With this game coming so close to Christmas, there was a temptation to write a parody of “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” better known as “‘Twas the night before Christmas.”
I got as far as writing two stanzas before remembering that I did the same thing two years ago and it took me far too long to do it. Besides, I don’t think I could ever match the couplet, “He whistled and shouted and called them all names/Like ‘Chowderhead,’ ‘Doofus,’ ‘Clodhopper,’ and ‘James.’”
Still, it would seem a shame to write those stanzas and then not share them, so here you go:
‘Twas two nights before Christmas at Rogers Arena
No reporters were stirring in the Vancouver media
Narratives waited for cherry-picked quotes
That would fit in the story they’d already wrote
They were tired and jaded by so many seasons
Of .500 hockey, managerial malfeasance,
And watching a team that was called the Canucks
Play like their hearts were all emptied of ****s
I was intent on making all sorts of jokes at the expense of the Vancouver media, which includes myself, and all the noise that has surrounded the team but I think most fans are tired of that noise. Heck, the media is too. Both Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller have said their piece, so let’s move on.
Thankfully, the Canucks gave their fans the Christmas gift of a win over the San Jose Sharks, featuring strong performances by both Pettersson and Miller. That’s a relief for fans, who don’t have to dwell on a four-game losing streak over the holiday break, but also for the players, who can simply enjoy the time off with family and friends.
“We talked about it,” said Danton Heinen. “You definitely want a good taste in your mouth going in [to the break] and feel good about yourself.”
You could feel the tension let go in the building as the Canucks took a three-goal lead in the second period, even if that tension built up again just a little when the Sharks pushed back in the third. The Canucks held the lead and get to enter the break with a win.
“It’ll be nice to unwind and just let the emotion relax,” said Kiefer Sherwood. “It takes a lot when for the last month, you play every other day with a couple of back-to-backs in there.”
Of course, it’s the Canucks, so it can’t all be positive. They gave fans one more reason to worry over the holidays: Elias Pettersson left the game in the third period.
“He got banged up — I think it was in the second — so he tried one shift,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “We’ve got the break, so I don’t think it’s too bad. We’ll see how it is.”
It would be just like the Canucks for Pettersson to come alive with a two-goal game just to get injured, so hopefully he’s fine. He’s not the only one grateful for the break, as Quinn Hughes was a game-time decision, though he still played over 25 minutes.
“I think that the break’s coming at a fortunate time,” said Hughes. “Got three days here just to recover and regroup. We’ll see what’s going on after that.”
Honestly, I’m looking forward to taking a few days off myself, but only after I tell you what I saw when I watched this game.
- After being healthy scratched for two games, Nils Höglander returned to the lineup and drew a penalty on his very first shift, which was a positive start. He ended up getting his first point in 22 games when he assisted on the go-ahead goal in the second period, which is hopefully the start of him turning his game around.
- “I think it was one of Höggy’s best games,” said Tocchet. “He came back and wanted the puck.”
- This was a scrappy game, with both teams showing a surprising amount of animosity given the lack of history between the two. Perhaps it had something to do with Tyler Myers absolutely demolishing William Eklund with one of the biggest hits of the season. Yeah, that might be it.
- “The hit, it was just one of those that just presented itself,” said Myers. “I’m not really looking for things like that but when it’s there — that one happened to be pretty available.”
- Later in the first, Barclay Goodrow dropped the gloves with Myers, seemingly as vengeance for the hit, even though Myers said that Goodrow admitted was a clean hit — ”He just said he had to do it and I respect that.” It looked a little silly: the 6’2” Goodrow didn’t have the reach to actually punch the 6’8” Myers, so he was just fruitlessly swinging until Myers went in for the clinch.
- “I told him after the fight, you know, great job,” said Myers. “They were sticking up for their guys tonight, we were sticking up for our guys. It was a hard-fought game…[The reach] always helps in those situations: you try to keep your arms straight and not allow him to reach you.”
- Derek Forbort had an up-and-down penalty-killing shift midway through the first period. He saved a goal by poking a puck away from Tyler Toffoli, who had an open net, which had me thinking, “If you can’t create a goal For-bort, at least prevent a goal Against-bort.” But then he took a tripping penalty to give the Sharks a 5-on-3, which cost the Canucks a goal, probably because he read my thoughts and hated that joke.
- William Eklund drew the penalty and scored the goal after being trucked by Myers, so it was a pretty eventful couple of minutes for the young winger. It was a gorgeous shot, as he hammered a one-timer into the top corner on the far side. Unfortunately, that was essentially the end of Eklund’s night. He finished out the period but then left the game, apparently feeling the delayed repercussions of Myers’ hit.
- The Canucks evened up the score thanks to a Quinn Hughes dash up the left wing. Brock Boeser and Nils Höglander both crashed the crease but it was Boeser who got the touch on Hughes’ pass to deflect it up over Yaroslav Askarov’s pad for the 1-1 goal, because it would be far too much for Höglander to get two points in his first game back. He’s got to build up slowly.
- “I'm just seeing that there's traffic there,” said Hughes. “I see Brock's stick as a righty. Obviously, we've connected there a bunch of times. I thought I almost had Sherwood on the same play on the power play in the second. I'm always telling those guys that I'm gonna be in that spot at least once a game — beat my winger — and to get back door for me, and I'll try to throw it there.”
