It doesn’t get much better than Thatcher Demko posting a shutout on Roberto Luongo Night at Rogers Arena.
“I mean, it’s poetic right?” said Demko after the Vancouver Canucks cruised to a 4-0 win over the Florida Panthers. “Something was in the air, you know?”
That something was the single syllable of “Luuuuuuuuuu!” that filled the building all night long. The fan chant that began in Vancouver with Lui Passaglia of the B.C. Lions roared through Rogers Arena before warm-ups even began and just grew louder still when Luongo took the ice for the pre-game ceremony that saw his name and likeness added to the Ring of Honour.
Sure, Luongo’s accolades and accomplishments that were read out ahead of the ceremony certainly sounded like those of someone who belonged in the rafters with the Canucks’ other retired numbers, but it was still a great chance for fans to show their appreciation for the greatest goaltender in franchise history and for him to show his appreciation in turn.
“This is very dear to my heart, I’m very serious,” said Luongo. “I want to thank you guys. It was a great eight years. I know it wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies, there was harder times, but I think those were the times that made me who I am today and I thank you guys for that, because you pushed me to be a better person, better goalie…I want to really thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
But the greatest tribute for Luongo on the night belonged to Demko. It wasn’t just the shutout, even if that is one of the many franchise records that Luongo holds, but how he got the shutout. Late in the first period, Demko stopped a point shot by Aaron Ekblad, then flopped onto his belly to get the extension he needed to rob Aleksander Barkov on the rebound.
Demko couldn’t have looked more like Luongo on that save if he tried.
“He’s such a first-class guy,” said Demko. “You know, I’m not super close with him but every encounter I’ve had, he’s treated me with respect. That’s always really cool coming from someone you watched growing up.”
Of course, Demko wasn’t exactly a fan of Luongo when he was younger.
“Honestly, I was a Kings fan growing up in Southern California,” said Demko with a grin. “So, he was frustrating, for sure.”
I like to think that Demko frustrated some young fan of the Florida Panthers tonight and that fan will someday be the next great goaltender for the Canucks. Like that young fan, I watched this game.
- It was a tough night on the injury/illness front for the Panthers. Jonah Gadjovich was scratched after taking warm-ups thanks to an illness, Sam Bennett took a slap shot in the face from Gustav Forsling, and Aaron Ekblad left the game with a lower-body injury.
- The line of Conor Garland, Teddy Blueger, and Dakota Joshua was by far the Canucks’ best. While the team’s top-six forwards struggled in match-ups against the Aleksander Barkov line, the third line dominated their match-ups, swarming Florida like Republican retirees.
- Like a shorter, less furry Hank McCoy, Garland was a beast. He made a huge play on the opening goal. At the end of a hard-fought shift where he would have been perfectly justified in just skating to the bench for a line change, he instead put pressure on Ryan Lomberg at the Florida blue line and stole the puck, out-battling the Panthers winger to kick the puck free to Andrei Kuzmenko.
- Garland’s efforts would have been wasted if not for Kuzmenko making a lovely move to slip past Niko Mikkola, cut to his forehand, and fire the puck under Sergei Bobrovsky’s glove. It was the loveliest finish since “Minä rakastan sinua.”
- It wasn’t just Garland making things happen on that line. Blueger made a great hit on Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the forecheck, leading with his stick to disrupt Ekman-Larsson’s pass and create a turnover. He quickly fed Joshua, who spun a backhand on net, then popped the cork off the net with a second backhand on the rebound.
- “Good play by Teddy to be disruptive there and get it over to me,” said Joshua.
- The Panthers played a strong game even if they couldn’t solve Demko. Matthew Tkachuk had a golden opportunity to get the Panthers on the board five minutes into the second period when a puck rebounded off the end boards to him at the side of the net. Instead of stopping up, however, Tkachuk tried to get fancy with it and shot the puck between his own legs, sending it harmlessly through the crease and out the other side. I’m beginning to understand why Tkachuk only has five goals this season.
- Sergei Bobrovsky gave the Canucks an early Christmas present in the second period. He came way out of his net to play the puck, surveyed all his options, and passed it directly to Joshua in front of his own, wide-open net for the easy 3-0 goal. To be fair, Joshua smartly stopped up just as Bobrovsky passed the puck, but it’s also completely fair to call that one of the most godawful giveaways since the Vero Beach Devil Rays gave out promotional urine sample cups.
- “Garland was taking away the left side, so I knew his options were limited,” said Joshua. “He passed it to me, so I don’t know if they get any easier than that but I’m not complaining…I think I saw that he kind of turned up ice, so I kind of knew he maybe wasn’t gonna go to the D I was going to.”
- The in-arena announcer for the Canucks, Al Murdoch, further proved why he's the best in the business when he announced Joshua's goal. He left a pregnant pause before emphatically stating, "UNASSISTED!" during the goal announcement, which was some brilliantly subtle shade thrown at Bobrovsky.
- An impressively stupid penalty by Kevin Stenlund gave the Canucks a 5-on-3 power play. It was the first shift of the penalty kill and Stenlund decided that was the right time to grab a fistful of Quinn Hughes’ jersey on a race for the puck and give it a good tug. It was a blatantly obvious penalty that not even a referee hoping to avoid giving a team a two-man advantage could ignore.
- The Canucks scored on the 5-on-3 shortly after Elias Pettersson rung a one-timer off Bobrovsky’s mask. Brock Boeser sent the rebound back to Pettersson, then went to the net where J.T. Miller found him at the backdoor. Just like Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Boeser missed his first chance at the empty net, this time hitting the post. He popped the rebound in on the backhand for his 22nd goal of the season.
- It would have been nice to ask Boeser about the goal, as his race with Auston Matthews for the Rocket Richard has been one of the best stories of the season for the Canucks. Unfortunately, Boeser was not made available to the media after the game.
- Bobrovsky’s night was over after the second period, as Anthony Stolarz and his chrome mask came in for the third period. They needn’t have bothered: the Canucks were content to just coast to the win, getting just one shot on goal in the third. The Panthers could have just pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker for the entire period and only lost 5-0.
- Seriously, nothing was getting past Demko. Not even friendly fire could faze Demko, such as when Noah Juulsen nearly swatted the puck into his own net. Fortunately, Demko was alert and snapped his pads down to the ice to make the save.
- The thriving third line and the lopsided score meant it was easy for Rick Tocchet to spread the minutes around ahead of a tough road trip. All of the Canucks forwards played under 18 minutes and J.T. Miller had the third-lowest minutes at 5-on-5, playing just 11:36, barely more than fourth-liners Pius Suter and Phil Di Giuseppe.
- “It’s a good thing our line didn’t play any more [minutes] because we were giving up grade-A chances left and right,” said Miller. “Barkov’s line outplayed us mightily. We need to own that as a line, for sure, especially if we’re considered playing in a match-up role. I didn’t think we were very good, so I’m glad that everybody else seemed to play pretty well and our goalie played awesome.”
- Honestly, it’s great to hear Miller take that kind of ownership of a mediocre performance even in a 4-0 win. It’s an attitude that seems to be shared by the whole team, as they’ve clearly communicated all season that they’re not going to be satisfied with just winning games but have a desire to constantly improve throughout the season.
- “That’s the way Millsy is,” said Tocchet. “He’s never satisfied. When he plays bad or if he doesn’t feel he played well — his line was out there for some chances tonight — he’s happy we won 4-0 but he wants to go to the video tomorrow. He’s on us coaches: he wants to know what happened, what can he do better? He’s done that all week about his defensive play, he went and saw [Adam Foote] the other day. That, to me, is a guy who’s not satisfied. I love that.”
