It’s amazing how a hockey game can turn on a dime.
The vast majority of Monday’s matchup with the Montreal Canadiens was painfully dull, as the Vancouver Canucks struggled to create scoring chances, while successfully preventing the Canadiens from creating chances of their own.
“It was a tight-checking game, it was hard to find a lot of space on the ice,” said Canucks head coach Travis Green. “Their D try to have a tight gap much like ours do, their forwards are fast skaters that get above right away. We talked to our team that this is going to be a little bit of a chess match tonight. It's going to be a quick game, with a lot of puck battles, and I thought that's exactly what it was.”
It may have been a tense and dramatic game to play, as the two teams battled in the tightly-contested affair, but it definitely wasn’t the most thrilling to watch.
And then, very suddenly, the game came alive like Young Frankenstein’s Creature and put on a show. It took until the final minute and an absolutely incredible slap shot by Adam Gaudette but this game finally became interesting.
Just as suddenly, the game had a narrative shape: the breakthrough of Adam Gaudette.
Gaudette had been snakebitten all season, getting chances galore, but unable to put them in the back of the net. That continued Monday, as he had one of the Canucks’ best chances earlier in the game but got stoned by Carey Price, and also had a puck go off his skate and hit the side of the net. At the same time, Green recognized that Gaudette was playing well and made sure to get him some more ice time, lining him up with J.T. Miller and Nils Höglander.
“I think his game’s been coming,” said Green. “I put Gauds up hoping that it'd give us a little spark...Gauds gave us some good shifts up there.”
As for Gaudette, he was feeling confident despite the lack of puck luck.
“I've really liked how my game was coming along since I've been back in the lineup,” said Gaudette after the game. “I think I've really personally taking a step and I feel more confident and comfortable..You kind of sit back and think to yourself, what do I got to do, but the chances are coming, you’ve just got to stick with it and bear down.”
The same advice works for hockey games: sometimes you’ve just got to stick with it, bear down, and things will eventually get better. They certainly did when I watched this game.
- The Canucks didn’t just get an actual victory on Monday night — they also got a moral victory by holding Tyler Toffoli off the scoreboard for the first time this season. But, like Mr. Maker doing a Minute Make, it was “only just.”
- Early in the game, the Canucks got lackadaisical on a backcheck and Toffoli got a wide open chance from the left faceoff circle. Ironically, the Canucks got a too many men call from that rush — somehow the Canuucks had six skaters on the ice, but none of them were covering Toffoli.
- Also, a too many men penalty on International Women’s Day? Get it together, Canucks.
- Toffoli had another fantastic chance that nearly became a goal in the second period. Toffoli snuck in on the backside of a rush, where Corey Perry found him with a nifty pass. Toffoli’s shot hit Demko, then popped into the air before hitting Demko’s backside and rolling just wide of the post.
- That’s as close as Toffoli would come, which I see as an absolute win.
- The Canadiens still opened the scoring on the too many men power play, with Jeff Petry threading a point shot past a Perry-screened Thatcher Demko. “I didn't see it until it was pretty much right on top of me,” said Demko after the game, which makes sense: Perry is both wide and opaque.
- The Canucks had a golden opportunity to pull even late in the first period when Paul Byron ran over Demko on a shorthanded chance, giving them a lengthy 5-on-3. The Canucks managed to do both jack and squat with the two-man advantage. The official play-by-play stat sheet has two events during the 5-on-3: a faceoff win and a giveaway, a minute apart, both by Bo Horvat. The rest of the time was spent aimless passing the puck around the top of the zone.
- With his team struggling to create chances, Green activated the Line Blender 3000™ in the second period, with such oddball combinations as Marc Michaelis, Brandon Sutter, and Brock Boeser on a line, or Tanner Pearson with Horvat and Sutter, or Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, and Sutter. I guess what I’m saying is that Sutter played on a lot of different lines.
- It’s generally not a good thing when a defenceman has a shift that lasts three minutes. Tyler Myers had two of them. Unsurprisingly, he also had the worst corsi on the night, with the Canadiens out-shooting the Canucks 24-to-11 when he was on the ice at 5-on-5.
- Quinn Hughes played a ton of minutes in this game, finishing with over 30 minutes in total ice time. A big reason why is that Jordie Benn played just one shift in the third period before leaving with an undisclosed injury — he appeared to take a shot off his foot. Hughes wound up playing 12:08 in the third period alone from double-shifting in Benn’s spot.
- “I was surprised, we were trying to get him to get up to 40 minutes,” joked Green. “When it gets into three-on-three he's such a gifted skater — he ended up staying out a little longer than we probably wanted him to but he's one of those guys that has the luxury that he seems to skate all day without getting tired.
- This moment when Tanner Pearson threw Toffoli to the ice probably should have been a penalty, but it’s also hilarious because the two of them are best friends. Sometimes you’ve just got to give your best friend a big ol’ shove. We’ve all been there.
View post on imgur.com
- Still, it’s understandable why the Montreal bench was riled up when Nick Suzuki was called for tripping Jake Virtanen shortly after. It all worked out — after the Canadiens killed off the power play, Virtanen got blatantly tripped by Petry and slid heavily into the boards, nearly causing a serious injury and there was no penalty called. Wait, that doesn’t sound like it worked out at all. That just sounds like good old-fashioned bad officiating.
View post on imgur.com
- As you can see, Virtanen also had some words with the Montreal bench after going down. They appeared to be naughty ones.
- With the goaltender pulled, Gaudette came over the boards as the extra attacker. He found a soft spot in the Canadiens’ coverage off the rush and Horvat found him with a great pass. Then Gaudette unleashed a Hodgsonesque slap shot that rang off the post and bulged the top of the net. Price immediately complained that Gaudette is clearly a hacker and had an aimbot — that shot was too perfect.
- Overtime was exciting, though it was odd that neither Gaudette nor Höglander had a shift. But Sutter did. Huh.
- The best chance of overtime was on a spectacular individual effort by Boeser that met an even more spectacular save by Price. He maneuvered past Brendan Gallagher, then cut inside on Tomas Tatar, then made a brilliant cutback behind the net to catch Price on the wrong side of the net and nearly tucked the puck in on the backhand, but Price made the desperation glove save, stretching back to steal away a sure goal.
- The only player that could score in the shootout was Bo Horvat, who weaved in, looking for an opening in Price’s stance. Then he faked five-hole — where he scored earlier this season on a similar move — before pushing the puck out and snapping it blocker side.
- That left just Tatar for the Canadiens, who tried to get fancy with a between-the-legs move, but Demko stayed right with him. “I think he's a pretty shifty player,” said Demko. “Just looking at some of his shootout clips, there's a lot of deceptiveness and different things that he's willing to try, so I wasn't too sure what he was going to come down and attempt. I just wanted to make sure I stuck with it and gave myself a chance.”
- Just like that, the Canucks have a nice little three-game winning streak. Enjoy it, folks.
