I Watched This Game: Canucks maroon the Islanders for third-straight win

Halfway through the 2023-24 season, the Vancouver Canucks are at the top of the NHL standings.

At least, they were. Tuesday night’s game against the New York Islanders was the Canucks’ 41st game of the season and the win gave them a 27-11-3 record and 57 points, enough to move them into first place in the NHL. Unfortunately, the Winnipeg Jets cruised to a 5-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets thirty minutes later and passed the Canucks in the standings, which was very rude of them.

But still, we should let that sink in a little bit. 41 games in, the Canucks were first in the NHL, even if only for half an hour. Not just in the playoff mix in the Pacific Division but in the mix for the Presidents’ Trophy. Considering where they were a year ago — below .500 and 12th in the Western Conference — this is one of the wildest turnarounds the NHL has ever seen.

This latest game might have been the most encouraging of the season. After a statement win over the New York Rangers on Monday night, it would have been so easy for Tuesday to be a letdown. 

It was the second game of back-to-backs against a rested Islanders team that has been quite good this season. It was also the fourth game of a tough eastern road trip for the Canucks, their third game in four nights, and they started their backup goaltender. By all rights, this should have been a tough game for the Canucks.

Instead, they cruised to a 5-2 win, not on the backs of their loaded-up first line but from three goals by their defence.

Yes, the Lotto Line did contribute a goal and played a key role in one of the goals from a defenceman but this was still a demonstration of the Canucks’ depth — they’re getting contributions throughout the lineup.

“I think our depth scoring is why we’re so good this year, right?” said captain Quinn Hughes. “Multiple different contributions every game and it’s nice to see guys get rewarded.”

More than that, the Canucks once again did what they couldn’t do earlier in the season: they controlled play at 5-on-5. It’s not just that the Canucks have climbed to the top of the NHL standings but that they’ve been growing and maturing along the way and becoming a team that is starting to win in a sustainable fashion.

Of course, the Lotto Line has played a large role in this improvement at controlling play and it’s no coincidence that Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller reuniting has led to three of the Canucks’ strongest games of the season.

“They’re dominating,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “If I broke that line up, I’d probably get killed in Vancouver. So, right now, they’re staying together.”

Tocchet lived for another day when I watched this game.

• Noah Juulsen has so completely turned his game around from his dreadful start that the Canucks felt comfortable popping him right back into the lineup to give veteran Ian Cole a maintenance day, as the 34-year-old defenceman evidently needed a check under the hood and an oil change. As a fellow guy-in-his-thirties (at least for one more year), I get it.
   
• “The guy that’s coming in is a very capable defenceman,” said Tocchet when asked about the luxury of having seven healthy blueliners available. “We get to rest a guy like Ian Cole, who’s played really well for us and we’re looking a little long-term with him. Obviously, he’s done a hell of a job for us and he’s a team guy — that’s what I love about him.”
   
• Casey DeSmith only had to make 17 saves on 19 shots to pick up the win but some of those were key saves on the few dangerous chances the Islanders were able to create, including a sliding stop on Pierre Engvall with the score 0-0 in the first and a shrugging shoulder save on Kyle Palmieri on a 2-on-1 that would have made it a one-goal game in the second. 
   
• Filip Hronek has done some damage with his shot this season, mostly to opposing players rather than the net. He damaged both to open the scoring just after a power play. Nikita Zadorov put the puck in Hronek’s wheelhouse and he drove the puck into Casey Cizikas, sending the Islanders forward sprawling to the ice. As Cizikas struggled to get up, Hronek took advantage of the sudden 5-on-4, collecting an Ilya Mikheyev rebound and firing the puck as far into the top corner as it would go.
   
• Hronek not only opened the scoring but also knocked Cizikas out of the game. He struggled through three more shifts before calling it a night.
   
• Quinn Hughes extended the lead a few minutes later with an elite goal but it wouldn’t have been possible without a couple of great plays by the Lotto Line to keep the puck in at the blue line, most notably by Brock Boeser. First, Boeser fanned on a shot at the top of the zone, which could have been disastrous, but he immediately battled hard to win the puck back and save the play like Richard Burbage.  

