The Vancouver Canucks took their Home Show on the road Wednesday with an impressive 5-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks that started a difficult five-game road trip for the Pacific Division leaders.
Winners of nine straight National Hockey League games in Vancouver, the Canucks weren’t as sharp or territorially superior as they’ve been for most of the last three weeks. But their poise, resilience, confidence and scoring depth in San Jose were enough to beat the Sharks. Goaltender Jacob Markstrom helped, too.
After struggling to survive a second period played largely in their end, the Canucks simply took the game away from the Sharks in the third, scoring four times to turn a 2-1 deficit into a three-goal victory.
Tyler Myers’ screened point shot tied it for the Canucks 2:36 into the final period before Jake Virtanen scored on a power play at 7:00 and Brandon Sutter swept in a loose puck 59 seconds later after a nice rush by J.T. Miller.
Markstrom, the all-star who hadn’t played since Jan. 16, stopped 38 of 40 San Jose shots and kept the Canucks close when they were being outshot 14-6 in the middle period.
It was the third win in the last four road games for Vancouver, which is still a game below .500 away from Rogers Arena but 13-3 overall the last six weeks.
As the Canucks prepare to fly across the continent for consecutive afternoon games Saturday against the New York Islanders and Sunday versus the Carolina Hurricanes, we offer a few not-so-deep thoughts on Wednesday’s win.
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MACHINE-GUN JAKE
On the first day of training camp in September, Virtanen boldly revealed that he planned to score at least 20 goals this season. His prediction was kind of lost by bigger news that day that Virtanen was dropped by coach Travis Green to the minor-league grouping at training camp as punishment for narrowly missing off-season conditioning goals set by him and the team.
More than four months later, Virtanen is playing the best hockey of his career and on Wednesday scored his 15th goal in 51 games, matching the “career-” high the 23-year-old potted last season.
Six of his 15 goals have been game-winners, and since Virtanen has spent the last four-and-a-half games playing mostly with Miller and Elias Pettersson on the top line, there’s a good chance he’s going to score more than five times over the final 31 games.
He’ll probably never play well enough to justify his sixth-overall selection in the 2014 draft, but Virtanen is emerging as an impactful NHL player.
MIGHTY QUINN
One game after his most embarrassing mistake of the season, rookie Canucks defenceman Quinn Hughes made another of those tight pivots with the pucks against the Sharks – this time in the offensive zone – to befuddle San Jose’s Timo Meier before skating it to the point and blasting Vancouver’s first goal past Martin Jones at 11:08 of the opening period.
Hughes was probably the guy least embarrassed by his turnover that led to the St. Louis Blues’ goal in the Canucks’ 3-1 home win on Monday. Stuff happens. The precocious 20-year-old has confidence to match his dazzling talent, which is why the Canucks are right to give him the freedom to make mistakes as he learns. And, man, is he learning quickly.
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MOTTE INJURED
It looked like the Canucks might have lost important checkers and penalty-killers Jay Beagle and Tyler Motte after Sharks’ star Erik Karlsson injured both in the second period.
Beagle blocked Karlsson’s shot with his hand or wrist a few minutes before the San Jose defenceman dangerously ran Motte’s head into the glass, using his elbow to finish a high check after it looked like the Canuck might get around him. Karlsson was not penalized.
Beagle and Motte both went to the dressing room, but Beagle was able to return for the third period and helped set up Sutter’s goal that made it 4-2. There was no immediate update from the Canucks on the seriousness of Motte’s injury.
The timing of the injury is a little unsettling.
It was this time last year, right as the Canucks moved into a playoff position just after the NHL All-Star Break, that a series of injuries crashed their season. But the team has profoundly more going for it this year. Their playoff cushion also increased Wednesday to eight points, a season-high.
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THE BOESER CONUNDRUM
Demoted to the third line four games earlier, winger Brock Boeser got to play a few shifts Wednesday back beside Pettersson and Miller. Boeser also picked up an assist on Hughes’ goal to end a five-game pointless streak that was the longest of his short career.
Intuitively, it seems wrong that Green has moved Boeser away from Pettersson. Boeser is the team’s best natural goal-scorer, and Pettersson the Canucks’ best forward and playmaker. When they were together with Miller, Boeser was a point-per-game player and the line one of the most dominant territorially in the NHL this season.
As encouraging as third-line centre Adam Gaudette’s development has been, the second-year pro has 20 assists in 102 games before Wednesday. He’s not getting the puck to Boeser.
So, it’s easy to conclude Green made a mistake.
Except, the Canucks have won all four games since the line switch and Virtanen, promoted to the top unit, has been outstanding. Including power-play time, Virtanen has two goals and six points in the last four games. Miller and Pettersson aren’t suffering, either. They’ve combined for 11 points in the four games.
The objective is to win, and Green’s responsibility is to his team. For now, the right wing on the first line is Virtanen’s spot to lose, and he has played like he wants to keep it. Boeser has to just keep working as hard as he did Wednesday.
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