Canucks 4, Flames 2: Another tight, defensive win for playoff-bound Vancouver
Saturday's win was the eighth time in nine games the Canucks have yielded just two goals or less
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To win in the playoffs, you have to be as tight as can be defensively.
To win on Saturday night against the Calgary Flames, the Vancouver Canucks were just that.
The Canucks won 4-2 because they didn’t give much away and when they did, their goalie stood tall and the defencemen in front of him did well to simply limit chances.
Of course, against a limping squad like the Flames, the Canucks could have made life a little easier for themselves by scoring another goal or two earlier in the game. But the bottom line is they were pressed defensively and didn’t break.
They iced the game nicely on a late third period power play, finally picking the corner of Jacob Markström’s net.
Notably, Saturday’s win was the eighth time in nine games the Canucks have yielded just two goals or less.
This stretch of play has pleased head coach Rick Tocchet and Saturday was no exception. It’s about his team not compounding mistakes, he said.
“I think, three weeks ago when we’re making a few mistakes, one guy makes one, (then) the second guy. Now the one guy makes a mistake and we’re kind of holding the fort. That’s good to see going this late in the year, where we’re starting to do that,” he said.
The game wasn’t perfect, but they got the job done.
“You’re trying to play without the puck and you know, we’re getting some good efforts from some guys. Trying to find a consistency. It was a businesslike, workmanlike game,” he said.
“The Petey line obviously was the line that drove us to the win tonight.”
Off the jump
It’s always impressive to score a goal in the game’s first minute.
It’s even more impressive to do so when it’s actually the second shift of the game.
That’s the nice little truth of Nils Höglander’s game-opening goal: he’d been on the ice for 11 seconds when he deftly finished off a lovely two-pass sequence from Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland.
And what a night it was for the Pettersson line. They scored two goals and were +4 in high-danger chances in close.
They were humming on offence all night.
Nice head fake
Höglander’s second goal came with a hint of Pavel Bure as he made a head-fake on approach, then move left then right in dekeing out Markström.
“I just tried to do a move and get him down and put it up high,” Höglander said.
Is he angling to get a look in a shootout, if they ever come to that again?
“Oh yeah,” Höglander grinned.
Pettersson said the move faked him out.
“He faked me out. I thought he was going to shoot. Then he did what he did. I was fired up,” he grinned.
“Garland made a heckuva play and I said that Hogs had more speed than me. … I just told Hogs to go himself.”
Oh yes, Miller heard the chant
J.T. Miller hammered home the game’s third goal on a late power play. Fans have really taken to shouting “J! T! Miller!” in time with Rogers Arena public address announcer Al Murdoch when Murdoch announces Miller’s name after a goal.
And such was their enthusiasm on this night, they started chanting Miller’s name on their own as the game wound to a conclusion.
It’s not the first time that’s happened, but usually Miller denies hearing the adulation.
This time, he couldn’t deny it.
“I heard it today,” he said, grinning. “But honestly, I don’t know why the hell they chanted my name? I was maybe the worst f—ing player in the game.”
Sure he’d taken a penalty and struggled with some passes, but in the big moment, he scored a sensational goal and sealed the victory. He stood out in the right moment.
Ahead of the chance that would be a goal, Miller said he and his power play mates had a chance to quickly review the previous power play opportunity during the TV timeout that preceded the power play.
Indeed, the Flames suggested to reporters post-game that the set play Miller ran with Brock Boeser was perfectly designed to take advantage of their penalty kill set up.
Miller was pleased just he’d hit the net: He’d missed the net on the previous power play opportunity. He said Tocchet told him before the power play to just hit the net this time.
“Obviously, that’s a play we’ve done before. And, you know, sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.
Tocchet laughed a little in his presser when he was told that Miller had said the coach gave him a simple directive.
“I just told him, especially with three, four minutes left, your flanker shots, if you miss a net, that’s usually [when] the PK takes off,” Tocchet explained. “Obviously, he listened to me because that was a hell of a goal.”
Losing their way a little
The overall performance pleased Tocchet, but he did admit that the way things were going late in the second period wasn’t ideal.
The game got a little loose, he felt, with players getting a little loosey-goosey in their roles.
“I want us to press but smart, I think we lost our F3 a few times,” he said, referring to the third forward on a forecheck, whose job is to patrol out near the blue line, ready to reinforce the forecheck or be a strong defender should the opposition suddenly try to break out.
“They had some three on twos. We got back in time, but it was just the little too risky for me. Because I don’t think we were on our toes a little bit for about five, 10 minutes.”
SMASH
Somehow a puck rang off the crossbar before the game and had enough energy still in it to hit the scoreboard above centre ice, causing some damage to one of the panels.
Post-game, the Rogers Arena crew were able to quickly replace the damaged panel.
Impressively quick work.
He did get a shot off
Jonathan Huberdeau looked like he wanted a penalty shot off Vasily Podkolzin’s slashing penalty on him midway through the second period, but no dice.
He got a decent shot off and the standard for calling a penalty shot is supposed to be being denied a chance to score.
In similar fashion, Miller was fouled as he out battled Oliver Kylington for a loose puck that was sliding down the ice in the third. And while he was clear of Kylington when he collected the puck, it’s hard to say it was a true breakaway.
Playoff picture
By beating Calgary on Saturday, Canucks are now guaranteed to finish top four in the division, but that still isn’t quite enough to secure a full playoff spot: the St. Louis Blues — and, technically, the Minnesota Wild — remain in the frame.
The Canucks now have 98 points. The Blues have just 79 points and have no real hope of catching the fourth-placed team in the Central Division, the Nashville Predators who lead by nine points, but they do have a chance of catching the fourth-placed team in the Pacific Division in points (including the Canucks, should they somehow start losing endlessly).
And if the Blues did finish the season with more points than the fourth-placed team in the Pacific, they’d take over the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
The truth is that St. Louis’ margin of error is very, very fine. They won on Saturday afternoon to keep themselves in the picture — beating Minnesota in overtime, more on that in a second — and could still get to 101 points should they win all 11 remaining games.
But one more Canucks win (say, on Monday vs. Los Angeles), coupled with St. Louis coming up short of a win in one more game (say, on Monday vs. Vegas) will end this scenario.
And what about the Minnesota Wild? By picking up a point today, they could still get to 99 points on the season. But if the Canucks win on Monday, the Wild’s chance of catching Vancouver is over. The Wild don’t play again until Thursday vs. Vegas, who they could still catch for the wild card, but they have to make up six points and overhaul the Blues along the way.
No Cole again
Ian Cole missed his second game in a row, presumably with the same minor ailment that kept him out of the lineup Thursday.
Whatever it is, it’s not bothering Cole much: he skated in practice on Friday and in Saturday’s morning skate and was in pretty good spirits on Friday after practice.
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