The Vancouver Canucks walked away with an impressive 6-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night. Here are five takeaways from the game.
Vintage Sedinery
Henrik and Daniel Sedin are 35 years old and they’re still top-of-the-line forwards.
On Saturday night, facing an ancient rival on home ice, the twin brothers turned back the clock and were game breakers. They left no doubt.
It was, somehow, the first five-point game of Henrik’s career, which is hard to believe considering that he has a 100-point season on his resume and an Art Ross Trophy for his mantle. Daniel, meanwhile, notched the sixth hat trick of his career, and recorded his 900th career point (playoffs and regular season inclusive).
The twins were everything for the Canucks against the Blackhawks, and they needed to be. Playing at the top of a lineup that’s been depleted of late with injury – on Saturday the club was without Radim Vrbata, their leading scorer from last season, and Brandon Sutter, their best defensive centre – the twins controlled play at even strength and were dominant on the power play.
And when the Blackhawks managed to tie the game up in the third period, as so many Canucks opponents have done this season, the twins took over, scoring two goals in under two minutes to ice the game.
It was a vintage performance from Vancouver’s veteran stars and it left them in a familiar spot: right near the top of the NHL’s scoring leaderboard.
With 21 games in the books, Daniel now has 10 goals and 22 points, placing him comfortably in the top 10 in hockey in both categories. Henrik’s five-point game, meanwhile, bumped him up to 20 points in 21 games with his 14 assists ranking just outside the top 10 among all NHL skaters.
Right Hansen man
There was a time not too long ago when the notion of running out Jannik Hansen in the top six was popularly derided in the Vancouver market. You’ll hear no such complaints from Canucks fans these days.
On Saturday, Hansen was struck in the back of the neck by a puck in the first period, and briefly left the ice in considerable pain. Before the end of the frame he’d returned and scored a goal. Hansen would add another assist on Daniel’s third period insurance marker, bringing him up to 13 total points on the season.
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The Danish-born right-winger has added a much-needed speed element to Vancouver’s first line, and his disruptive forechecking was on display on Saturday night; he even seemed to give Chicago Blackhawks defender Duncan Keith fits at times. With Hansen’s help, Vancouver’s first line controlled better than 60 per cent of shot attempts at 5-on-5, which has become a positive trend for the Canucks in the early going.
Even after all these years, the Sedins are still in the drivers seat in Vancouver. And for whatever reason they’ve seemed to navigate better of late when Hansen is riding shotgun.
Home cooking does Horvat some good
While Sutter battles through a mysterious ailment, the Canucks have turned to 20-year-old centre Bo Horvat to hold down a second-line role and be their primary penalty-killing forward. It understandably seemed as if the weight of that responsibility was too much for the Canucks’ promising sophomore on their recent seven-game road trip.
The contrast between Horvat’s struggles on the road, and his polished defensive performance on Saturday night against the Blackhawks was stark.
Horvat’s primary matchup against Chicago was the dynamic trio of Patrick Kane, Artem Anisimov, and Artemi Panarin – arguably the best line in hockey at the moment – and Horvat held his own, even if he was on the ice for Anisimov’s third-period game-tying goal.
A tough bounce aside, Horvat’s line did very well to limit the rate at which Kane and company generated shot attempts and scoring chances. The 20-year-old took as many defensive zone draws as all other Canucks centres combined and was a beast in the circle – winning 14 of 20 faceoffs, including six of eight in the defensive zone.
It seems that home cooking does Horvat well, particularly between the hash marks. At the friendly confines of Rogers Arena, Horvat’s faceoff winning percentage is hovering near 55 percent, which would be a borderline elite mark. On the road, that clip dips to 47.5 percent, according to faceoffs.net.
Edler vs. Kane
Canucks defenceman Alex Edler still has moments where he doesn’t look like the No. 1 defenseman that he is.
Panarin walked the big Swedish defender rather unceremoniously in the second frame, for example, and Edler was on the ice for two of Chicago’s three goals.
Personally, though, I thought this may have been Edler’s best game of the season. Shadowing Kane for much of the evening, he was consistently physical (even if he was only credited with one hit). He blocked five shots, notched a pair of assists, and logged over 24 minutes of ice time on a night in which no other Canucks defenceman exceeded 21.
In-zone defensive play has been the Canucks’ Achilles heel at the quarter mark of the season. When Edler, and Luca Sbisa for that matter, defend the way they did on Saturday, it doesn’t seem like so much of an issue.
#TweetDanielAHat
Canucks fans drew the ire of Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and the Hockey Night in Canada panel on Saturday when only one lonely Canucks fan threw a hat onto the ice surface to celebrate Daniel’s third goal of the game. Sidney Crosby notching three goals on free hat night it was not.
In response to Friedman’s gratuitous “hat shaming”, Canucks fans took to Twitter to share pictures of hats and make up for their in-arena oversight. The #TweetDanielAHat hashtag was born and it briefly trended across the Great White North.
The idea was hatched by local Canucks blog Pass it to Bulis (who else?), who got the ball rolling with this:
Daniel Sedin deserves more than two friggin’ hats. Let’s get it going. #TweetDanielAHat pic.twitter.com/hAxacptJPM
— Pass it to Bulis (@passittobulis) November 22, 2015
Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy showed off his Bibby for Rookie of the Year Grizzlies hat, which, what even?
You mofo’s think I was KIDDING??? pic.twitter.com/ozeAVJBw2T
— Dan Murphy (@sportsnetmurph) November 22, 2015
The submission for best tossed Twitter hat was this strange and excellent video:
#TweetDanielAHat @VanCanucks, @passittobulis pic.twitter.com/bVmjtA6vrW
— Ying Yin Lau (@yingyinlau) November 22, 2015
Canucks fans, you’re all right.