As Ferris Bueller once said, “It’s over. Go home.”
It’s over for the Vancouver Canucks, though they can’t quite go home yet. They were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs on Monday night, which is the second cruelest kind of elimination.
The first cruelest is when your alliance on Survivor stabs you in the back when you had two immunity idols that you didn’t use.
The Montreal Canadiens needed just one point on Monday night to formally finalize their spot in the playoffs. They tied their game against the Edmonton Oilers in the third period, forcing overtime to eliminate both the Canucks and Calgary Flames.
According to the players, that doesn’t mean the Canucks have nothing to play for.
“Regardless of the circumstances, it’s about pride for our organization, pride for our teammates, coaches, staff,” said Thatcher Demko. “You’re playing for a lot more than what people may think. We’re gonna try and win every single time that we get on the ice, regardless of the situation.”
Canucks captain Bo Horvat echoed that resolve.
“I heard Thatch’s comments and he’s spot on,” said Horvat. “We play for pride, we play for our organization, our fanbase.”
On Monday night, the Canucks played for all of those things and managed to pull out a win against a Winnipeg Jets team safely ensconced in the playoffs. It wasn’t like the Jets were coasting and just looking to stay injury-free heading into the postseason. The Canadiens are just one point behind the Jets and could pass them for third in the division.
Of course, the options are finishing fourth and facing the powerhouse Toronto Maple Leafs or finishing third and facing Connor McDavid. There are no good options there.
The Jets racked up 40 shots on goal and pushed hard to mount a comeback after the Canucks took an early lead, but Demko shut the door, looking as good as he has look all season, if not better.
Demko provides one reason to keep watching Canucks games, but there are a few others. Nils Höglander remains delightful and other young players are going to get their chance to prove themselves in these last few games before the end. On Monday night, it was Jack Rathbone, who got a brief opportunity to shine on the power play.
Like Karen Han and Brian David Gilbert have no choice but to watch birds but also like watching birds, I watched this game.
- Höglander was at his best in this game, constantly pushing puck possession in the right direction and creating scoring chances. He had a team-high six shots on goal and helped his line with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser out-shoot the Jets 10-4 (good buddy) at 5-on-5.
- “I think I played great tonight,” said Höglander. “I had a lot of chances, I think I can score more goals if I score on my opportunities, so yeah, it was a good game.”
- Höglander did it all himself on the opening goal. He perfectly read a drop pass from Ville Heinola at the blue line and took off on a breakaway. His initial shot from the hashmarks was stopped by Laurent Brossoit, but he stayed on the rebound and made like Derrick Fogle to hack it home.
- The Canucks’ second line put them up by two a few minutes later. Matthew Highmore’s shot off the rush took a deflection well wide but it bounced off the boards to the side of the net, where Tanner Pearson outbattled Derek Forbort to swat it out front. Horvat, left open by Andrew Copp, buried the puck into the yawning cage.
- It was great to see Rathbone get an opportunity on the first power play unit. He took Elias Pettersson’s typical spot on the first power play unit, loading up for one-timers in the right faceoff circle, but also distributing the puck with some crisp passing. Rathbone had two shots on goal on their one power play and, even though they didn’t get a goal, it’s the best the power play has looked in ages.
- “He’s got a special skill, you can see that. He’s got a nice shot, a nice release. He doesn’t have a lot of panic in his game,” said Travis Green. “I also like the puck recoveries that Jack gave us. He was quick to get to pucks and he was strong on it. That’s part of the power play that no one really talks about it, but it’s such an important piece.”
- Green’s point about recoveries on the power play is huge and something that Alex Edler once really emphasized to me in a conversation we had about the power play a couple of years ago. By my count, Rathbone recovered the puck seven times in the 1:33 he was on the power play. Some of them were easy — a missed or blocked shot that ricocheted near him on the right boards — but others involved winning a battle or race and protecting the puck to keep the play alive. I especially appreciated this alert jump.
- Unlike his previous games, Rathbone wasn’t sheltered at all against the Jets. No Canucks defenceman saw more of the Jets’ top line than Rathbone. He was paired with Travis Hamonic and the two didn’t fare particularly well by the numbers — they were out-shot 12-to-3 when they were on the ice together at 5-on-5 — but it says something that the Canucks coaching staff were willing to put him in that situation.
- “I kind of go back to when we first played Quinn and there was a lot of questions about whether he could play against top guys and we kind of just threw him in the water and let him swim,” said Green. “We kind of felt like tonight we'll give it a go with Jack, give him a chance to get some minutes against some top players. We paired him with Hammer a lot more tonight and I thought he did well, I thought he did fine tonight.”
- The Jets responded in the first period. Mathieu Perreault undressed Jayce Hawryluk in the corner and Quinn Hughes jumped from the front of the net to check him. Unfortunately, no one covered for Hughes in front and Kyle Connor was wide open to roof Perreault’s pass. That’s a situation where the centre, Tyler Graovac, needs to recognize the danger and rotate down to cover Connor.
- That’s all the offence the Jets would get. Demko was magnificent in net, making 39 saves on 40 shots, including several point blank beauties. His best save came on Mark Scheifele shortly before Connor’s goal, bailing out Edler after an ugly turnover. Demko lunged to his right in the split and got his toe on the puck. Heck, he got all of his toes on the puck.
- Höglander deserved a second goal in this game — he hit the post on a sneaky shot a few minutes before he scored — but he definitely got a little help. Rathbone’s breakout pass got deflected, but Höglander hustled onto it, creating a 2-on-1 with Horvat. Höglander tried to set up the captain, but Josh Morrissey deflected the puck into his own net instead.
- “He keeps getting better and better,” said Horvat. “It takes a little bit for a young guy to figure things out, I think he’s improved immensely over the season.”
- With the Canucks up by two, the Jets pulled Brossoit for the extra attacker and even called a timeout with 1:31 remaining. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to get Höglander on the ice with the empty net for a potential hattrick. Even if Höglander doesn’t typically get used in that situation, they had a two-goal buffer. Instead, he stayed on the bench.
- Höglander was diplomatic after the game about that moment. “Yeah, I mean everyone wants to score a hattrick, but we will win the game too, so it’s up to the coach,” he said.
