VANCOUVER — One week before Christmas in 1996, there was an event loosely described as an National Hockey League game in which the New Jersey Devils came to town and restricted the Vancouver Canucks to eight shots over 60 minutes.
Two of those shots were by renowned enforcer Gino Odjick and one of them went in as the Devils beat the Canucks 2-1.
Jacques Lemaire was the Devils coach, and the neutral-zone trap, just then starting to spread like the chicken pox, their religion. It would be a little excessive to say the Devils killed hockey, but they certainly helped induce it into a coma for several years. Their performance against the Canucks was as exciting as watching tile grout discolour.
After the game, when asked about the entertainment value of his cure for insomnia, Lemaire offered a wry, sly smile like the Grinch — before the Grinch was transformed by the powerful message in the Whoville Christmas Song.
“Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze.”
Who among us would not be transformed hearing this?
Lemaire, alas, was not transformed and the Devils for years were regarded everywhere outside of New Jersey as pretty much a festering boil upon the game, even as they were adding Stanley Cups with stars in their lineup.
We are happy to report, 21 years later, that the Devils have changed. Incredibly, they are fast and exciting and full of youthful players who are allowed by the current coach, John Hynes, to attack and make plays with the puck even if it means surrendering shots and scoring chances to the opposition.
Wednesday, these New Jersey Devils beat the Canucks 2-0 at Rogers Arena to improve to 9-2. The score was a poor measure of the entertainment. Vancouver finished with 37 shots.
The Canucks, who have surprised teams with their own fast, cohesive play in the first month of the season, were outpaced by the Devils for two periods before surging forward in the final 20 minutes in a failed attempt to get even a single puck past former Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider.
Drew Stafford scored into an empty net with 14 seconds remaining, doubling the lead built by Jimmy Hayes at 10:09 of the second period when the Devil ripped an unscreened slapshot from the side boards through Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom.
Now 6-4-3, the Canucks were beaten in regulation for the first time in six games and shut out for the first time this season.
“They’re very different,” veteran Canuck Daniel Sedin said of the Devils. “That all depends on the players you have, too. They have a quick team now. I think they play a lot like us: a lot of pace, they get pucks deep, forecheck hard. It is a different team for sure.
“(But) I think this was more about Cory Schneider. We had some good shots. But when he’s on his game, he makes it look easy. That last save on me, I thought it was a good shot — up top. But he makes it look easy and makes me look stupid. That’s what good goalies do.”
Schneider made point-blank saves against Sedin and Markus Granlund in the final minute. Shot attempts were 80-42 for the Canucks, who have have fired 76 pucks on target the last two games and scored once. The Dallas Stars beat Vancouver 2-1 in overtime on Monday.
[snippet id=3636897]
That 1996-97 Canucks team was stumbling towards a precipice and the rebuilding the eventual plummet necessitated was the last full-scale reconstruction before the one now underway in Vancouver.
But that eight-shot Canucks team still had both Pavel Bure and Alex Mogilny in its lineup, and this one has nobody like that. Heck, the Canucks would have settled for a Gino Odjick on Wednesday if it meant scoring a goal and getting a point.
“I think we have enough guys here who can chip in offensively,” Canucks’ Sam Gagner said. “We’ve got guys who have put up numbers in this league and some young guys who have all the potential in the world to do so. I don’t think (firepower) is a problem.
“New Jersey are a good team. You can see it in their record. But I really liked the way we played tonight. That will get you a win most nights. I know I said the same thing last game, too. We’ve got to find a way to break through and score some goals here.”
Scoring goals was believed to be about the biggest of many problems facing the Canucks this season. But until the last two games — both among the best Vancouver has played — scoring wasn’t an issue.
Grinder Derek Dorsett has stalled at six goals, halfway to his career high. And forwards Brandon Sutter, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Granlund and Gagner have only six goals between them through 12 games.
The scoring by committee is suddenly failing the Canucks, and the power play again failed to help Wednesday when it had a chance to, blanked twice in the third period and finishing 0-for-4.
Except for the scoring part, there is a lot to like about how the Canucks are playing. They are fun to watch. Even against the New Jersey Devils.
[relatedlinks]
