By: Trent Leith / December 18, 2023 Game 29: December 12th vs. The Tampa Bay Lightening
Tuesday night the Canucks lined up against the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second time this season. The Canucks lost in their previous outing against the Bolts, and now the Lightning are coming into this contest having Andrei Vasilevski back in the net after recovering from a back injury. The Lighting were riding a seven-game win streak against the Canucks prior to this game, which left Vancouver with their work cut out of them.
The first goal came early off a tidy and crisp passing play punctuated with a tap-in goal for Brayden Point. Despite the early lead, Nils Höglander seems to have been chugging Red Bulls by the dozen before every game as of late, with some strong forechecking early. Höglander drew a holding call on a partial break due purely to hussel. On the ensuing power play, Andrei Kuzmenko got the monkey off his back with a beautiful power-play one-timer.
It’s great to see Kuzmenko score and hopefully slip out of his funk for good. If Kuzmenko can be even 75% of what he was last year, he would be an incredible tool for the Canucks down the stretch.
Kuzmenko immediately decided that a goal wasn’t enough, as he appeared to want the Selke and made an extremely out-of-character backcheck.
While he may not have the offensive chops that he did last season and is clearly in a rocky patch, it’s flashes like this that show what Tocchet is demanding, Kuzmenko is understanding. If Kuzmenko can come out the other side of this down period with his goal-scoring touch, and some more two-way play. Kuzmenko could be a critical piece for a long time.
Elias Pettersson was assessed his first minor of the season and Demko saved the period with two massive saves on Steven Stamkos to end the period tied at aces.
The rest of the game would be all about Brock Boeser. Boeser scored two goals in the second period bringing his season total to 20 in only 29 games.
The first goal was a dirty goal close to the net. The classic “they don’t ask ‘how?’ They ask ‘how many?'” style goal. The Canucks went up 2-1 on Tampa.
The second goal shows Boeser’s versatility. “Get a guy that can do both they said” Boeser can score 50cm from the net, and also 50 feet from the net.
Boeser’s season is unbelievable. It took some time, but Boeser is finally reaching the potential that he teased in his rookie season. Boeser certainly has had his ups and downs off the ice, but he claims to have found peace, and it really shows on the ice. It’s hard not to root for Brock.
The Canucks managed to shut down the Tampa Bay Lightning the rest of the way. The Canucks had some big hits, big saves, and good chances. But the highlight was Brock Boeser completing the natural hat trick on an empty net.
Höglander had a chance to set Brock up for his third goal, but Boeser shot the puck up and over the net. However, Boeser still wanted that third, and he got it.
This was Boeser’s 5th career hat trick and brings him back atop the NHL leaderboards. Boeser ended the night tied with Matthews for first in goals this season. Boeser now has 21 goals on 29 games, at this rate, Boeser is on pace for 59 goals this season should he keep it up the rest of the way.
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Game 30: December 14th vs. The Florida Panthers
Thursday was Luongo Night in Vancouver as he was (correctly) inducted into the Ring Of Honour. Bieksa narrated an incredible tribute video, some subtle shade was thrown Eddie Lack’s direction and heartstrings were pulled in all the right ways. Oh and OEL is back in Vancouver for the first time.
But most importantly, Luo is team #FreeTheSkate
Following Thatcher Demko’s first-ever face-off win of his career, the game was off to a blazing pace. Garland started particularly strong and he was rewarded with an assist and a strong finger point from Kuzmenko who opened the game’s scoring.
Kuzmenko picked up the puck with a full head of steam after Garland kicked the puck into space for him and beat Bobrovsky. You love to see that from Kuzmenko. He has struggled with confidence and getting his shot off, and the fact Kuzmenko didn’t even look at the passing option but instead the shot speaks volumes about where he is trending.
The second goal of the evening game is from Rick Tocchet’s other pet project, Dakota Joshua. Joshua scored his fifth goal of the season off the rebound of a spinning backhand shot right in front of the net.
Demko ended the period with an incredible sequence so strong fans got temporarily confused and let go one last “LUU” for the strong sequence.
Dakota Joshua got his second of the night when Bobrovsky made a beautiful pass (?) right onto Joshua’s stick. Joshua had all the time in the world to put the puck in the net. Thursday night was Joshua’s second two-goal night of his career.
Brock Boeser continued to make the state of Florida suffer with his fourth goal in two games, and the Canucks fourth goal of the game on Thursday night.
Boeser’s career arc has been one of the most interesting I have ever seen. He went from being a high-efficiency distant shooter to one of the best in-tight goal scorers the Canucks have had since Alex Burrows. Boeser has worked incredibly hard at changing his game and finding a new way to play at an extremely high level. And he is being rewarded for it.
Bobrovsky was not out for the third period, after giving up four goals and a primary assist (on Joshua’s second goal). The third period was all Florida Panthers, who outshot the Canucks 15-1 in the final frame. The Panthers had an 8-0 edge on high danger chances at five-on-five but that didn’t matter. The Canucks held the Panthers off the scoresheet and won 4-0.
