Not even the most optimistic fan would have predicted that the Vancouver Canucks would be one point out of first place in the NHL by mid-December.
The Nashville Predators came into Tuesday night’s game red hot, winning seven of their last eight games. It didn’t matter. The Canucks defanged the Predators in an emphatic 5-2 win.
Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights got crushed 6-3 by the Carolina Hurricanes. With that, the Canucks pulled within one point of the defending Stanley Cup Champions in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy with the same number of games played.
What’s even more wild, the Canucks have a league-leading plus-44 goal differential. The next best team, the Los Angeles Kings, has a plus-30 goal differential.
That speaks, incidentally, to how strong the Pacific Division is this season. The Golden Knights are in first and the Canucks in second. The Kings have the fourth-best points percentage in the NHL and the second-best goal differential. That’s three of the top-five teams in the NHL by points percentage from the Pacific.
The Canucks haven’t always looked like a team that belongs at the top of the NHL standings but they did against the Predators.
Multiple times on Tuesday night, the Canucks simply imposed their will on the Predators, taking over the game with seeming casual ease. Even as the Canucks have put together an outstanding record with a dominant goal differential this season, we haven’t seen them do what they did against the Predators: turn it on when necessary like the best teams in the NHL do.
One of those times they turned it on, thankfully, was in the first period after a couple of lacklustre first periods in Chicago and Minnesota.
“You don’t even have to say too much,” said Rick Tocchet about addressing the slow starts. “I heard before — sometimes I go grab a coffee and I heard some guys talking about, ‘Make sure about our starts.’ It makes that coffee go down a little easier when you have your players saying that.”
What stood out is that it was a full team effort. It wasn’t just one line going or one defence pairing — the entire team contributed with goals from every line, all of them at even-strength.
“I thought from the first period, we were really connected, I liked our breakouts,” said Tocchet. “I thought each line did something…we had some good plays from different lines. I liked our D. I just liked our overall game.”
I like a lot of overall games, to be honest. Super Mario Bros, Luigi's Mansion, and Bob the Builder's Fix It Fun! I also liked the Canucks' overall game when I watched this game.
- Casey DeSmith got the start against the Predators, just two games after making 30 saves on 31 shots against the Minnesota Wild. That’s a bonus for DeSmith given how good Thatcher Demko has been this season but DeSmith has earned some extra starts with his excellent play. He was superb again, making 26 saves on 28 shots to bring his save percentage on the season to .923 — two points better than Demko’s .921. CONTROVERSY!!!
- “I was really pleased they went back with me and had that confidence in me,” said DeSmith to Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy. “Obviously, I wanted to deliver and that’s important for me to keep building that trust. I have such a good goalie partner in Demmer and it’s hard to get games away from that guy, he’s playing so well right now. Thankfully, he got a little bit of rest tonight and he’ll be ready to go in Dallas.”
- I got flashbacks to the West Coast Express in the first period when J.T. Miller Bertuzzi’d his way to the front of the net by sticking his butt into Alexandre Carrier and just backing up. That cleared a path for Elias Pettersson to follow in his wake for a great scoring chance that Pettersson couldn’t quite jam in.
- Midway through the first period, Filip Hronek lost his stick in the corner and Dakota Joshua alertly handed his stick to the defenceman. Then, freed from the conventions of having to play the puck, Joshua absolutely obliterated Philip Tomasino. Unfortunately, Quinn Hughes then tried to pass to Joshua and the conventions of playing the puck became important again.
- Pius Suter helped make the first period a strong start for the Canucks by preventing Filip Forsberg from opening up the scoring. Forsberg was all set to one-time a cross-ice pass into the top corner when Suter dove out like Hercules into the underworld, getting his stick on the puck just in time.
- “He makes plays, he’s smart out there,” said Pettersson of playing with Suter. “He’s a centre normally, so that helps me. I don’t have to worry or think about it too much if I end up first up on the forecheck — he or Mik will track back for me. Today, I think we played well, I think we played well in Chicago as well. It’s a step in the right direction.”
- Thanks to Suter, Pettersson was able to open the scoring rather than Forsberg. Late in the first period, Noah Juulsen stood up Cole Smith in the defensive zone to free up the puck and Suter sprung Ilya Mikheyev and Pettersson the other way. Pettersson gained a step down the right wing with a burst of speed, kept the puck moving to disguise his release, and snapped the puck just inside the far post like some sort of elite goal-scoring guy.
- 31 seconds later — one second longer than it takes to get to Mars — Nils Åman extended the lead. A Phil Di Giuseppe forecheck forced Luke Schenn into an awkward pass and Tyson Barrie muffed it up, deflecting the puck to Åman in front for his first goal of the season.
