“Weird bounces. Really weird bounces, to be honest. That first one, I think he gets pretty lucky. There’s a ton of skates and sticks on the far side and somehow it gets by. Second one goes off the guy’s foot, he boots it and it goes right to their guy backdoor. Third one goes off our D-man in front, same as before. So, just a lot of tough bounces.”
That was Matt Murray two-and-a-half weeks ago talking about Brock Boeser and ascribing his hattrick entirely to luck. And here’s Murray Wednesday night after Boeser scored two more goals on him:
“The goals were just weird bounces....Pretty much all the goals they got were kind of hilarious...You’ve gotta look at some of those goals and just laugh.”
The only way that a puck gets by Matt Murray is if it’s purely by luck, apparently. Unless he thinks Brock Boeser’s name is actually “Weird Bounces.”
It kind of works, actually: “The goals were just Brock Boeser” when I watched this game.
- Jeff Paterson nailed the takedown of Murray’s incredulity:
'and Boeser's first. That was lucky it didn't rip my glove hand right off my arm. And that one that Boeser one-timed, that was lucky, too. Lucky it didn't take my head off. So yeah, they were all lucky.'
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) November 23, 2017
- This game followed nearly the same script as the Canucks’ win over the Flyers: 2-1 for the Canucks after the first period, 4-1 after the second, and a 5-2 finish. It came complete with two goals from Boeser, a goaltender stifling a comeback in the third period, and a goal-starved forward giving up a chance at an empty net goal to give an easy goal to another goal-starved forward. Call it a sequel: Road Win 2: The Boesering.
- With his two goals, Boeser now has sole possession of first place in the rookie scoring race and has six goals in his last four games. When he scored his first goal in this game, I literally laughed out loud. What else can you do?
- Boeser opened the scoring with a ridiculous bar-down shot after a lovely backhand saucer pass from Sven Baertschi, but back it up a bit and you’ll see Boeser create the rush in the first place, forcing the puck out at the blue line, then kicking it to Baertschi in the neutral zone. It’s a great play from start to finish by Boeser, even if it’s the finish that gets all the attention.
- Jake Guentzel evened the score a couple minutes later with a goal that rests pretty much entirely on Erik Gudbranson’s shoulders. Just as Phil Kessel passed to Guentzel, Gudbranson pivoted to skate backwards. With Guentzel in full stride, Gudbranson would have struggled to keep up with him as it is; with his poorly-timed pivot, he didn’t have a chance. By the time Gudbranson pivoted back the other way, Guentzel was already shooting the puck and had plenty of time and space to tap in the rebound.
- If the Canucks are looking to trade Gudbranson, he didn’t do them any favours. He had an ugly first period, then got injured in the second period and didn’t return for the third. With plenty of NHL scouts on hand, it was a bad time for a bad game and, if Iain Macintyre is correct, an injured wrist. It’s really too bad, as it comes after a couple of solid performances that suggested he might be trending upward.
- The Canucks took the lead after Michael Del Zotto broke both Sidney Crosby’s stick and the space/time barrier to pokecheck Phil Kessel in the future. Del Zotto took a shot that snapped Crosby’s stick, leading him to drop it in his own zone. A minute later, Phil Kessel was skating backwards and skated right into the dropped stick, knocking the puck away. Del Zotto is clearly a Time Lord with a non-linear perception of time.
- Thomas Vanek picked up Kessel’s turnover and tried to stuff the puck five-hole like bread cubes, onion, celery, and herbs into a turkey. Murray turned it aside, but Loui Eriksson devoured the leftovers, ladling the rebound over Murray like a generous helping of gravy.
- Anders Nilsson had to battle and scramble a lot more than we usually see from him. We’re used to seeing Nilsson use his size and positioning to make saves look easy, but he showed a more athletic side in this game, with his best save a sprawling goal-line stand to stymie Patric Hornqvist at the tail-end of a first-period power play. He finished the game with a whopping 43 saves on 45 shots.
- The Canucks’ power play is figuratively on fire of late. With two power play goals in this game, the Canucks are 7-for-15 over their last five games. Derrick Pouliot chipped in with his first goal for his new club coming against his old club. Thomas Vanek did a lot of the work, sucking in a penalty killer along the boards before passing off and heading to the net, where he tied up Brian Dumoulin. Pouliot’s shot banked off Dumoulin’s leg and in, and he celebrated with a joyous grin that was one part “Hooray!” and two parts “You never should’ve traded me, suckers!”
- For most of this season, it seemed like everyone except Newell Brown wanted to see Brock Boeser at the left faceoff circle on the power play. Perhaps Brown resisted because, like using the pseudonym “Lisa S,” it seemed too obvious. Whatever the reason, Brown finally capitulated and in this game it paid off: Alex Edler set up Boeser at the top of the left faceoff circle and Boeser drilled the one-timer into the top corner.
- The Penguins poured on the pressure in the third period, but could only beat Nilsson with a lucky goal. Phil Kessel’s pass on the power play, like a puppy that hasn’t quite been house-trained yet, never made it to the backdoor. Instead, it hit Guentzel’s skate and fluttered past a surprised Nilsson.
- Brandon Sutter and his line were hot and cold all game. They spent a lot of time up against Sidney Crosby and got crushed in terms of puck possession: the Penguins out-shot the Canucks 7-1 when Sutter was up against Crosby at 5-on-5. But the line they faced the second-most was Tom Kuhnhackl and the fourth line and the Sutter line crushed them in turn: shots were 7-0 for the Canucks when Sutter was up against Kuhnhackl at 5-on-5. You could almost argue that the Canucks would be better off using the Sutter line more like a typical fourth line and allow their more offensively-inclined lines to try to win the match-ups against the other team’s top lines.
- Brendan Gaunce followed up his six shots against the Flyers with another four shots against the Penguins. It really feels like he’s going to breakthrough with the second goal of his career any day now. In fact, I’m going to make a bold prediction: Brendan Gaunce will score a goal before the end of November.
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He could have scored a goal in this game, but instead of shooting for the empty net from centre ice, he made the safer play to pass the puck to Brandon Sutter for the stat-padding finish. You have to think Sutter, who hadn’t scored a goal since the first game of the season, appreciated it a great deal.
