absolute mess in their own zone. At least they weren’t an Absolut mess, which tends to involve more vomiting, crying, and drunk texting ex-girlfriends.
- Nikita “Ivan Drago” Tryamkin continued his quest to break through the calloused hearts of every Canucks fan, throwing hits, winning puck battles, firing a team-high seven shots, with three of them on goal, and even playing a bit of net front on the second power play unit. He played just over 21 minutes on what could be next season’s second pairing with Ben Hutton.
- Remember Alex Burrows? I miss that guy and he hasn’t even left yet. Fittingly, he showed up against the Blackhawks, whacking a deflected Linden Vey centring pass out of mid-air for the Canucks’ first goal. If this is indeed his swan song with the Canucks, I’m glad he got to slay the dragon one last time.
- The Canucks had other good chances, but Scott Darling made some excellent saves. He robbed Jake Virtanen off a great setup by Vey, then took a second goal away from Burrows off a feed from Sven Baertschi. He was making like a troll, going post to post and frustrating everyone.
- On the Blackhawks’ second goal, it would be easy to blame Dan Hamhuis, who couldn’t contain Patrick Kane, or Yannick Weber, for getting caught in no man’s land defending Trevor Van Reimsdyk and Teuvo Teravainen, or even Jared McCann, for failing to get back in time on the backcheck to disrupt the passing play. But I’m not going to blame them; I’m going to blame the absolutely brutal line change. The reason McCann couldn’t get back in time was because he was coming off the bench for either Burrows or Higgins. Veteran move, making sure the rookie gets the minus.
- Sven Baertschi was a joy to watch in this game, creating several great scoring chances. He created one for himself in the third, stripping Panarin of the puck at one end of the ice, then busting his behind up the ice to beat Teuvo Teravainen to Emerson Etem’s centring pass, tapping it in. Baertschi’s been one of the few bright spots for the Canucks offensively over the latter half of the season and this was his first goal in eight games. “Bright” is a relative term.
- The consternation from Team Tank was palpable on Twitter after Baertschi scored, which was both sad and naive. It’s sad because even if you want the Canucks to get a high draft pick, if you can’t appreciate the Canucks beating the Blackhawks, your soul is dead. It’s naive because come on: this is the 2015-16 Canucks. There was no way they were going to push the Blackhawks to overtime, let alone actually win. In the words of Nasim Pedrad’s impersonation of Arianna Huffington, “Could you be serious?”
- Sure enough, Andrew Ladd scored just over three minutes later. Hamhuis got excoriated for the goal, as he left Ladd open, but on the replay, you can see him make the completely understandable decision to take away the pass to Duncan Keith on the other side of the ice. It’s just that Jonathan Toews is very good at hockey, read the play, and made the pass to Ladd instead.
- Happy Easter everyone. The season is almost over.
