At the end of an eventful road trip for the Vancouver Canucks, one of the most surprising things was this: when coach Travis Green chose Saturday to rest the best goalie in the NHL this month, backup Braden Holtby was beaten four times in a loss, and goaltending still wasn’t a serious talking point post-game.
So outplayed were the Canucks in a 5-4 loss to the Montreal Canadiens – the only scoring shots that Holtby could see were the two that beat him in a six-round shootout – that Vancouver actually got more than it deserved.
And with seven points out of eight on the road, the Canucks’ four-game trip pushed them back to .500 for the first time in six weeks and into the vapor trails of the playoff fight in the Canadian division.
Goaltending wasn’t the issue Saturday. Energy and depth were issues. Speed, both in how they skated and how they played, was an issue. Missing top forward Elias Pettersson for a ninth straight game due to injury was an issue.
Effort wasn’t the issue.
The Canucks just weren’t good enough to stay with the Canadiens, whom they had beaten 3-2 in overtime the night before to move within one point of catching Montreal in the gross standings.
But despite seven points from four games, the unmistakable disappointment for the Canucks was that after rapid-fire goals by Bo Horvat and Tyler Motte gave Vancouver a 4-3 lead in the opening minute of the third period, Vancouver was in position to gain two points on Montreal but ended up falling a farther point behind.
Brendan Gallagher started the three-point swing when he tied it for the Canadiens at 5:29, scoring directly from a clean faceoff win by Phillip Danault over Brandon Sutter as the Canucks failed to close down space and Vancouver defenceman Alex Edler stood in front of Holtby.
The third member of that dominant Canadiens’ line, Tomas Tatar, scored the shootout winner in the sixth round after Canuck Brock Boeser had immediately countered Corey Perry’s goal for Montreal in the first round of the tie-breaker.
“They were probably better than us tonight,” Canucks defenceman Quinn Hughes said. “But I liked our resilience, and we found a way to get back into it. I like the way we're playing now. It's a really good road trip. To get seven out of eight points is pretty good.
“We probably didn't have our best game tonight, but we battled back, we found a way. We competed and we defended hard. A game like tonight, that's okay.”
We’ll see at the end of the season, which is still 21 games from now for the Canucks, but Hughes is probably right.
“It's not very hard to swallow at all,” Green said when asked about missing out on a chance to pass the Canadiens. “We've had a helluva road trip.”
The Canucks played four games in six nights and went to overtime or a shootout in all four. They were badly outplayed twice, but still took 87.5 per cent of the points available to them. They are 8-2-1 in March and are close enough to the playoff race that, as Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman reported on Hockey Night in Canada, Canucks general manager Jim Benning will continue to wait to make his decision on selling expiring assets ahead of the April 12 trade deadline.
They are closer to the playoff race than anyone predicted at the end of February.
“We're almost playing playoff hockey,” Hughes said. “(I was) thinking on the bench: Montreal, they're desperate to win, we're desperate to win, and it's almost like playoff hockey.
“I think we're really playing strong defence, playing as a team. You can just feel it in the locker room when we were down 3-2 going into third that, guys. . . are confident that we'll find a way to get back in the game. And that's what happened. It's just too bad we can't finish it in the shootout.”
In order, the Canucks trailed, led, trailed again, led again, then lost. All while being outshot 40-18.
Imagine what the goaltending conversation would have been in Montreal had Carey Price lost while facing half the shots that Holtby did.
Jake Virtanen and Boeser also scored for the Canucks. Nick Suzuki, Tatar and Joel Edmundson had the earlier Canadiens goals – all of which were unseen by Holtby, screened by both friend and foe. Holtby did make huge saves in the third period on Josh Anderson and Jesperi Kotkaniemi and in overtime against Danault and Jonathan Drouin.
The 18 days between games was the longest freeze of Holtby’s NHL career since he became a regular starter with the Washington Capitals in 2013. Thatcher Demko had started eight straight games for Vancouver.
Fighting through screens isn’t something a goalie can fully train for in practice.
“It sounds like an excuse and isn't, but obviously it's one of the things that's tough to replicate,” he said. “But at the same time, I've played a long time, so I should be able to be ready for those no matter what.
Asked how badly he needed a start, Holtby said he never viewed the situation in personal terms. His last win was Feb. 17 in Calgary.
“Thatch has obviously been playing as good a hockey as I've seen a goalie play,” he said. “We need to win games right now and he's given our team as good a chance every night to win a game as you can get. We play this game to win. As a team, you just try to do your part whenever you're asked.
“You want to give a performance where you give your team the best chance to win a game, and I felt I could have put a better effort in.”
After a long flight home and some rest on Sunday, the Canucks play home games Monday and Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets before a week-long break in their bizarre, pandemic schedule.
Pettersson isn’t expected to play against the Jets. But Demko will be back.
