That might have been the best game Andrei Kuzmenko has ever played for the Vancouver Canucks. And it might have been the worst game Tyler Myers has ever played. Period.
Much like Libya, this game against the Nashville Predators was a land of contrasts. On one side, you had a young(ish) forward doing everything he possibly could to propel his team to victory. On the other side, you had a veteran defenceman doing everything he could to drag his team to defeat.
It was the season in a microcosm.
Kuzmenko was dazzling, scoring two fantastic goals and putting opponents in the spin cycle in the offensive zone with his quick hands and determination to get the puck into dangerous areas on the ice.
Myers was disastrous, on the ice for all four goals against, each of them directly or indirectly attributable to a glaring mistake — or mistakes — he made.
Kuzmenko drove play by the underlying statistics, as the Canucks out-attempted the Predators 16-to-5 when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 and out-shot them 9-to-2.
Myers got shelled, as shot attempts were 26-to-13 for the Predators when he was on the ice at 5-on-5, shots on goal were 15-to-6, and — most damning — high-danger chances were 10-to-2.
Kuzmenko was clutch, coming up with the game-tying goal with just 16 seconds left in regulation.
Myers was whatever the opposite of clutch is, giving up a go-ahead goal with 10 seconds left in the second period, just 12 seconds after the Canucks had tied the game.
The funny thing is, if you look at when both Kuzmenko and Myers were on the ice together at 5-on-5, shot attempts were 2-to-2: perfectly balanced, like the knife Thanos gave Gamora as a child.
In between the two extremes of Kuzmenko and Myers, of course, was everyone else on the team, each contributing in their own ways to one side or the other. All of the other hands pulling on the robe unbalanced things ever so slightly, like someone took the knife Thanos gave Gamora and removed one tiny jewel so it would ever-so-slightly topple to one side.
Strangely enough, that one thing slightly out of balance came in the shootout, where Myers had no influence whatsoever, but the Canucks still lost. Weird.
I mourned the death of the remote possibility of Tyler Myers getting traded at this year’s deadline when I watched this game.
- I seriously cannot emphasize enough how utterly awful Tyler Myers was in this game but it certainly doesn’t help that he keeps getting paired with Riley Stillman. While they didn’t start the game together — Myers was with Christian Wolanin to start — they wound up together in the second period, leading to error after compounding error. One could only marvel in disbelief at what was happening every time they stepped onto the ice, as they were like Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman with how little chemistry they had together and also how they probably eat pears with a knife and fork.
- “Yeah, they had a tough night,” summed up Rick Tocchet when asked about Myers and Stillman after the game. He did not elaborate. He didn't need to. But I will.
- It started with the first goal, less than five minutes in. Myers could not have been less effective defending Cole Smith if he tried. Smith went right past him to the net for one chance that Collin Delia stopped, then Myers spun around looking for the puck, highlighting one of the disadvantages of being tall in hockey — the puck is further away from your eyes than everyone else’s, so they always see it before you do. It’s just science. What Myers should have done was stick with Smith and box him out, as after Delia stopped another shot, Smith was wide open to bang in the rebound.
- Rick Tocchet and the Canucks’ video coaching staff, which the Canucks just highlighted in a behind-the-scenes video, quickly challenged the goal for offside and the replay did suggest that Tanner Jeannot had entered the offensive zone a hair ahead of the puck. Unfortunately, it was just that — a suggestion —and the NHL said that suggestion wasn’t conclusive enough. The goal stood.
- The inconclusive part seems to be that the heel of Jeannot’s skate was hidden behind Smith’s stick in the frame of the video just before the puck crossed the line: was the heel of his skate hovering over the blue line to make him onside? We just don’t know! We do know that splitting hairs like this means the NHL is not a serious professional sports league.
- The Predators extended the lead on the power play despite a strong start by the Canucks’ penalty kill, which used an aggressive approach at the blue line to break up zone entries. Only this time Myers, like Cole Phelps in L.A. Noire, was way too aggressive and Philip Tomasino skated right past him on a give-and-go and went in alone on Delia, tucking the puck in to make it 2-0.
- Delia was dealt a bad hand with some of the chances he had to face but he didn’t fold. His best save was about as unorthodox as it gets. The Canucks started to blow the zone early and Jeannot was left alone. Delia went for the pokecheck and missed, but aggressively cut off the angle with only his glove, stretching across to give Jeannot nothing to shoot at.
- Apart from leaving Jeannot alone behind him on that chance, it was a strong game for Ethan Bear, who thrived on a pairing with Quinn Hughes while playing a match-up role against the Predators’ top line. He picked up an assist, had five shots on goal, and helped the Canucks out-shoot the Predators 14-to-3 when he was on the ice at 5-on-5. Ironically, Bear was looking bullish.
