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Power-play fuels big win in Vegas as Canucks look to sweep 3-game road trip |
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Saturday November 26 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - Vegas Golden Knights 1
Sunday November 27 - Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks - 5 p.m. PT - Sportsnet
Call it the reverse Vegas Flu.
After a Thursday golf outing and a rookie dinner in Sin City, the Vancouver Canucks survived some early pressure from their hosts and skated out of Vegas with a 5-1 win on Saturday night.
The Golden Knights looked sharp, wearing their glow-in-the-dark Reverse Retro jerseys for the first time, and came out of the gate well. It might have been a different outcome if steady Spencer Martin hadn't stopped Chandler Stephenson in the first minute of play.
The Canucks didn't get their first shot on goal until 7:16 of the first period. But when they got their first power play of the night at 9:12 when Nic Roy was sent to the penalty box for tripping Bo Horvat, the second unit needed just 10 seconds to connect, with Brock Boeser tipping a point shot from Oliver Ekman-Larsson to get Vancouver on the board.
Boeser's now up to 14 points in 15 games this season, and is on a nine-game point streak since he came back from his injury against Ottawa on Nov. 8. The Canucks have also gone 5-4-0 in those nine games.
Later in the first, Roy went back to the box following a high stick on OEL, and the first unit scored in 20 seconds, with J.T. Miller finishing the job for his 11th of the year — and first game-winning goal of the season. He's now on a seven-game point streak and is one of four Canucks already over the 20-point mark.
Elias Pettersson leads the way with 25 points, and scored the third power-play goal of the night midway through the second period, unleashing his signature one-timer from the right circle. As a testament to their two-way games, he and Ilya Mikheyev also lead all Vancouver forwards with plus-eight ratings — and it's interesting to note that the team leader is Luke Schenn, at plus-10.
Sitting second with 23 points, Bo Horvat picked up his 17th of the year with just one second left on the clock in the second, hammering the puck past Logan Thompson from close range. Connor McDavid seems to miss Evander Kane — he has just one goal in the seven games that Kane has missed since suffering that skate cut to his wrist, so he's still stuck at 16. Jason Robertson is currently the only player between Horvat and the lead in the Rocket Richard race, with 18 goals, and the Stars are idle on Sunday.
Rounding out that group: Quinn Hughes, whose two power-play assists have him up to 20 for the year, in just 16 games played.
And while we're talking about impressive stats, Spencer Martin improved to 6-1-1 for the year and has bumped his save percentage up to .907, just above the current league average of .906. His bid for his first career NHL shutout was thwarted by Jonathan Marchessault, fresh out of the penalty box in the third period following his unexpected scrap with Conor Garland.
The Canucks were also a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill on Saturday — and have suddenly kept their opponents from scoring a power-play goal in four of their last five games, killing 13 of 15 over that span.
They're digging themselves out of a deep hole, though. Even after that success, they still sit 31st in the league, with a success rate of just 67.1% for the year.
And Saturday's power-play goals come after the Canucks were blanked on the man advantage in Denver, and by Vegas earlier in the week. The Avs lead the league with a 33.8% conversion rate, and Vancouver is tied for second with Edmonton and Boston heading into Sunday's game, at 29.3%.
With wins in four of their last five games, the Canucks sit three points out of the second wild-card spot in the West, but still 12th in the Western Conference standings.
They could make a meaningful move if they can sweep this road trip with a win in San Jose on Sunday. Of the three teams directly above them, only Minnesota is in action — one point ahead and hosting Arizona in the first game of the day. Nashville is one point up, and in a holding pattern as their current homestand has been put on ice due to a water-main break that has caused extensive flooding at Bridgestone Arena. And Calgary is two points ahead of Vancouver, but has fewer regulation wins. If the Canucks win and the Wild lose on Sunday, Vancouver could return to start a four-game homestand at Rogers Arena sitting in ninth place in the Western Conference standings, one point back of the Blues and the Oilers.
As for the Sharks, they're seventh in the Pacific and riding a two-game losing streak. But they're also 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and just two points behind the Canucks with 17 points — although Vancouver does have two games in hand. The Sharks had a killer road trip earlier this month, where they beat Dallas, Minnesota and Vegas. But since then, they've gone 1-4-0, with their only win coming against Ottawa.
The big story in San Jose this season, of course, is the resurgence of Erik Karlsson. He showed occasional signs of this last year, but with Brent Burns now in Carolina, Karlsson is the man on the Sharks defense and is leading the team — and all NHL defensemen — in scoring, with 11 goals and 30 points in 23 games. And while it took Timo Meier 10 games to score his first goal of the year, he has 12 in his last 14 games — practically a Horvatian level of production!
At 33, captain Logan Couture is also on pace for the highest-scoring season of his career, with 11 goals in 23 games. He has broken 30 goals three times in his career, topping out at 34 in the 2017-18 season.
So this could be a high-scoring affair. While the Canucks have finally pulled their goals against under four, they're still 30th overall, averaging 3.76 goals against per game, while the Sharks are tied with Edmonton for 28th at 3.57. San Jose does have excellent penalty killing, though — succeeding at a league-best 90% rate although they recently had a perfect six-game stretch snapped when they gave up one power-play goal in Seattle on Wednesday and another against the Kings on Friday.
This is the first game between the Canucks and Sharks this season. The Canucks were 3-0-0 against San Jose last year, outscoring them 14-8, with Thatcher Demko earning all three wins.
The schedule-maker didn't do the Canucks any favors with the back-to-back, or the 5 p.m. start time on Sunday. But hopefully the R&R from two days off in Vegas and the good vibes from beating the tough Avalanche and Golden Knights can fuel Vancouver to its first three-game winning streak of the year.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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