After the Canucks built an impressive 2-0 lead in the opening 15 minutes, three great goal gaffes swung momentum like a pendulum
Author of the article:
Ben Kuzma
Publishing date:
Feb 16, 2021 • 1 day ago • 6 minute read
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The casual player attire made another pre-game appearance. So did the work boots.
The obvious question was which one would serve as the narrative Monday at Rogers Arena.
Would it be the work boots as the Vancouver Canucks tried to string consecutive victories together after a six-game losing streak? Or, would too much casual play ruin their day?
The former gave way to the latter in stunning fashion against the Calgary Flames.
And while Brock Boeser forced overtime with a short-handed goal as Thatcher Demko was pulled with 31 seconds remaining in regulation time, it took the Flames just 23 seconds to settle it all when Johnny Gaudreau connected in the extra session for a 4-3 victory.
“It shows that we have no quit to pull the goalie and get one,” Boeser said of his 11th goal of the season. “But we obviously made some mistakes. We don’t make those and we win the game. We have some small details we have to fix.”
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After the Canucks built an impressive 2-0 lead in the opening 15 minutes, three great goal gaffes swung momentum like a pendulum. And it wasn’t how the visitors erased a two-goal deficit, it was how the Canucks put opportunities to get back in the game on a platter.
The Canucks had their chances in the final period. Jake Virtanen had a glorious chance on a drive to the net. So did Nils Hoglander, who had a team high five shots and eight attempts, and J.T. Miller nearly converted a dash off the wing. And there was a crucial power play that didn’t muster a shot.
In the end, it was another lesson in a season gone sideways by mounting pressure.
“There were a couple of plays our guys would like to have back,” said Canucks coach Travis Green. “But you can say that in a lot of games and I do like how we pushed in the third and got a late goal. We talked about not complicating the game after the second period and the temperature of the game and the kind of game it was.
“It was gritty and a bit of a greasy game and you had to fight for space. We wanted to get pucks behind them and recovering them and getting shots. There were a lot of parts of our game that I liked, but there were a few plays we’d like back.”
Here’s what we learned as the Canucks fell to 7-11-1 but managed a point to try to remain in playoff position contention:
THEATRE OF BIZARRE
It’s hard to know where to start.
First, it was a sloppy sequence and an untouched Milan Lucic converting from the slot with 24.3 seconds left in the opening period. Virtanen failed to win a sideboards battle to get the puck out of the defensive zone. Rasmus Andersson was then allowed to cruise behind the net to spot an open Lucic.
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Then, it was Bo Horvat speeding away and about to set up a 3-on-1 scoring opportunity. However, the captain’s cross-ice pass at the opposition blue line lacked snap. The Flames pounced and countered on a 3-on-1 with Elias Lindholm going short side on Demko midway through the second period.
“We shouldn’t have gone to overtime in the first place,” lamented Horvat. “We made, and including myself, a bad giveaway and it’s unfortunate and you’ve just got to move on. It was just a pass that should have been harder. There was just miscommunication between Huggy (Quinn Hughes) and me and ultimately, I had to move it over to him quicker.
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“Things happen fast in this game and it’s one of those plays I should have made and they capitalized. I thought we carried the play the majority of the game but we have to tighten up even more. We’re going in the right direction, but we have to be that touch better.”
It then got worse.
Less than five minutes later, Demko played the puck to Nate Schmidt behind the net. His exit strategy was to put the puck up the gut and it struck Demko and deflected in off the sprawling stopper. It was the third stunning goal against of the season involving Schmidt and the dismay was etched on his face.
“I was trying to make a quick breakout pass to him,” recalled Demko. “I tried to get back in the net and didn’t really see what happened too much. Schmidty was just trying to make a play and it just took a weird bounce or something. An unlucky goal.”
PEARSON DAILY DOUBLE
Tanner Pearson has often been lauded as a smart left winger, who has been around long enough to know exactly where to go in the offensive zone.
And when you’re trying to get a puck past Jacob Markstrom, the best plan is to either get the former Canucks stopper moving from side to side or to take away his eyes. Pearson did both to open scoring.
When Quinn Hughes let a point shot go early in the first period, Pearson not only positioned himself to screen the goalie as he moved across the slot, he got his stick up and deflected the shot down and past Markstrom.
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It was Pearson’s fifth goal of the season and a subtle reminder by the pending unrestricted free agent that he wants to re-sign here. And knowing the Canucks are likely to face Markstrom again on Wednesday in Calgary, they have to make it tougher on him.
“It’s been a topic of conversation through this series,” said Pearson. “He’s a pretty big guy and can see around you or over top of you if he wants to. We got a lot of pucks and bodies to the net last game (Saturday) and we definitely have to do that again.
“Sometimes, it seems like when it rains, it pours. We just have to keep working to get out of this and keep looking at the bright side. Tough bounces happen. That’s hockey. It’s what you do after to get out of it.”
POWER PLAY GOOD, BAD
When you’re presented with five first-period power plays — including a 5-on-3 for 54 seconds — it speaks to frustration on the part of the opposition to contain your speed and drive.
It can also drive you crazy if chances slip away, but the first unit needed just 21 seconds on the two-man advantage to make two crisp passes and one quick release. Miller spotted Boeser untouched below the goal-line and he fed Horvat for a two-goal advantage.
