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I Watched This Game: Florida sinks the Canucks

Canucks 1, Panthers 3
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The most maddening aspect of this Canucks season is the consistent inconsistency.

The three games heading into this one showed great promise. There was the strong start and finish against the red-hot Colorado Avalanche. The Brendan Gaunce-led dismantling of the formerly-great Chicago Blackhawks. And the impressive third-period push against the best-in-the-NHL Tampa Bay Lightning.

Then they travelled across the continent into Sunrise, Florida and played like they has just flown across three time zones and were suffering from the effects of jet lag.

I felt like I took a Gravol when I watched this game.

  • Improbably, Harri Sateri is the Panthers’ goaltender and not a character in the new Han Solo movie. The 28-year-old Finnish netminder has had to fill in for Florida with both Roberto Luongo and James Reimer, and has been lights out in the first NHL action of his career. Over his last four starts, including this one, Sateri has a sparkling .950 save percentage. As Jerry Reed said, when you’re hot, you’re hot.
  • Not that the Canucks challenged Sateri too much. They had a few good chances, with Sateri notably robbing Sven Baertschi on a 3-on-1 in the first period and Loui Eriksson on a shorthanded rush in the second, but the Canucks managed just 27 shots, with most coming from the outside.
  • Jacob Markstrom was on his game as well, only getting beaten by an own goal and a breakaway. He was dialled in like a radio talk show caller on a rotary phone, blocking shots like an Instagram model, and controlling rebounds like Wilt Chamberlain. Okay, that’s maybe overstating it, but he was good and deserved a better result.
  • So did poor Chris Tanev, who ended up on the hook for the opening goal when he deflected it into his own net. But it’s not his fault that the rest of the penalty kill broke down and he faced a 3-on-1 down low. He initially lifted Nick Bjugstad’s stick, thinking the pass was going into the slot, then recovered quickly to cut off the passing lane to Aaron Ekblad at the back door. It would have been an incredible defensive play if the net wasn’t there, as he completely picked off the pass.
  • Panthers defenceman Denis Malgin, like Robert Bortuzzo, sounds like a generic brand version of a more popular player. When Evgeni Malkin went to Itchy & Scratchy Land, he was aggrieved to discover they had no “Malkin” personalized licence plates, but plenty of “Malgin” ones.
  • This was a game when it really seemed like the Sedins could have used more ice time. They were the only line to get some extended time in the offensive zone and created some chances off of possession down low instead of just the rush. They played part of the game with Jake Virtanen, but things seemed to really click when Loui Eriksson joined their line. The only issue was a lack of finish, which is, like Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76, a really important issue.
  • After Sateri got his toe on Eriksson’s shorthanded chance, Markus Granlund came through later in the same penalty kill. Brandon Sutter knocked down a pass in the neutral zone and Granlund took off, bursting away from his defenders, one of whom dug his stick in for a delayed hooking penalty. Sateri seemed to be expecting a deke to the backhand, but Granlund surprised him with a quick snap shot along the ice on the short side.
  • Travis Green went power against power in this game, sending out the Canucks’ first line of Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat, and Brock Boeser out against the top line of the Panthers: Evgenii Dadanov, Aleksander Barkov, and Nick Bjugstad. Unfortunately, it showed why Green has depended so heavily on a shutdown line, as the Horvat line got mostly hemmed in their own zone. They still created chances, but they were largely off the rush and were one-and-done, with little sustained pressure.
  • Erik Gudbranson is one of the main candidates for the Canucks to trade at the trade deadline, while the team has also been fielding calls about Ben Hutton. Honestly, either one getting traded at this point would be an improvement, because it would mean we wouldn’t have to see them play together anymore. It doesn’t matter who you want to blame, Hutton or Gudbranson, the pairing just doesn’t work.
  • Hutton has a 51.52% corsi when paired with Chris Tanev at 5-on-5. He has a 51.65% corsi with Troy Stecher. He has a 41.56% corsi with Erik Gudbranson. Please stop putting them together. Please.
  • While I would argue that overall the problem with that pairing is Gudbranson (every defenceman that has played more than five minutes with him has a worse corsi with him), Hutton struggled most in this one, getting repeatedly beaten like The Krusty Burglar. Shots were 10-5 Florida with Hutton on the ice at 5-on-5 and he got victimized by Aleksander Barkov on what stood as the game-winner. Hutton misjudged his gap, thinking he could force Barkov to the outside, but, like two extreme political parties, he left the middle wide open. Barkov stepped up and beat Markstrom on the backhand.
  • That was basically it for the game. Troy Stecher got beat badly a couple times like Hutton, but no goals resulted from those bad beats, so we can safely ignore them. Michael Del Zotto saved Stecher’s bacon on one of them. Eriksson missed the net on his best scoring chance. Gudbranson had a truly terribad giveaway. Eventually Barkov scored into the empty net. Game over.