Last season was arguably the worst season in Canucks history. They set a franchise record for the most losses in a season, as well as the fewest goals in a non-lockout year.
And yet, 56 games into the 2017-18 season, the current Canucks are actually worse. After their win over the Dallas Stars, the Canucks are 22-28-6; last year’s Canucks were 25-25-6. They’re currently on-pace for 73 points, just one losing streak away from last year’s not-so-nice 69 points.
Yet somehow this season seems so much better than last year. And a big reason why is games like this one.
The Canucks have shown an ability this season to not just defeat an opponent, but outright dominate an opponent. Those dominant performances are few and far between and are surrounded by long stretches of mediocrity and awfulness, but they exist, and they’re often coming against good teams.
They stomped the Washington Capitals 6-2 early in the season and took down the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 a month later. More recently, they defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings by similar 5-2 and 6-2 scores. Then, after a series of demoralizing defeats, they came out and crushed the Dallas Stars 6-0.
As much as this season has stink, stank, stunk, at least they’ve served up the occasional dose of entertainment. Last season, they scored six goals just once. They lost that game 8-6. I saw the Canucks give up eight fewer goals when I watched this game.
- This was the third time this season that the Canucks have racked up 41 shots, but only the second time they’ve won while doing so. Earlier in the season, the Canucks fired 41 shots at San Jose Sharks backup Aaron Dell, and he stopped every single one for a 5-0 shutout. This time, at least, the score more accurately reflected the shot totals.
- One of the nicest things about a shutout is that I don’t have to spend any time talking about who was at fault for each goal against. Contrary to what some might think, I much prefer optimism and positivity over raking a guy over the coals for a mistake. If the Canucks could just post shutouts every game, this would be a much more positive and uplifting blog. So really, it’s their fault, the jerks.
- Brock Boeser should have gone to the University of Michigan, because I’m pretty sure he’s Wolverine. How else do you explain his lightning fast recovery from injuries? He missed just one game with a hand injury and was back in the lineup against the Stars. Sure, his shot lacked a little zip, but he still added to his team-leading point total, because he’s a beast, which is another member of the X-Men entirely, so I have hopelessly mixed my metaphor.
- Travis Green and Nolan Baumgartner turned to the Line Blender 3000™ after the loss to the Hurricanes and dumped the defence into it. Alex Biega went flying out before they put the lid on, and they ended up with Alex Edler and Erik Gudbranson on the top pairing, Michael Del Zotto and Troy Stecher on the second pairing, and Ben Hutton and Derrick Pouliot on the third pairing. The pairings worked really well. Like, suspiciously well. Occult ritual and cultic sacrifice well. What really happened to Alex Biega?
- The story of the game was, surprisingly, Reid “The Mighty Boosh” Boucher. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised: Boucher has been phenomenal for the Utica Comets this season, already hitting a career-high 41 points in just 38 games. He was all around the net in this game, looking like Kyle Wellwood’s long-lost twin brother. He’s the Daniel to Wellwood’s Henrik, the shooter to his passer. If the two had ever played together, they would have been the twins with back-to-back Art Ross wins.
- Boucher opened the scoring with the type of individual effort that would make a libertarian proud. He jumped past Greg Pateryn off a lost faceoff, outbattling him to knock the puck behind the net. He then lifted the stick of Dan Hamhuis and quickly tucked the puck in past Ben Bishop. After the type of awkward pause that usually follows anyone saying, “I’m a libertarian,” Boucher pointed at the net, looked back at the ref, and lifted his hands in the air to celebrate the goal that no one else realized he had scored.
- After a few games of matching up top line against top line, Travis Green went back to his checking line. It worked perfectly, as Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, and Darren Archibald out-shot, out-chanced, and out-scored the high-powered Stars line of Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Alex Radulov. That’s the kind of “shutting down” that I prefer. As George S. Patton once said, “No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.” Just substitute “game” for “war” and “blocking shots” for “dying for his country” and adjust the profanity level to your own personal tastes.
- Jake Virtanen has two key strengths: skating fast and putting the puck in the net. Thus, a breakaway is a perfect situation, as it removes all other options aside from those two. Virtanen created his opportunity with a nice defensive play, then burst out of the blocks like Armin Hary, creating instant separation. Once he got to Bishop, he deked to the backhand and slid the puck five-hole.
- The first two Canucks goals were unassisted, so the Sedins decided to make up for it with a pair of fantastic assists on the third goal. Henrik hoisted the puck up over Jamie Benn’s outstretched hand to his brother waiting on the opposite side of the ice. Saucer pass doesn’t cover it; that was the whole plate, if not a full set of china. Daniel’s pass was nearly as good, as he one-touched the bouncing puck right to Thomas Vanek, who stepped into the slap shot like it was a pair of jorts and blasted the puck blocker-side on Bishop.
- Interesting wrinkle on the power play: with no Sam Gagner, Bo Horvat stayed on the ice with the second power play unit in order to take faceoffs, then head to the bench.
- Horvat was on with the first power play unit when he scored the 4-0 goal. It was a broken play on the zone entry, as Edler’s drop pass nearly got picked off, but Edler worked to recover the puck and bring it in over the line. He centred for Boeser, who executed a nifty between-the-legs drop pass instead of going for goal. Horvat took the pass and snapped the puck past a frozen Bishop.
- Stealth stick-tap to Daniel Sedin for dummying the drop pass from Boeser. It’s a classic soccer technique, pretending to receive a pass while leaving it for someone else. I’m not sure it was intentional, but Daniel reached out for the puck and didn’t take it, and when he did so, Bishop seemed to follow Daniel for a moment, leaving him standing still for Horvat’s shot.
- That was the end of Bishop’s night, as Kari Lehtonen came in to break down was little was left, but it made no difference. Virtanen picked up his second point of the night by driving wide, going around the net, then finding Derrick Pouliot open at the point. He sent a hard pass to Boucher, who tipped it home like he was taking an Uber.
- The Stars came closest to scoring when Martin Hanzal crashed the net and had the puck bank off him and just over the bar. Even if it had gone in, the Canucks had a strong case for goaltender interference, as Hanzal jammed his stick into Markstrom’s pads like a toothpick into an hors doeuvre.
- It turns out Lehtonen is actually Let-two-in, as Erik Gudbranson provided the icing on the cake with a long, unscreened wrist shot that somehow slipped under Lehtonen’s blocker. It didn’t take a deflection or dip at all: it was just a shot, albeit one with a little zip to it. It had no business going in, which I guess means it was for pleasure.
