Two wins in a row isn’t really a streak and isn’t anything worth celebrating.
At least, it isn’t worth celebrating unless you haven’t done it in nearly two months. At that point, you take your celebrations where you can get them.
The Vancouver Canucks last won two games in a row on December 1, when they beat the Detroit Red Wings one game after a win over the Buffalo Sabres. Even then, those two wins both came in overtime; the last time the Canucks won two games in a row in regulation was a couple of games earlier when they beat the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins on November 23 and 26.
Since December 1, the Canucks went 7-10-7 before finally picking up two wins in a row against the Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues. It was a painful, borderline unwatchable, stretch of hockey.
The Canucks are hoping that they’ve left that behind.
It’s not just that the Canucks finally ended the drought by winning a second game in a row on Monday night against the Blues; it’s how they won. It wasn’t just luck or a dominant goaltending performance or Quinn Hughes taking over the game. Instead, the Canucks as a whole controlled the pace of play, four different players scored goals, and nine different players tallied a point.
“The way we won tonight felt sustainable,” said Hughes. “So, we’ve just got to keep going.”
We’ll see if it lasts and whether the Canucks can turn two wins into an actual winning streak, which the Canucks need badly if they want to get back into playoff position and solidify their place. Beating the Blues, who were breathing down their necks in the hunt for the last Wild Card spot, is a good step in that direction.
“It’s a four-point game,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “We’re both going for playoff spots.”
Here’s the thing: two wins in a row is nice, sure, but it’s a sign of how low the bar has descended that two wins feels like an accomplishment.
Heading into this season, regularly winning two games in a row was a baseline expectation. This was supposed to be a surefire playoff team and a borderline Stanley Cup contender. They were supposed to win two games in a row several times in a row a bunch of times throughout the season.
All I’m saying is that, like Princess Ariel, I want more. But who cares? No big deal. I watched this game.
- Tyler Myers and Connor McDavid both made their returns from their respective three-game suspensions on Monday night. Myers had a goal and an assist, while McDavid could only muster up one measly goal. Makes you think.
- In all seriousness, Myers had a great game on the top pairing with Hughes. It seemed like the break was beneficial for the veteran, as he looked rejuvenated. He had five shots on goal and used his reach to make some excellent plays in the defensive zone. Sure, he also took an ill-timed minor penalty that threatened to shift the momentum of the game in the Blues favour but Myers is a peacock, you’ve got to let him fly.
- Myers was so good in this game that he even bailed out his defence partner after he turned the puck over in the neutral zone, making a great read to pick off a backdoor pass, then using his skating and size to protect the puck and calm everything down. Myers bailing out Hughes? Is this the mirror universe?
- “I thought Mysie was one of the best players on the ice,” said Tocchet. “I thought he was terrific tonight for us. When he’s out, you really miss a guy like that. His breakouts were great. He was excellent. In those three games that he was off, he worked really hard, so he didn’t miss a beat.”
- Of course, Myers was greatly helped by playing with Quinn “Give Him the Hart Already” Hughes. He made a brilliant play to set up Conor Garland for the opening goal, starting from the defensive zone, where he won a battle on the boards against Brandon Saad to free up the puck. Hughes kept going as Jake DeBrusk chipped the puck into the neutral zone, banking the puck off the boards to himself to move in 2-on-1, then patiently waited as Ryan Suter slid to the ice before threading a pass to Garland at the backdoor.
- It’s only when you watch the replay that you realize just how brilliant Hughes’ play really was. He didn’t just slide a pass around the sliding Suter; he fired the puck through the triangle created by the ice and Suter’s skates and shinpads right onto Garland’s tape. It’s the kind of pass that the NHL’s best players might struggle to complete at the All-Star Skills Competition and Hughes did it at full speed under the pressure of an actual game.
- Hughes’ pass was wizardous, sorcerous, miraculous, mystical, and possibly even thaumaturgical. That’s the kind of pass that if a Sedin made it, PITB would call it Wizardous Sedinery. What can we call this? Quinnic Trickery? Hughesian Enchantment? Mystic Quinnicism?
- Brayden Schenn and J.T. Miller fought off the faceoff following the goal, which largely seemed pointless. It did raise an interesting question when Schenn ripped Miller’s helmet off during the fight. If you take a player’s helmet off during play, it’s a penalty. But if you take a player’s helmet off during a fight, it’s not a penalty. You only get a penalty if you remove your own helmet prior to a fight, according to Rule 46.6. The NHL rulebook is a fascinating study in contradictions.
- With five minutes left in the first period, the Blues seemingly tied up the game when Tyler Tucker sent a one-timer past Kevin Lankinen, but the officials immediately waved it off. Prior to the goal, Dylan Holloway ran into Lankinen, preventing him from coming across to make the save. Holloway was definitely pushed by Hughes but he made no effort to avoid Lankinen, so it was deemed goaltender interference.