• After Pettersson kept the puck in at the right point and Boeser’s shot deflected wide, Quinn Hughes took over. He turned Jean-Gabriel Pageau inside out with a series of dekes, spins, and significant looks, which gave Hughes a wide path to the middle of the ice and he took full advantage, driving into the high slot before whipping the puck past Ilya Sorokin with a wicked wrist shot. It was a brilliant goal and, as long as you ignore all the efforts by everyone else for the entire shift leading up to it, an incredible individual effort. 
   
• At one point, Nils Åman got knocked down four times on one shift in the defensive zone, which had the Islanders crowd cheering. The joke was on them, though: the Islanders didn’t get a shot on goal out of the sequence, while Åman got the puck out of the zone to sprung a Nils Höglander rush the other way and he did get a shot on goal. Åman may get knocked down but he gets up again. You're never gonna keep him down. 

• The Lotto Line made it 3-0 in the second period. The Islanders were all breaking out of the zone when Hronek and Pettersson worked together like they were assembled by Danny Ocean to pull a heist on Adam Pelech in the slot, stealing the puck right out from under his nose. That gave Pettersson and Miller a 2-on-1 down low and they combined for a Sedinesque give-and-go through the crease. Pettersson set up Miller at the back door and Miller said, nah, the front door is fine and gave the puck right back for the tap-in goal.
   
• The Islanders got a goal back on the power play when Nikita Zadorov was a little overzealous in trying to intercept a puck and left the passing lane at the top of the crease wide open. The Canucks have consistently left down-low players open on the penalty kill, expecting their goaltenders to take care of any shots from a bad angle, and instead focused on taking away seam plays. That goal was a great illustration of why.
   
• The Canucks didn’t panic and restored the three-goal lead before the end of the second period. Zadorov held off a forechecker and poked the puck up the boards, where Conor Garland and Teddy Blueger combined to spring Tyler Myers up the right wing. As Garland drove to the net, Myers drove the puck into the net, blasting an old-school slap shot right through Sorokin.
   
• The best part of the goal, however, was the celebration, as the 5’8” Garland lept into the arms of the 6’8” Myers for a classic big guy/little guy hockey hug. 

• Getty photographer Bruce Bennett captured the moment beautifully, as Garland jumped the extra foot he needed in order to be at eye level with Myers to properly celebrate the moment.

Embed from Getty Images

• “Mysey’s played so well for us,” said Hughes. “He’s really been unreal this year, taking tough matchups, penalty kills, blocking shots — for him to get a goal like that, it’s big. We’re going to need guys like that and him to continue doing that down the stretch.”
   
• The Islanders got one more goal in the third period, as Brock Nelson’s shot deflected off Brock Boeser’s stick, sending both Boeser’s stick and the puck flying. Unfortunately, the puck went off the post and in instead of the stick. And yet, this game never seemed in danger of getting away from the Canucks, perhaps because they have yet to lose a single game when leading at the second intermission: a perfect 24-and-0 record.
   
• “It’s obviously a great stat — don’t want to jinx ourselves — but it’s just crazy how a year can change,” said Hughes. “Last year, we had a really hard time keeping leads in the third and this year, we kind of look like a mature group.”
   
• The one blemish was the 0-for-4 power play. Is it ideal that the power play failed to score and has just two goals in the last nine games? No, of course not. But this is what makes the Canucks’ improved 5-on-5 play so important. It means the Canucks can win games — and win games comfortably — even when their power play struggles or they don’t get the bounces. The power play will get back on track but, until then, Canucks fans can still be confident in their team.
   
• Dakota Joshua put the game away into the empty net, as he picked off a Mat Barzal pass in the neutral zone, evaded a poke check from Noah Dobson, and scored from his own side of centre. That’s Joshua’s 11th goal of the season, which already matches his career high from last season. He’s on pace for 22 goals from the third line.
   
• For those looking for some schadenfreude, Bo Horvat was mostly invisible in this game but he's had a pretty strong season. He's scoring at a point-per-game pace with 16 goals and 39 points in 39 games, which NHL.com will tell you for free.