At this point in the season, a Brock Boeser goal feels like a win for Canucks fans. Heck, to the Team Tank crowd, a loss and a Boeser goal is even better than a win.
It’s getting harder for Boeser. Teams are keying in on him, clogging his shooting lanes. His shooting percentage has returned to “mere mortal” levels. And Travis Green has started matching up his line against the first lines of the opposition instead of depending on a checking line, which means Boeser is spending a lot more time in his own of the rink.
It’s a recent development over the last few games and we’ll have to wait and see if it sticks, but Green seems intent on getting Boeser and his linemates more ice time, and the easiest way to do that is to take some of it away from the checking line. That means tougher competition and more work to do defensively.
Boeser only managed one shot on goal, while four other shot attempts were blocked. That one shot on goal nearly got blocked as well, but instead hit Andrej Sustr’s stick and went in. Sometimes things go your way. They sure didn’t for me when I watched this game.
- When some teams have a bad game, they can afford to dismiss it, “put it in the rear view mirror,” and move on. When the bad games are the rule rather than the exception, you can’t do that. You have to relive your bad games, break down the video, analyze what you did wrong and what you can do to fix it. It can wear on you emotionally to constantly live in that mode. That’s why it was nice to see some levity from the Canucks with their shootout competition that led to Thomas Vanek having to wear a Hawaiian shirt for the duration of the road trip. Teams need that. Heck, I need that. Any other Canucks writers want to have some sort of Hawaiian shirt contest?
- I covered a lot of what happened during the game in the Stick-taps and Glove-drops. It’s tempting to leave it at that, because it’s getting harder and harder to wring any sort of humour out of this Canucks season, but there are a few things to point out.
- The last few games, Travis Green has stopped matching up the Sutter line against the opponent’s best forwards. Instead, he sent out the Sedins and Vanek against the Stamkos line, while the Horvat line was matched up against the Kucherov line. The Sutter line saw mostly the fourth line for the Lightning. Perhaps that’s because the Canucks are so often playing from behind, but perhaps it’s a transition towards truly challenging the Canucks’ youthful top line and giving them some tougher match-ups to grow their game for the future. Like a chia pet. You’ve got to keep watering it, with water in this case being shifts against the NHL's leading scorer.
- Despite an easier match-up, Sutter got worked over. While he started most of his shifts in the defensive zone, you would expect he would do better against the Lightning’s fourth line. Instead, shot attempts were 20-to-8 for the Lightning when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 and shots on goal were 13-to-4. It helps the Lightning that their fourth line has savvy veterans like Chris Kunitz and Ryan Callahan on it.
- In a game like this, where the Canucks were so clearly out-classed, it seems like the best you can hope for is that no one gets hurt. So, of course, Chris Tanev and Alex Edler left during the first period with injuries, though both returned, and Markus Granlund sprained his ankle so badly that his foot looked like it was on backwards for a moment. Or, at least at 140 degrees. It probably needed to execute a three-point turn to get fully turned around, and those can be tough in icy conditions.
- With Sam Gagner and Brendan Gaunce already back in Vancouver with injuries, and Granlund joining them, the watch is on for Erik Gudbranson, coach Travis Green, and scout Thomas Gradin. The hockey gods are after the G’s!
- To add figurative insult to literal injury, the Lightning opened the scoring on the play where Tanev got injured. At least, I assume the insult was figurative. It’s certainly possible that Nikita Kucherov shouted, “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!” at Tanev as he put the puck into the net after Tanev accidentally kicked it to him.
- Brock Boeser’s only hope of winning the Calder Trophy is to convincingly win the rookie goal-scoring race, as he has little hope of catching Matt Barzal in points. That didn’t look like it was going to be a problem earlier in the season, but the Lightning’s Yanni Gourde keeps annoyingly putting the puck in the net. Very rude.
- Gourde did it again early in the second period, tucking the puck around Anders Nilsson from in front of the net. At 5’9”, he doesn’t exactly scream “Power play net front presence!” unless he literally screams that while standing there, which might explain why Erik Gudbranson swiped at the puck instead of clearing Gourde out of the crease: he was just weirded out.
- Passes across the so-called royal road lead to some of the most dangerous scoring chances in hockey. The royal road extends up the middle of the ice from the net and you can see why it’s such a danger on Tampa Bay’s third goal. The pass across to Adam Erne forces Nilsson to track the puck from right to left and, with the one-timer, he simply didn’t have enough time to get across. When you watch the replay, that passing lane is so big you could drive a zamboni through it. Meanwhile, Jake Virtanen stood in the slot and watched it all happen. I’m not blaming just him, because the entire thing was a defensive mess, but everyone else on the ice is at least trying to do something.
- With the amount of skill the Lightning now have in the lineup, you almost forget that Steven Stamkos is still on the team. At least, Henrik Sedin seemed to. After his giveaway behind his own net, Henrik went into panic mode and attempted to erase his error, but Mr. Bean attempting to wipe his sneeze off Whistler’s Mother, he went too far.
- The Canucks played better in the third period, but when a team is up 4-0 against one of the worst teams in the NHL, they tend to relax a little. Except for Andrei Vasilevskiy, who continued to play excellent in net, stoning Bo Horvat on an early breakaway. Yes, Vas made all the difference; you could even say he was the Vas Difference.
- Brock Boeser broke through on the power play, mainly because the Lightning penalty kill never quite got a chance to set up after they created a couple shorthanded chances. Boeser seized the one moment he was left open and blasted a one-timer after one of those royal road passes from Alex Edler. Sustr had just one hand on his stick, so when the puck hit his blade, it ramped up and over Vasilevskiy instead of stopping. As the Blue Rajah once said, “Two hands there, son.”
- And then Sven Baertschi scored too! Neat! Alex Edler sprung Horvat from the neutral zone, picking up his second assist of the game, and Horvat made a great move around Victor Hedman to create a 2-on-1. Stralman came across to help and Horvat slipped the pass between his legs like Russell Westbrook for Baertschi to finish.
- Hedman made up for his defensive blunder by putting the game to bed with a nice story and some snuggles. And also an off-speed one-timer that fooled Nilsson.
- Here’s the thing: if the Canucks want to trade Nilsson (which they reportedly do), why are they playing him against the Lightning? How does that make sense? Why in the world would you give him what is sure to be one of the toughest games of the season? Why didn’t he get the game against the Florida Panthers instead of Markstrom?