- Bear helped get the Canucks on the board in the second period. He closed well on Smith on the boards, then Hughes freed up the puck for Bear, who sent a long stretch pass to spring Kuzmenko on a breakaway. Kuzmenko kept Juuse Saros guessing when the shot was going to come with the quickest hands since Liberace and Saros had no hope of stopping it when it did.
- I haven’t really touched on Christian Wolanin but he had a strong game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday after getting called up from the Abbotsford Canucks. While you could quibble with how he played the first Predators goal in this game, he mostly played well again. It’s enough to make you wonder why it took an injury to Oliver Ekman-Larsson to get Wolanin, who leads all AHL defencemen in scoring, an NHL game this season.
- A late second period power play got the Canucks level with 22 seconds left. Brock Boeser tipped a Conor Garland slap pass on net and the puck snuck through Saros and sat by the post like someone waiting for an Amazon delivery. Only the ref and Sheldon Dries saw the puck, and Dries shoved it in as the net was coming off its moorings to make it 2-2.
- The jubilation at the tying goal was shortlived because of a disasterpiece of defending off the subsequent faceoff. Too much went wrong for one bullet point, so let’s start with Stillman’s awful swoop towards the puck that gave Roman Josi a free path up the middle to create a 2-on-1. It was the dumbest swoop since the Dinobot.
- The other don't get off the hook. None of the forwards tied up their man off the draw, so it immediately turns into a kuddelmuddel in the defensive zone as no one is really covering anyone. Then Myers makes it worse by trying to play goalie behind Delia, who is in fine position and doesn’t need the help. Myers just gets in Delia’s way, preventing him from making the save on Nino Niederreiter in the scramble in front, when Myers probably should have been checking Niederreiter instead.
- “You can’t let your foot off a wounded snake,” said Tocchet about giving up the go-ahead goal immediately after tying the game. “Couple of bad reads by the D there. It’s a tough one.”
- Somehow, Myers’ night got even worse. Turning away from his check in the neutral zone, Myers stumbled and then never regained his balance. The amount of time it took for him to fall somehow made it funnier, like Rod Kimble tumbling down a mountainside. It took Myers nearly four full seconds to fall to the ice.
- Delia stopped the first chance after Myers’ pratfall, then got a piece of a second, but Mikael Granlund, completely unencumbered by Stillman doing anything remotely related to defending, was able to bang in the loose puck in the crease to make it 4-2.
- The Canucks stubbornly stuck around and mounted a late comeback, to the credit of their determination and will and to the detriment of their chances of falling further down the standings to improve their draft position. With Delia pulled for the extra attacker, Hughes fired a shot from the left side that Conor Garland deftly tipped past Saros to make it a one-goal game.
- It seemed like time would run out as the Predators pinned the puck along the boards with 30 seconds left but some digging by Garland and Anthony Beauvillier got the puck free. Kuzmenko pulled away through the neutral zone, protected the puck from Granlund and Colton Sissons, passed off to J.T. Miller, then beaver-tailed as he drove to the net, urgently requesting the return pass. Miller obliged, sending a hard pass right onto his tape, and Kuzmenko angled the puck into the top corner with a gorgeous deflection to tie the game with just 16 seconds left. Stunning.
- Miller had the Canucks’ two best chances in overtime, ringing the crossbar on one chance and forcing Saros to make a great glove save on another. He just couldn’t find the back of the net and the same was true for him and the other two Canucks shooters in the shootout, with Matt Duchene’s lone shootout goal standing up as the winner for an anticlimactic finish to the Canucks comeback.
- Honestly, full credit to the Canucks for battling back from a double dose of two-goal deficits. Were this a different season and the Canucks still in the playoff hunt, we'd surely be railing against the referees for their "inconclusive" video review of the Predators' opening goal. As is, Canucks fans got to see a thrilling comeback and the team only picked up one point in the standings. We'll call that a win.
- It will be tough for the Canucks players without Luke Schenn, who sat out this game and is expected to be traded shortly. Even if trading Schenn is the right decision from a business and hockey perspective, he’s a kind and genuine person who clearly has the admiration and respect of everyone in the Canucks locker room and will be missed.
- “He’s a guy I care about,” said Hughes. “He’s a great teammate, great person. He’s a winner and I don’t just say that because he won, I say that because of the way he carries himself day in, day out… I’ve seen things like this — the closest thing I can compare it to is Chris Tanev.”