- Things got weird at the end of the first period. Jeremy Lauzon threw a hard check on Conor Garland, to which Joshua took offence and challenged Lauzon to a fight. When Lauzon declined, Joshua respectfully skated away, which was apparently horribly offensive to Michael McCarron, who dropped his gloves and went after Joshua as he skated back to the bench, hurling invectives and eventually even trying to push past the linesman who got in the way. This earned McCarron 22 minutes in penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct, including a game misconduct.
- Like Johnny Utah jumping out of a plane without a parachute, that was a slight overreaction by McCarron.
- Meanwhile, as all of this was happening, Tomasino had a breakaway at the other end of the ice and DeSmith came up with a huge save to maintain the 2-0 lead going into the first intermission. Tomasino and DeSmith were in their only little world where the actual hockey being played still mattered.
- “I had no idea what was going on at the other end, I was just trying to focus on the guy on the breakaway,” said DeSmith. “I still didn’t know, when I came in, what happened at the other end. Thankfully, I made the save and I think we got a power play out of it, so that was good too.”
- Lauzon, unbattered by Joshua’s fists, got the Predators on the board as they pushed back in the second period. With a man open heading to the net, DeSmith was caught cheating for a pass and Lauzon beat him on the short side.
- The Predators’ attempted comeback lasted 15 seconds. Nils Höglander fought off Alexandre Carrier in front of the net off a faceoff win by J.T. Miller and got his stick down to tip Quinn Hughes’ point shot past Juuse Saros. I haven’t seen a Carrier get outbattled like that since the last time I played Battleship with my 8-year-old. He destroyed me.
- “We try to play a level offence with levels and I think Höggy’s really taken to it this year,” said Tocchet. “If you watch him, he very rarely just sits in the corner, he’ll scoot to an area. He’s tough to defend, that little guy. When he gets to those levels, he gets underneath sticks, whether it’s deflections or he even gets underneath where he’s had a couple rebound goals where he’s beat somebody to the net. Those are the goals that he can get for us.”
- The Canucks added another goal less than a minute later. Hronek kept the puck in at the blue line and threw the puck towards the net, hitting Pettersson, who snagged the puck and dropped it to Mikheyev. His shot slipped through Saros into the crease and Suter swept at the puck, getting just a pius of it to slide it in.
- After the two-goal response from the Canucks, the Predators’ goal was finally announced in the building. It was hilariously awkward to hear the Predators’ in-arena announcer try to drum up enthusiasm for Lauzon’s goal after all the air had been sucked out of the building by Höglander and Suter’s goals. It’s no wonder there was no response from the crowd — with all the air sucked out, the arena was a vacuum through which no soundwaves could travel.
- Of course, the Good Job Boys had to get in on the scoring in the third period. Or, at least, one-third of them did. Hughes outbattled Colton Sissons at the end of a power play to regain possession of the puck in the defensive zone, then jumped up in the rush and slipped the puck through to Teddy Blueger, who cut the puck under the triangle of Roman Josi and fired it upstairs like a potter who keeps his kiln on the second floor.
- The power play wasn't successful but I honestly thought it looked better than in recent games. I particularly liked Miller’s puck pursuit after the Predators broke up one opportunity in the second period. Those retrievals drove a lot of their success early in the season, so if the Canucks can keep that up, they’ll get the power play back on track.
- The Canucks closed out the game just like they’ve closed out so many games this season. The outcome was never in doubt, which is a really nice change from last season, when every single outcome was in doubt all the time. The Canucks could take a three-goal lead into the final minute last season and fans would still be wondering how they were going to cough it up.
- “I’m really proud of the guys, their defensive [game],” said Tocchet. “I was watching, sometimes we’ll get out of position but not very often. I just like the way they play defence. They’re protecting the middle, if we’ve got to give a shot, we give the outside shot. I think that’s what I really like about this team is that they really, whether they enjoy it or they buy into it, they just love the way we defend the puck.”
- They did have one lapse in concentration but, to be fair, it was with 15 seconds left and a four-goal lead. Ian Cole and Di Giuseppe both peeled away from the front of the net, seemingly not seeing Cody Glass alone in front, which makes sense — Glass is see-through. Smith threw the puck in front and Glass chipped in his first goal of the season, much to the annoyance of DeSmith.
- “I was just angry at myself,” said DeSmith. “I should’ve stayed on my feet there and given myself a better shot at making that save. Obviously, the win is all that matters.”
- Honestly, this game gets a 10/10 rating, five stars, no complaints.