- Blues head coach Jim Montgomery made the decision to challenge the call on the ice, which was the PITB Transformative Moment of the Game™, which is legally distinct from the phrase “TSN Turning Point.” It was a risky challenge and it didn’t pay off. Not only did the call on the ice of “no goal” stand, it also gave the Canucks a power play. It also gave us the gift of this nattily attired and incredulous Blues fan, so everyone should keep it to a “Thank you, Jim.”
- “Our video guy said, ‘No, no, it will stand as no goal,’” said Tocchet. “Dylan [Crawford]’s really good at that. When he told us that in the earpiece, we were pretty confident.”
- The Canucks made it 2-0 on the subsequent power play, making the decision to challenge the no-goal call a massive swing in the game. J.T. Miller set up Brock Boeser in the high slot and Elias Pettersson got a tip on his shot, changing the path of the puck just enough to sneak it under Jordan Binnington’s glove. The puck trickled into the crease behind the Blues goaltender and Garland made like Joanne Courtney and swept it home.
- “[Garland] brings a lot of compete and it doesn’t matter if he’s on the scoresheet or not, you’re going to feel his impact,” said Hughes. “Happy for him that he was able to get on the scoreboard tonight but he’s always competing like that and pushing the pace for us.”
- That assist was Pettersson’s lone point and it was an interesting game for the Canucks’ highest-paid player. He had just 14:24 in ice time — his lowest total of the season — but had a season-high seven shots on goal. I’m not a fan of saddling him with Linus Karlsson, who very much does not look like an NHL player, but maybe the strategy is to take some of the pressure off Pettersson — lower ice time and less defensive responsibility — to get him back on track. His ice time is worth keeping an eye on.
- Kevin Lankinen had a great game defensively, with some fantastic saves, but he also chipped in offensively with his first assist as a Canuck. On the power play, Lankinen came out to meet a clearance and played it up to Hughes, who sent Miller in on a breakaway as the Blues penalty killers were changing. Miller caught Binnington off-guard with the early shot, rifling the puck into the top corner and chasing Binnington from the game.
- “I didn’t do much,” said Lankinen with a chuckle. “It was all Quinn and J.T. on that one.”
- The Blues got one back midway through the second period on the power play after Myers took a tripping penalty in the neutral zone. Miller won the faceoff but his pass behind the net missed Carson Soucy, so the Blues were able to keep the puck in and get set up. Justin Faulk put the puck in Holloway’s wheelhouse and he hammered a one-timer in the far side, where cows keep their tools.
- As penalty killers will always tell you, their job on a shot like that is to make the net smaller for their goaltender. The skater is supposed to get in the shooting lane and take away the far side of the net, leaving the goaltender to deal with the short side. So, that goal is on Soucy, who didn’t get into the shooting lane but stayed on the inside to take away a pass to the bumper that was never coming. Soucy even went straight to Lankinen after the goal, probably saying something like, “My bad, I’m sorry.”
- The Canucks nearly lost their grip on the game when Nils Höglander got dinged for a double minor for high sticking that initially appeared to have been missed by the officials but a linesman caught it. It was hard to miss, as it appeared Höglander dislodged one of Robert Thomas’s teeth, as he sang, “I think I’ve already lost you.”
- Fortunately for the Canucks, Pius Suter came in clutch on the penalty kill. Myers disrupted a Blues zone entry and sent the puck into the neutral zone, where Suter grabbed it, attacked with speed, and snapped a shot past Joel Hofer’s glove to make it 4-1. It was his first goal in 24 games.
- With multiple players breaking out of slumps and the Canucks cruising, it seemed like the perfect time for Elias Pettersson to get off the schneid. In fact, Elias Pettersson did get a goal in the third period but it was the wrong Elias Pettersson and it was into the wrong net. Soucy, perhaps because he’s not used to playing on his off-side, didn’t pick up Colton Parayko activating up the wing and his centring pass banked into the net off the leg of Elias Pettersson (Est. 2004).
- Now that you have had a puck deflect off you into your own net, Elias Pettersson, you are officially a Canucks defenceman. Congratulations.
- Soucy may not have handled that defensive breakdown well but he handled losing a skate blade better than any player I’ve ever seen. His right skate blade got taken out by a Parayko shot but Soucy gamely stayed in the play by balancing on one foot in front of the net. Then, instead of going down to one knee to scoot to the bench like most players, he made like a Dufflepud and hopped the entire way.
- Myers sealed the game with an empty-net goal with two minutes left, hitting the open cage from the defensive zone. Pettersson and Filip Hronek were battling along the boards and the puck was kicked out, where it was picked off by Suter, who moved it to Myers, giving Suter his second point of the night and bringing him to 69 goals and 69 assists in his career. Nice.
- Good job, Canucks. Do it again.
