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I Watched This Game: Canucks end losing streak against hapless Blackhawks

Canucks 5, Blackhawks 2
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The Chicago Blackhawks don’t have a single hap. Not even one hap kept aside for a rainy day. Completely hapless.

At this point, beating the Blackhawks isn’t like slaying a dragon, unless we’re talking about Komodo Dragons, and even those are a little too nasty. It’s more like slaying a small lizard, except that’s animal cruelty and a sign of potential psychopathy, and I don’t want the Canucks to develop into a psychopath. I mean, proper development is really important for the Canucks right now.

So I guess I watched the Canucks capture an escaped Leopard Gecko and gently place it back in its terrarium when I watched this game.

  • Even though the Blackhawks are bad now, and even though it’s probably better for the Canucks long term if they lose as many games as possible, it’s still immensely satisfying to see the Canucks beat the Blackhawks. It’s hard to be objective-reporter-PITB when it comes to the Blackhawks. My biased-blogspot-blogger-PITB just comes raging out.
  • A belated stick-tap to Chris Tanev on the opening goal. It was his great read in the defensive zone that started the play, as he intercepted a pass, won a perfunctory puck battle, and made a breakout pass to Henrik Sedin. Then he jumped up in the rush, driving to the net to force Duncan Keith back, which gave Alex Edler the time and space to get a shot away off of Brendan Leipsic’s pass.
  • The Blackhawks evened the score thanks to the Canucks swarming around Patrick Kane like ants around the urine of a diabetic. Michael Del Zotto, Bo Horvat, and Jake Virtanen were all focused on Kane and completely unprepared when he dropped the puck to Brent Seabrook stepping up the right wing. His slap shot deflected in off Nick Schmaltz as he lept into the air like Baryshnikov.
  • Jacob Markstrom had a strong outing after a couple rough starts, but he also got a lot of help. Matthew Highmore hit the post in the first period, but it was Patrick Sharp that helped the most, missing two wide open nets in the second period. On one power play chance, he had the entire net to shoot at and hit the far post, shooting it behind Markstrom. More like Patrick Dull, amirite?
  • Note to self: come up with a better joke than “Patrick Dull.”
  • The Canucks took a rare lead into the first intermission after Henrik Sedin scored an even-more-rare goal. This was just the 15th time the Canucks have led after the first period; only the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers have led after 20 minutes fewer times this season.
  • Henrik scored on a set play off the faceoff. It’s something we’ve seen several times this season: Henrik won the faceoff to his brother on the left, who dropped the puck back to the point. Daniel then rotated up to the blue line, and Sam Gagner rotated to the boards, where he picked up the pass from Del Zotto and sent it back to Daniel at the point. As Daniel took the shot, Henrik and Troy Stecher went to the net looking for a rebound. All the movement left pretty much every single Canuck on the ice wide open. Berube kicked the rebound out to Henrik, and he passed it into the net.
  • That was just Henrik’s third goal of the season, his first in 56 games. That gives him 3 goals and 45 points this season. No forward in NHL history has ever scored fewer than five goals while tallying 40 or more points. Joe Juneau had 5 goals and 43 points during the 1994-95 season, but that season was shortened by a lockout, so he surely would have scored more than five goals if he had played more than 44 games.
  • Travis Green switched up Bo Horvat’s linemates to start, but kept them together all game after doing a lot of line juggling lately. My tip: juggle three-dimensional objects. Much easier than lines. He put Nikolay Goldobin on Bo’s left and Jake Virtanen on his right. Goldobin has spent a lot of time on the right wing with the Canucks this season, but he seemed more comfortable on the left wing in this one, tallying two assists.
  • Goldobin’s first assist came after a great outlet pass by Troy Stecher. Goldobin pulled up in the neutral zone and hit a streaking Horvat. The pass was nearly picked off by Erik Gustafsson, but that worked to Horvat’s advantage, as Gustafsson’s pause to get his stick on the puck gave Horvat a step on the defenceman, allowing him to cut to the net with the puck and neatly tuck it through the legs like Buffalo Bill.
  • Alex Edler scored his second goal of the game on a long slap shot from the left point that tipped off Vinnie Hinostroza’s glove and under J-F Berube’s glove. It was glovely. Sorry. It was also his first two-goal game since October 29, 2011, and the first two-goal game from a Canucks defenceman since Matt Bartkowski on February 25, 2016. The Canucks don’t get a lot of goals from defencemen, is what I’m saying.
  • Edler’s second goal meant the end of the night for Berube, and he wasn’t happy. At the bench, he threw his mask on the floor, causing the Blackhawks fan sitting beside the bench to react in alarm. All of her gasts were thoroughly flabbered.

 

 

  • The Canucks made it 5-1 when Michael Del Zotto’s point shot hit Brandon Sutter’s foot and went in. On the replay, it showed Alex Edler’s reaction, which was hilarious: he threw his hands up in the air and smiled, then suddenly grimaced in empathy for Sutter as he collapsed to the ice in pain. The combination of emotions made him look a lot like a Sedin.

 

 

  • After the game, the cameras caught Patrick Sharp giving dap to Henrik Sedin and likely doing the same to Daniel just out of frame. He then asked for and received a signed stick from the Sedins “just in case.” That’s certainly the sort of thing you would do/say if it was the last time you were playing someone. The question is, who’s retiring? The Sedins or the 36-year-old Sharp who had 18 points in 48 games last season and 19 points through 63 games this season?