The biggest win of season for the Vancouver Canucks?
Or the biggest win in two seasons?
It was certainly gut check time Sunday in Anaheim for Vancouver coming off two lacklustre performances, but also an opportunity to confront ghosts of its past, specifically centre Ryan Kesler.
You know the story. Kesler wanted out of the Lower Mainland last season, and the Canucks accommodated him by sending him to Anaheim for centre Nick Bonino, rearguard Luca Sbisa and a first-round pick.
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So Sunday was a chance to face Kesler for the first time, and to demonstrate whether or not this team is as fragile as it proved to be last season under John Tortorella. New head coach Willy Desjardins rolled the dice and started backup Eddie Lack after pulling Ryan Miller the night before.
Lack responded by stopping 28 of 29 shots, and Bonino potted the shootout winner in a 2-1 victory. Kesler? He had a chance to extend the shootout, but rang one off the post.
“I had him beat,” said Kesler of Lack. “I’m not big on shootouts. I’d rather play three-on-three, two-on-two until we have a winner.”
More weekend observations:
1. Speaking of three-on-three in overtime, it’s worth noting that New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello, one of the NHL’s most influential executives, and Toronto GM Dave Nonis are both behind the notion of mimicking what the AHL is doing and going to a format where it’s four-on-four for the first three minutes of overtime, then three-on-three for four minutes. Detroit’s Ken Holland has been pushing this idea for a while now. Look for a possible rule change in March.
2. The Leafs talked all summer about getting third and fourth lines that can score, a concept expanded in training camp when the team decided to go without an enforcer this season.
While scoring 10 goals in two weekend wins, the club got its wish, getting two goals from Peter Holland, one from Leo Komarov, one from Josh Leivo, one from Mike Santorelli and one from Richard Panik. That’s six goals on the weekend from players not named Phil Kessel or James van Riemsdyk.
3. Turns out losing Zdeno Chara has hardly meant doomsday for the Boston Bruins. The club is now 5-1 without the towering blueliner. Torey Krug, another injured blueliner, could return tonight.
4. The Colorado Avalanche were riding high at 14-2 a year ago under rookie head coach Patrick Roy. Today, they’re 4-7-5 and searching for answers.
5. In Ottawa, there’s no noticeable grumbling yet, but it’s worth noting Bobby Ryan has just three goals in 13 games. With a seven-year, $50.75-million contract in his hip pocket, that’s just not going to cut it.
6. Everybody loves Erik Karlsson’s offensive game, but the Ottawa captain has too often this season been isolated as being just awful defensively. The same mistakes that get Dion Phaneuf roasted in Toronto seem to be happily ignored in the nation’s capital.
7.The Hurricanes have, at least temporarily, turned around their season, and it started with the benching of $7-million winger Alex Semin, who is back playing these days for Bill Peters. A bigger factor than Semin is 19-year-old Elias Lindholm, who has five goals in in five games as the Canes have gone 4-0-1.
8. Rene Bourque’s playoff heroics have already been forgotten in Montreal, and the Habs have placed him on waivers with the intention of sending him to Hamilton if he goes unclaimed.
GM Marc Bergevin is proving to be an executive willing to make tough decisions, having sent captain Brian Gionta and heart-and-soul defenceman Josh Gorges packing during the summer. Now Bourque, who had eight playoff goals last spring, has been deleted.
9. The Rangers will get John Moore back from suspension this week and maybe Dan Boyle back from a broken hand. That certainly makes it seem less likely they’ll sign veteran Tomas Kaberle, who would put the team at the maximum 50 contracts.
Kaberle, who has no contract of any kind, travelled with the team to practice in Toronto on the weekend. New Jersey, meanwhile, believes it can keep Scott Gomez around to practice at home, but aren’t allowed to take him on the road and pay his expenses.
So what’s the difference between the two? It seems there was a memo that went out to all teams in March 2013 stating that if they bring in unsigned free agents to practice, it must be for a limited time, about 10 days. During that period, costs like flights, hotels and per diems can be covered. So if the Rangers want to keep Kaberle involved, they’ll have to make a decision on him by the beginning of next week.
Still, it’s a bit of a grey area not covered by the CBA. Cap circumvention? You could make that argument.
10. It sure seems NHL Player Safety boss Stephane Quintal and his right hand man Chris Pronger are going to put a lot more of the onus on defencemen to avoid plays that lead to dangerous hits. There was that impression earlier this season when Chris Kreider of the Rangers was excused for hitting Jonas Brodin of Minnesota from behind, and Nathan MacKinnon’s weekend hit on Luke Schenn that left the Flyers defenceman on the injury shelf for two weeks with a shoulder problem also went without supplementary discipline.
The guessing here is that both would have been suspensions under Brendan Shanahan’s watch.
11. Lots of lovely things were said about Jim Nill’s remaking of the Dallas Stars during the off-season. Right now, however, the Stars are winless in seven and sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference. Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky are both minus-7 and have combined for two goals.
Winger Antoine Roussel, meanwhile, was fined the maximum amount for sucker punching Justin Braun of the Sharks on the weekend.
12. The Devils are hoping to get Mike Cammalleri (concussion) and Martin Havlat (lower body) back for tonight’s game in Boston. Cammalleri has missed six games, Havlat eight.
13. Filip Forsberg, plus-15 on the season (I know nobody wants to talk about plus-minus anymore), has got to be the early favourite for the Calder Trophy. How Washington let him go for 66 games worth of Martin Erat remains one of the mysteries of the George McPhee era.
14. Edmonton’s hoping Taylor Hall gets back skating this week.
15. That ’70s Line was at it again for the Kings on Saturday, producing six points at the Staples Centre in an easy win over Vancouver.
At home, the line of Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson is lethal, having collected 36 points in nine games. In six road games, however, they’ve combined for just five points and the Kings have one win.
This won’t be a big problem to deal with in the immediate future, however, as four of L.A.’s next five games are at home. By the end of that, the Kings will have played a lopsided schedule, 13 at home and just seven on the road.
16. It’s an injury-riddled disaster in Columbus where the Jackets have lost eight straight and are 30th in goals allowed. The injury to goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (broken finger) has really proved to be devastating, and he’s just starting to catch pucks again in private workouts.
The good news? The Blue Jackets started 5-10 a year ago and made the playoffs.