However, the Canucks would go just 1-for-7 on the power play with just five shots. For all the elements that are there on the first unit — speed, passing and laser-like shooting — there’s simply not enough conversion. The Canucks were fourth overall last season. They were 21st entering Monday and falling.
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“I didn’t think they were very good tonight,” said Green. “I just didn’t think they were sharp. Their passing wasn’t sharp and they were on the outside. And when you get in miniseries’ like this, the other team does make adjustments, but out power play could have been better.
“You’re not always going to score, but sometimes momentum is gained and lost with a power play. We expect a lot from those guys and there have been nights where they haven’t scored and I liked what I saw. Tonight, even though they got the 5-on-3, it could have been better.”
Said Horvat: “We’re just a little frustrated and we’ve got to get back to how we know we can play. It’s simplifying it a bit and it’s not like we’re not getting chances. It’s a matter of burying them when they’re there and we’re a little shaky right now. We have to sharpen up.”
DEFENCE DOESN’T REST
Green likes the symmetry in his latest blue-line pairings and he’s got to like how they’re exiting their own zone better and getting involved in the offensive game.
On the opening goal, Tyler Myers and Hughes moved smartly into position to start the scoring sequence on Pearson’s goal. They drew assists as the Canucks’ back end became the fist club to hit and surpass the 40-point mark this season. Myers added another on the tying goal and they now have 42 points (6-36) and Hughes continues to lead all blueliners with 19 points (2-17).
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It’s hard to say when, exactly, Alexandar Georgiev truly began to win some hearts and change some minds on Tuesday night.
Maybe it was in the back half of the second period; that was when the Colorado Avalanche, for the first time in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets, actually managed to hold a lead for more than, oh, two minutes or thereabouts. Maybe it was when the Avs walked into the locker room up 4-2 with 20 minutes to play.
Maybe it was midway through the third, when a series of saves by the Avalanche’s beleaguered starting goaltender helped preserve their two-goal buffer. Maybe it was when the buzzer sounded after their 5-2 win. Maybe it didn’t happen until the Avs made it into their locker room at Canada Life Centre, tied 1-1 with the Jets and headed for Denver.
At some point, though, it should’ve happened. If you were watching, you should’ve realized that Colorado — after a 7-6 Game 1 loss that had us all talking not just about all those goals, but at least one of the guys who’d allowed them — had squared things up, thanks in part to … well, that same guy.
Georgiev, indeed, was the story of Game 2, stopping 28 of 30 shots, improving as the game progressed and providing a lesson on how quickly things can change in the playoffs — series to series, game to game, period to period, moment to moment. The narrative doesn’t always hold. Facts don’t always cooperate. Alexandar Georgiev, for one night and counting, was not a problem for the Colorado Avalanche. He was, in direct opposition to the way he played in Game 1, a solution. How could we view him as anything else?
He had a few big-moment saves, and most of them came midway through the third period with his team up 4-2. There he was with 12:44 remaining, stopping a puck that had awkwardly rolled off Nino Niederreiter’s stick; two missed posts by the Avs at the other end had helped spring Niederreiter for a breakaway. Game 1 Georgiev doesn’t make that save.
There he was, stopping Nikolaj Ehlers from the circle a few minutes later. There wasn’t an Avs defender within five feet, and there was nothing awkward about the puck Ehlers fired at his shoulder. Game 1 Georgiev gets scored on twice.
(That one might’ve been poetic justice. It was Ehlers who’d put the first puck of the night on Georgiev — a chip from center ice that he stopped, and that the crowd in Winnipeg greeted with the ol’ mock cheer. Whoops.)
By the end of it all, Georgiev had stared down Connor Hellebuyck and won, saving nearly 0.5 goals more than expected according to Natural Stat Trick, giving the Avalanche precisely what they needed and looking almost nothing like the guy we’d seen a couple days before. Conventional wisdom coming into this series was twofold: That the Avs have firepower, high-end talent and an overall edge — slight as it may be — on Winnipeg, and that Georgiev is shaky enough to nuke the whole thing.
That wasn’t without merit, either. Georgiev’s .897 save percentage in the regular season was six percentage points below the league average, and he hadn’t broken even in expected goals allowed (minus-0.21). He’d been even worse down the stretch, putting up an .856 save percentage in his final eight appearances, and worse still in Game 1, allowing seven goals on 23 shots and more than five goals more than expected. That’s not bad; that’s an oil spill. Writing him off would’ve been understandable. Writing off Jared Bednar for rolling him out there in Game 2 would’ve been understandable. Writing the Avs off — for all of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar’s greatness — would’ve been understandable.
It just wouldn’t have been correct.
The fact that this all went down now, four days into a two-month ordeal, is a gift — because the postseason thus far has been short on surprises, almost as a rule. The Rangers and Oilers are overwhelming the Capitals and Kings. The Hurricanes are halfway done with the Islanders. The Canucks are struggling with the Predators. Panthers–Lightning is tight, but one team is clearly better than the other. Bruins–Maple Leafs is a close matchup featuring psychic baggage that we don’t have time to unpack. In Golden Knights–Stars, Mark Stone came back and scored a huge goal.
None of that should shock you. None of that should make you blink.
Georgiev being good enough for Colorado, though? After what we saw in Game 1? Strange, surprising and completely true. For now.