- You may not believe it, but I think that Vincent Desharnais has actually been playing pretty well for a few games now. He made a brilliant play late in the first period, laying out to block a Macklin Celebrini pass after the Sharks cut off a Canucks breakout. Celebrini stepped around Miller and moved in 2-on-1 but Desharnais dove out to break up the play.
- At one point in the second period, Timothy Liljegren pitchforked Brock Boeser on top of his own goaltender, Yaroslav Askarov, leading to a wild scrum around the net for the loose puck. Boeser could only hold his hands up helplessly, making sure everyone knew that none of this was his idea: “I don’t want this, I don’t want this!”
- Midway through the second period, Ty Dellandrea hammered Teddy Blueger before the Canucks forward could even make a play on the puck. Not only did that net him an interference penalty, Dellandrea appeared to hit Blueger in the head. That irked Danton Heinen, who stepped up to fight Dellandrea — his first career fight. That earned Heinen an instigator minor to even up the penalties, which didn’t seem right given the circumstances. That’s not really the instigator penalty’s intended purpose.
- “I looked over and saw Teddy’s head snap back a bit — I thought it might have been a bit high,” said Heinen. “You won’t see me [fight] very often. I kind of stay in my lane and let the tough guys do it but sometimes you’ve got to do it.”
- “We didn’t like the hit and we responded afterward,” said Kiefer Sherwood. “It’s no coincidence that we got the lead right after that.”
- Everyone in Rogers Arena could hear Sherwood yell for the puck as Teddy Blueger was about to dump it in with a few minutes left in the second period. Blueger certainly heard it, firing the puck across to hit Sherwood on the fly up the right wing. Sherwood rewarded Blueger’s good hearing, ripping a rocket into the top corner give the Canucks a 2-1 lead.
- “I am trying to be a little bit more vocal,” said Sherwood. “That’s just growing my game a little bit. Like, I want the puck more, and I'm forcing myself to make plays more — smart plays. I gotta keep my identity, but there's certain times and plays where I feel like I can have more poise and take it upon myself to create more…But a lot of the credit goes to Teddy, because he could have just dumped that, and then maybe we would have scored, who knows, but he just made a great play.”
- 26 seconds later, as Al Murdoch was about to announce Sherwood’s goal, Elias Pettersson scored to make it 3-1, making it seem like Murdoch was showing incredible precognizance, shouting, “Vancouver goal!” a moment before Pettersson scored.
- The play started with a great read by Conor Garland in the defensive zone to pick off a pass and turn the puck up ice. As the Canucks attacked on a 3-on-2, Pettersson passed to Jake DeBrusk and then took advantage of Garland driving the middle lane to swoop behind him into some open space in the slot. While DeBrusk didn’t find him with the return pass, the rebound from his shot did, and Pettersson fired it past Askarov.
- Less than a minute later, Pettersson scored again on the power play with a double assist from J.T. Miller. The first assist was a literal one, as Miller made the pass to Pettersson before he sniped the puck off the far post and in, while the second assist was by virtue of the penalty he drew driving up the middle on the power play to give the Canucks a 5-on-3.
- “Two great shots,” said Tocchet. “Hopefully, that’ll kickstart him enjoying himself.”
- “It feels good,” said Pettersson in the intermission, then added with a smile, “Reminds myself that I’ve still got it. No, jokes aside, obviously it hasn’t — I don’t need to go into that. I’m happy I got the goals.”
- Poor Hughes. Already hurting heading into this game, his reward for clearing a puck out of the crease in the third period was getting an accidental stick to the back of his head from his own teammate, Miller.
- Yeah, that’s the look of a man who really, really needs this holiday break.
- The Sharks pushed back in the third period to try to erase the three-goal deficit or at least get Celebrini another point in his hometown debut. He didn’t get a point on the Sharks’ second goal — a Cody Ceci slap shot that Noah Juulsen inadvertently tipped through Thatcher Demko — but he did get an assist on the Sharks’ third goal, though that came far too late to make a difference.
- Missing top defenceman Jake Walman, the Sharks threw six forwards on the ice with the empty net. The all-out attack led to multiple chances but Demko kept them at bay until there was just five seconds left. That’s when Demko kicked out a Celebrini slap shot only for it to deflect off Juulsen’s skate to Tyler Toffoli on the other side of the ice, who finished into the open net despite Demko going into the full splits.
- The Sharks stuck with no goaltender and six forwards on the subsequent faceoff, hoping for a miracle. The fastest goal ever scored off a faceoff at centre ice took two seconds and was actually scored by a player who was on the ice for the Sharks, Mikael Granlund, but that was into an empty net, so the odds were slim. In any case, Miller killed the miracle like a dedicated skeptic by winning the faceoff and clearing the puck.
- Now the Canucks can head home for the holiday break, though not to refocus, according to Myers:
- “I don’t think we have much to refocus from,” said Myers. “I think guys, to start the year here, have done a great job with the adversity we’ve faced, with guys going down or guys in and out of the lineup, guys have handled the challenges well. It’s the same process each and every day: we come into the rink, we look at things we can get better at within our system, better at within our compete, and move on to the next game.”
- Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. See you in a few days.