Game 31: December 16th vs. The Minnesota Wild
The Canucks hit the road after their decisive win at home over the Florida Panthers and found themselves facing off against the Minnesota Wild in a nice and early 1 pm Saturday game, 11 am for those of us who didn’t hop on a plane with the team.
Casey DeSmith took on the starter’s net for this contest, with Thatcher Demko’s being saved for the team’s game the following day.
The Wild controlled the game early with a number of quality chances on DeSmith, including a Brandon Duhaime shot that beat DeSmith, only to slowly slide along the blue paint and be cleared out by Filip Hronek.
By the time the first period was winding down the Wild had generated over 10 shots on net and the Canucks sat with only five. Vancouver looked like a team that just hopped off the plane and ran straight to the rink for puck drop. The Canucks were very much in the passenger seat through the first period.
This pace of play came to a head in the final two minutes of the initial frame as a tick-tack-toe passing play by the Wild finalized with a Markus Foligno deflection the puck into the back of the net, putting the Wild up 1-0 going into the second period.
After a few minutes of play in the second, the Canucks had managed to get their shot total up near that of the Wild. Vancouver used the first intermission to reset and came out the gate controlling more of the play than they had in the first period.
This control soon materialized for them in the form of a Teddy Blueger goal. The Canucks depth lines continue to play a big part in the team’s success as this goal was a team effort by the forward line of Garland and Joshua who were out there with Blueger.
After this goal however the Canucks seemed to take their foot off the gas a bit, as Minnosota answered back following the Canucks’ goal by keeping the bulk of the play following the goal within the Canucks end, and increasing the shots differential in their favour once again.
The Canucks did fight back after a few minutes of being on the ropes and generated a few more chances in the frame including a point shot by Ian Cole that was skillfully redirected on the net by Pettersson. Additionally, with eight minutes left to play in the period, J.T. Miller was sprung by a Quinn Hughes pass and entered the Wild zone with a breakaway, that resulted in an in-close shot on net, but unfortunately not a goal. Both teams left the middle frame with nothing more to show for their efforts.
Both teams shared chances early in the final frame but with no results. Vancouver though did go on the third period’s only power play as Marco Rossi did hard time for a holding call against Pettersson. Yet despite the Canuck having the solo man advantage in the frame, on top of experiencing the bulk of the power play opportunities across the whole game, this chance once more went unutilized by the club.
This game required extra time, and once nothing materialized in overtime the contest took to a shootout. On brand with the rest of the game, the Canucks failed to capitalize on the chances they were given, and a solo goal by the Wild’s Matt Mats Zuccarello carried the home team to victory.
Game 32: December 17th vs. The Chicago Blackhawks
The Canucks played another early one on Sunday in Chicago as Vancouver stepped on the ice for the second day in a row of their middle America road trip.
This was the first meeting between the Canucks and their number one fan, Conor Bedard. So all eyes were on this contest to see how the North Vancouver native would stack up against his hometown team.
Similarly to the Canucks contest with the Wild, the Canucks were slow to get chances at the start of this game with the Blackhawks earning 10 shots within the first ten minutes of play before Elias Pettersson would get the Canucks’ first shot of the game.
The Blackhawks were rewarded with this effort, earning the game’s first goal off of a Nick Foligno goal. However fortunately for the Canucks their third shot on the net, which took nearly all period to come found its way to the back of the net in the form of an Elias Pettersson goal.
The second period saw more pressure from the Blackhawks, which continued to look worse and worse for the Canucks as Chicago being significantly lower in the league standings than the Canucks, should have no business competing with a team like Vancouver. In a a cut-and-paste situation from the first period Nick Foligno earned the Blackhawks their second of the day and his second of the game.
The Canucks answered back not long after though, as Rick Tocchet’s number one project, Dakota Joshua, performed a brilliant redirection on a Conor Garland shot, that almost made Canucks fans forget about how poor the team’s pace had been in this game overall.
Tied two aside, the Canucks broke the pattern of goals with a goal from who else but Brock Boeser. A rising wrister during a two-on-two break-in left Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek speechless and put the Canucks up by one for the first time in the game.
As play continued the Canucks were still trailing in shot total and overall chances, but Vancouver’s superior finishing ability continued to keep them in the game. Before the period wrapped up Vancouver put one more on the board with an Ilya Mikheyev redirection from a Tyler Myers point shot. The Canucks would leave the frame up by two.
Vancouver felt more comfortable heading into the third period as something about their two-goal lead allowed them to shut down the Blackhawks’ advances for the first half of the period, in ways they couldn’t manage during the last two frames.
Eventually though, despite Vancouver putting on more pressure and evening up the shot totals the Blackhawks would get a break when a Cole Guttman toe-drag release on the power play beat Thatcher Demko to put his team within one.
Fortunately for the Canucks however, this would be the last goal by Chicago, and although the Canucks couldn’t get their own goal during the last period their lead of 4-3 was enough to carry them over the finish line.
