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I Watched This Game: Canucks play spoiler for both the Ducks and Team Tank

Canucks 4, Ducks 1
Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
I Watched This Game - IWTG Banner
I Watched This Game - IWTG Banner

A week ago, the Canucks looked poised to wrest last place away from the Arizona Coyotes and Buffalo Sabres, thereby ensuring themselves a top-four pick and the best possible odds at first overall.

Since then, they’ve won three of their last four games, leapfrogging over the Coyotes and Ottawa Senators and putting them at risk of climbing all the way past the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens into 26th place. If they climb that far, the Canucks could end up picking as low as ninth overall in the draft.

But really, haven’t we all come to accept that the Canucks will be picking fifth overall for the third straight draft? As the great sage C3PO once said, “We seem to be made to suffer. It’s our lot in life.”

It was my lot in life to watch this game.

  • Here’s the thing: to the players, this victory was just that, a victory. Most of these players got to where they are — the best professional hockey league in the world — by loving to win and hating to lose. Every win is an affirmation of who they are as a person. They are hockey players. They are winners. They have what it takes. A losing streak, even one that might get the team a better player in the draft and improve the team long-term, sucks the life out of you. I’ll never blame the players for playing to win.
  • Instead, I’ll blame the Anaheim Ducks for sucking out loud in this game. The Ducks were mostly atrocious in this game, which is shocking given that they’re right on the playoff bubble and at risk of being knocked out by the Colorado Avalanche. They should be worried, because one of the tie-breakers in they have the same number of points is “danger level of team name” and I’m picking Avalanche over Ducks all day.
  • For only the fourth time in his career and the first time since November 20, 2014, Alex Edler played more than 30 minutes in a game. The three previous games all went to a shootout, so this is the first time Edler played more than 30 minutes in a game that ended in regulation. He had a fantastic game, too. It was the best half hour since every single episode of The Good Place.
  • That’s regular season games — Edler also played more than 30 minutes in three games during the 2011 playoff run, all of which also went to overtime. I just didn’t want to lie to you earlier about this being only the fourth time Edler has played more than 30 minutes. I feel really bad about it. How about I make it up to you with some more bullet points:
  • Most Canucks fans really want to see the youth step up and contribute, but they got none of that in this one. All the points came from the old farts in this one, with Darren Archibald the youngest at a spry 28. Here’s the thing they don’t tell you about old farts, though: they don’t smell bad any more. The bad odor just dissipates. It’s the young farts that you have to worry about.
  • Sam Gagner opened the scoring thanks to appalling defensive coverage by the Ducks. As Gagner skated behind the net, he quickly stopped up and made his way to the backdoor, where he was wide open for a rebound. My first instinct was to blame Ryan Kesler — an understandable impulse, I think — as he was shadowing Gagner a moment earlier, but this goal’s on Brandon Montour, who abandoned the front of the net like Daniel Plainview abandoned his child.
  • The Ducks tied the game after a weird bounce of a stanchion sent the puck careening away from Jacob Markstrom behind the net to Andrew Cogliano in front for an easy goal. What was odd about Andrew Cogliano’s goal that tied the game is that the weird deflection off the glass happened at the opposite end of the ice from the zamboni doors. Those kinds of bounces happen from time to time at the other end of the ice because it’s easy for the glass to not quite line up perfectly when you close the doors. It was like Professor Snape was jinxing the puck.
  • I would just like to add that it’s absurd that Francois Beauchemin and Ryan Kesler received assists on that goal. It was pure luck that assisted on that goal. Giving out even one assist on that goal is a stretch; two is absurd.
  • This might have been Alex Biega’s best game as a Canuck. He played some sound defence, leading the Canucks in corsi. He chipped in on offence, scoring an extremely rare goal. Heck, he even helped out with the officiating, calling an offside for the linesman. Forget two-way: Biega is a three-way player. Wait, that sounds wrong.

 

 

  • Biega hadn’t scored since literally his very first game in the NHL. He went 131 games without a goal. His first NHL goal made the score 3-1 in the third period and held up as the game-winner. His second NHL goal? It made the score 2-1 in the third period and held up as the game-winner. Trippy.
  • I also made this for Biega, because it got into my head and once it was in my head I had to get it out of my head.

 

 

  • Brandon Sutter had a three-point night, scoring two insurance goals in the third period. He thoroughly embarrassed Ryan Kesler on his first goal, accelerating past the formerly fleet-footed Duck after blocking his shot, then drawing a hooking penalty. His initial move to the backhand hit the post, but since Kesler did a lazy fly-by instead of sticking with Sutter, he had plenty of time to tuck the puck in past a down-and-out Jonathan Gibson. It was an ugly display from the former Selke-winner.
  • Rickard Rackell is to blame for Sutter’s empty net goal. His slap shot from the point went well wide and ricocheted out to the neutral zone. The real issue is that Rackell spent time feeling sorry for himself and looking skyward instead of getting back defensively after his missed shot. That left Sutter with an easy finish into the empty net. Sure, a comeback was extremely unlikely at that point, but I guarantee that wasn’t a popular move with his coach.
  • A popular move with the other coach, Travis Green? Dan Murphy interviewing Alex Biega at the end of the game. “You don't see that a lot with the Bulldog getting interviewed after the game with his game-winner,” said Green. “I had to get a picture of it.”