On Friday night, the Vancouver Canucks took it to a tired St. Louis Blues team playing on the second half of back-to-back nights.
On Saturday against the New York Rangers, it was the Canucks’ turn to be the tired team. But they didn’t look that tired.
In fact, at 5-on-5, the Canucks were the better team, with more shots, more and better chances, and more goals. If the whole game was played at even-strength, the Canucks would have had the advantage.
Unfortunately, a big chunk of the game was not played at 5-on-5.
In fact, far too much of the game was played at 5-on-3, as the Canucks twice gave the Rangers a two-man advantage with undisciplined penalties — puck over the glass and too many men on the ice — which is a really bad idea against any opponents but even worse when the team you’re facing came into the night with a 30.4% power play.
Actually, the trouble is that not enough of the game was played at 5-on-3, as the Rangers cut both of those two-man advantages short with a goal.
All three of the Rangers’ regulation goals came on the power play, as they added another goal at 5-on-4, improving their power play percentage to 34.5%. Somehow, that is still not the best power play in the NHL, because the New Jersey Devils are running at a ludicrous clip of 40.0%.
The Canucks’ 25.9% power play, which is better than the 2010-11 league-leading Canucks power play, is seventh.
All that is to say, the Canucks lost this game because of indisputable and entirely avoidable penalties. With more discipline, this game doesn’t get to overtime — the Canucks win it in regulation.
That said, once the game got to overtime, the referees blew it, missing a blatant trip on Elias Pettersson that led to a 3-on-1 the other way for the Rangers to score the game-winning goal.
The Canucks can’t help that the referees missed that call. There’s nothing they can do about it. Instead of fretting about that, they just have to worry about the things they can help: puck management and discipline.
They can also take heart that they largely outplayed a legitimate Stanley Cup contender and took them to overtime on the second half of back-to-back games. That’s making a statement.
And this is me making a statement: I watched this game.
- “I’m proud of our team,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “They played their balls off tonight…I thought we deserved better tonight. We gave them nothing other than the two 5-on-3s. I hope the guys take a nice, relaxing day tomorrow, because they deserve it.”
- I should hope they relax after losing their balls the night before. Tocchet was surely referring to the mothballs that the players keep in their equipment and that fell off during the course of the game. I’m not sure what other balls he could possibly be referring to.
- The first period was a chess match, but not one of those fast-paced chess matches you see with a timer in a New York City park. More like a really slow-paced chess match between two guys who mostly know what they’re doing but have to stare at the board for a long time in between moves to make sure they’re not doing something stupid. In other words, it was pretty boring.
- The Canucks got in trouble when Dakota Joshua took a dumb penalty, riding Jacob Trouba like a hobby horse. Then Filip Hronek made it worse by shooting the puck over the glass on his forehand when he had all the time in the world to make a simple clear. Artemi Panarin took advantage, firing a shot past J.T. Miller, who was very much not happy with himself.
- “The first one, I’ve got to be in the lane there,” said Miller. “He caught me a little off-guard.”
- Nils Höglander was one of the few standouts in the first period for the Canucks, as he was flying on the forecheck and had the confidence to dipsy-doodle around Braden Schneider for one of the Canucks’ best chances of the period. It’s the kind of play that might make a lesser coach want to play Höglander more, but not the stalwart Rick Tocchet, who once again handed Höglander the lowest ice time among Canucks forwards.
- That said, maybe Tocchet has a point. Höglander also made an all-time puck management blunder when he had the puck in space in the defensive zone with ten seconds left in the second period at the end of a long shift. It was the perfect opportunity to just let the clock run out — instead, he iced the puck and gave the Rangers an offensive zone faceoff with four seconds left, enough time for them to get a scoring chance. Those are the little details that Höglander needs to get right.
- The Canucks tied up the game in the second period with a power play goal of their own. Hronek came on to replace Hughes near the end of the two minutes and he sent a chest-high wristshot towards the net that Miller deftly tipped in. Like “Sweep the leg,” it was a nasty tip.
- Shout out to Miller for this great backcheck to help take away the passing lane on a shorthanded 2-on-1, with an assist from a Brock Boeser Butt Boost™. Quinn Hughes deserves a shout out too for his well-timed stick to deflect the shot high and wide.
- The Canucks took the lead on the most unexpected of circumstances: a Tyler Myers shorthanded goal. The chaotic giraffidian picked off a pass at his own blue line and burst ahead for a 2-on-1 with Sam Lafferty. The lanky bohlinia looked pass the whole way before suddenly snapping the puck past Igor Shesterkin on the short side.
- “I was trying to look at Laff for as long as I could to try and get the goalie to move a little bit,” said Myers. “Fortunately, it was enough for me to get it above his shoulder.”
- Honestly, Myers played very well on the penalty kill even before his shorthanded goal. “Mysie made a hell of a play,” said Miller. “I mean, that's such a good read, and he made a ton of good reads on the penalty kill tonight.”
- Unfortunately, the Canucks gave the Rangers a second 5-on-3 with a too many men on the ice penalty. Panarin made a slick backdoor pass to Adam Fox, who tipped it top shelf where Don Taylor keeps his list of things moms keep on their top shelf.
- The too many men penalty hurt the Canucks even more, as the Rangers got the 3-2 lead on the tail end of it. Myers saved a goal by blocking a Vincent Trocheck shot on an open net, but as the Canucks collapsed back, Adam Fox swept the puck across to Mika Zibanejad like Johnny Lawrence sweeping the leg and Zibanejad finished the play off like an elbow-drop to the knee.
- The Canucks did not go gentle into that good night, getting another goal from an unexpected defenceman: Carson Soucy, who raged, raged against the dying of the light with a bomb of a slap shot just after a power play expired. It went in cleanly, rifling into the top corner over Shesterkin’s glove with Conor Garland screening in front.
- That goal got the game to overtime, where Andrei Kuzmenko nearly won it for the Canucks with a gorgeous move around Trocheck only to get robbed twice over by Igor Shesterkin. The New York netminder got a piece of Kuzmenko’s first shot, then dove back to snag his second with the glove, proving that you really can give someone the double deuce with gloves on.
- Kuzmenko even had another chance to end the game when Hronek sent him in on a breakaway, but Shesterkin got just enough of Kuzmenko’s shot with his glove to send it wide. It’s like Shesterkin was personally making it his mission to regress Kuzmenko’s shooting percentage.
- What was a fantastic game ended less than fantastically, as the referees missed a blatant trip by Chris Kreider on Elias Pettersson, leading to a 3-on-1 the other way. Let’s belabour the obvious for a moment: yes, this was a trip. Kreider, like Johnny Lawrence before him, swept the leg. It was a small sweep, but it still kicked out Pettersson’s left skate and gave the Rangers a scoring chance the other way. That has to be a penalty every time.
- Pettersson was not impressed and gave the officials an earful after the game. Either that or he was saying, “That’s a sick jersey, bruh” because he really likes black and white stripes — my lipreading has never been very good.
- Tocchet was diplomatic after the game: “I was working for TNT and Don Koharski was a buddy of mine and I said, ‘I can ref in this league.’ I can’t ref in this league. It’s a hard job. I played 18 years in the NHL thinking I know hockey and it’s tough out there. It’s bang-bang plays. These guys are working their asses off, the refs. I get it, sometimes they’re going to make mistakes.”
- With the Canucks playing their balls off and the refs working their asses off, it’s a wonder anyone had any body parts left after this game was over.
