Saturday night’s main event was an intense competition — a tight contest that could have gone either way.
No, not the Vancouver Canucks’ game against the Minnesota Wild; I’m talking about the second-intermission dog race featuring the players’ dogs.
The race was full of intrigue, with the reigning champion Easton Miller inexplicably bolting out the Zamboni doors instead of down the length of the ice for the win. Meanwhile, Delilah Demko and Huxley Dermott took off down the ice, followed closely by Bodhi Martin and Stella Mikheyev, with the adorably tiny Flower Bear bringing up the rear.
It was a photo finish, with Delilah taking the win. The Australian Bernedoodle burst past Huxley at the line, with Bodhi coming in third. It was a thrilling finish.
The hockey game between the Canucks and the Wild was the exact opposite. Spencer Martin kept it close with a fantastic effort in net for the Canucks but the outcome never really felt in doubt.
With an opportunity to build off three-straight wins and get above .500 for the first time this season, the Canucks came out flatter than Trinity Taylor's tuck, struggling to find any offensive push.
Perhaps the most telling quote about this game came from Bruce Boudreau. The Canucks head coach has been aggressive with pulling the goaltender this season, even when down by three goals. But this time, even when the Canucks had an offensive zone faceoff with just a little under two minutes remaining, Boudreau kept his goaltender in the net.
“I should’ve maybe pulled the goalie but I just didn’t think we were going to score,” said Boudreau.
That’s quite a damning statement. Boudreau has talked in the past about the team needing to “earn” the goalie pull, especially an early goalie pull when down by multiple goals. On Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada, the Canucks didn’t earn it. They didn’t earn anything.
But at least I saw some cute dogs when I watched this game.
- The shutout loss is even more painful given the circumstances. The Wild were playing their second game on back-to-back nights and had their backup goaltender, Filip Gustavsson, in the net. This was Gustavsson’s first career shutout, which feels like something that has happened a lot to the Canucks in their history.
- Like Steven Seagal, the Canucks were under siege in a hurry. The Wild out-shot the Canucks 14-to-4 in the first period and high-danger chances were 10-to-0, according to Natural Stat Trick. Only Martin’s heroics, including particularly huge saves on Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno, kept the game close for the Canucks.
- “I don’t know why we came out of the gate slow,” said Boudreau. “I thought we pushed a lot harder in the second and third but we couldn't get a goal. But we should have been ready to pounce on them — they played last night and we didn't — but we let them come to us.”
- The Wild opened the scoring with the man advantage, scoring just seven seconds into their second power play of the game. Bo Horvat was uncharacteristically below 50% on faceoffs and he lost this one to Joel Eriksson Ek, who also provided the screen on Mats Zuccarello’s shot. That made it hard for Martin to control the rebound and he kicked it right to Matthew Boldy to finish into the open cage.
- Honestly, the Canucks were lucky to escape the first period only down 1-0. With just seconds left, Jared Spurgeon came walking right down the middle of Main Street like a Disney Adult, completely unchallenged by the Canucks. It looked like a sure goal, but Spurgeon’s shot was, unlike his height, just a little bit high.
- After such a dismal first, Boudreau dug up Travis Green’s old Line Blender 3000™ from out of the locker room, blew off the dust, and gave it a spin on the mild “mingle” setting. Nils Höglander and Conor Garland swapped spots, with Garland joining Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller and Höglander bumping down to a line with Jack Studnicka and Andrei Kuzmenko. But the blending was far from over.
- The Canucks had ample opportunities to come back in the second period — power play opportunities, to be precise. Three of them, all in a row. But it should have been a sign that it wasn’t going to go the Canucks’ way when Martin was forced to come up with a big save against a 2-on-0 breakaway on the first power play. As signs go, there are definitely better ones.
- “You would have expected, I think, with three straight penalties and they’re using the same guys…that we would have figured it out and scored a goal,” said Boudreau. “But we ended up giving it up and that was sort of a backbreaker. You could see the wind really go out of the sails of a lot of players.”
- On the Canucks’ third power play in a row, J.T. Miller gave the puck away with a dreadful cross-ice pass near the blue line, sending Connor Dewar away on a shorthanded breakaway. As Miller tried desperately to get back to make up for his mistake, Dewar wound up and blasted a slap shot top corner past Martin.
- “What do you want me to say? It’s a mistake, they scored on it, it’s obviously not good,” said a curt Miller after the game. “We’d like to score, get momentum for the team. We didn’t. Big moment of the game.”
- When asked if there as something systems-related to the Canucks giving up shorthanded chances or if it’s individual mistakes, Boudreau seemed incredulous. “Seriously? It’s individual plays…I would think that's not a system play when you make a pass right on the other guy's tape for a breakaway.”
- In the third period, Boudreau set the Line Blender 3000™ to pulverize. Dakota Joshua joined Horvat and Garland, Ilya Mikheyev skated with Studnicka and Kuzmenko, and Höglander was demoted to the fourth line with Curtis Lazar and Nils Åman. That left numbers 6, 40, and 9 to reunite — the Lotto Line was back together again.
- They didn’t score, but shot attempts were 11-to-0 for the Canucks with the Lotto Line of Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller all on the ice at 5-on-5 and they created some dangerous chances. It’s almost as if it’s a line that has worked really well together in the past.
- Unfortunately, Pettersson and Boeser were on the ice for the Wild’s third goal, though their temporary linemate was Höglander in the middle of a line change. Höglander was too casual as he skated backwards waiting for a pass from Tyler Myers and the pass was picked off by Zuccarello, allowing Sam Steel to cut across the slot and roof a backhand. If you think about it, it’s all Miller’s fault for not being on the ice.
- That’s a joke on myself, because I initially blamed Miller for the turnover. I honestly thought it was Miller and not Höglander in the moment because Pettersson and Boeser were the other forwards on the ice and I assumed their linemate was on the ice with them. As Mike Ness said, I was wrong.
- “I can’t really explain it, to be honest with you,” said Horvat about the team failing to build on their three-straight wins heading into the game. “It wasn’t good enough by us. It wasn’t what we talked about in the room and what we wanted to do tonight. We wanted to come out hard and we just didn’t do that. That’s on us.”
