By: Brayden Fengler / January 15, 2024 Game 40: January 8th vs. The New York Rangers
The Canucks started off their contest in New York with solid pressure out of the gate. With the Rangers at the top of their respective division out east, this contest was set to be a heavy-weight matchup, so the initial pressure from the Canucks was definitely a great sign.
The Rangers did get the opening goal however as an extended Rangers possession in the Canucks end which had Demko flip-flopping around the crease ended in a Vincent Trocheck goal.
Shortly after however, the Canucks’ own hot start paid off after the Rangers’ first goal, in the form of a lotto line one-timer starting J.T. Miller.
The Canucks kept the pressure on after Miller’s first goal and minutes later the Lafferty, Aman, and Höglander line worked together to put Vancouver up by one. Höglander was the player who put the puck in the back of the net, but it was an all-around team effort goal thanks to the passing and zone entry of the entire forward line.
The hot sticks for both teams then cooled off for the bulk of the period, despite New York peppering Demko with shots, it was the Canucks who got lucky once more before the close of the frame. With under two minutes to play the lotto line got back to work kicked off by a Quinn Hughes bank pass from the team’s own zone, which found Pettersson at the New York blueline who then found Boeser all alone streaking towards the Rangers net, who went ahead and made the score 3-1 Canucks, thanks to a quick forehand-backhand deke.
Demko continued to get peppered by New York with quality chances in the second period. The Canucks were on the verge of once again appearing to play a little too comfortably after their lead increased by more than one.
Both teams exchanged quality chances across the first half of the period, but the scoreboard remained unchanged until Boeser caused a turnover at the Rangers blueline. This sent Alexis Lafreniere up the length of the ice, then connecting with Artemi Panarin in the Canucks zone, at which point Panarin sent a laser beam over Demko’s head and into the back of the net.
The Canucks didn’t have an answer for this until the period was nearly over and the elastic band of a man Elias Pettersson was able to tuck a puck around and behind Igor Shesterkin in a way that defies all limitations of the human body.
However, Höglander wasn’t going to let Pettersson hog the highlight reel for long. Minutes later, off of the foundations of a Pius Suter zone entry, Höglander was fed a cross-ice pass which he then received and brought through his legs, quickly directing the puck towards the net and through Shesterkin’s legs.
Early in the third period, the least flashy goal of the night occurred at the hands of New York Ranger Vincent Trocheck. Trocheck after being fed by Lafreniere in the neutral zone glided effortlessly up the Canucks’ near side and snapped a top-cheese goal that few goalies could ever be able to stop.
The game then remained 5-3 for the rest of the period until New York pulled their goalie and Elias Pettersson made them pay with an empty net. When all was finalized the Rangers outshot the Canucks 42 – 26. Yet despite nearly doubling the visitor’s shot total, they could not even come close to the Canucks goal total.
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Game 41: January 9th vs. The New York Islanders
Game 41, the halfway mark of the season. This is where the Canucks season is no longer described as “a hot start” but instead “an unexpected season”. The Canucks look to round out their New York Tri-State area sweep for the first time in Canucks history. Zadorov drew back into the line-up giving Ian Cole the night off. It is crazy that the Canucks are already in load management mode in early January.
Hronek scored the first goal of the night after. Hronek let go a heavy shot from the line taking down Casey Cizikas. Effectively being five-on-four, Hronek walked in faked a slapshot, and then scored on a high wrist shot.
With 1:18 remaining in the first period, Quinn Hughes also scored after dancing around the ice as if he were untouchable. Quinn cut through the middle of the slot and let go of a quick wrist shot to join his partner on the score sheet.
Pettersson scored yet again “this way, that way, and back again” as John Shorthouse so perfectly summarized the goal. Hronek stole the puck back for Pettersson. He was able to dangle his way to the net and slide the puck to JT Miller moving the goalie away from him. Miller promptly sent the puck back for a wide-open net for Pettersson to score on.
It is undeniable how dominant the Canucks are when the Lotto Line is together, and the rest of the line-up is keeping up pace when the Lotto Line is on the bench.
Brock Nelson scored next for the Isles on the powerplay. Barzal made a clever behind-the-back pass cross-crease for Nelson who beat Casey DeSmith. The shut-out bid was gone, but the Canucks still had a two-goal cushion.
The coolest goal of the game came off Tyler Myers’s stick when he scored off the rush. The Canucks had four skaters on the rush but Tyler felt the spirit of Thomas Vanek flowing through him and wound up, his stick so high it (literally) grazed the rafters and let go a slapshot. Was it the highest percentage shot option? No, but was it the coolest? Yes. The Canucks now lead 4-1 and three of six defencemen have scored for the Canucks.
The best part of it all? Conor Garland leaps into Myer’s arms to embrace him. The photo looked much like a son treating his father at the door due to the height disparity.
Brock Nelson scored again to make it 4-2 near the end of the game, but the Canucks weren’t done yet either. Dakota Joshua broke up a play at centre ice and put the game on ice scoring an empty net goal to end the game 5-2.
Not only did they sweep the New York area for the first time, they tied a franchise record 27 wins in their first 41 games of a season. The last time they did that, was 2010-11 when they won the President’s trophy and went to the Stanley Cup Final. Just some food for thought.
Game 42: January 11th vs. The Pittsburgh Penguins
Next up on the road trip, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Canucks were red hot coming into this game and they looked to keep the winning up being second in the NHL behind only the Winnipeg Jets.
The Lotto Line was once again put together for this game and it paid immediate dividends as Brock Boeser redirected a Pettersson shot to open the scoring. Pettersson made a small move to stop up in the offensive zone to create some space from the forward covering him and had the entire middle of the ice to shoot at Boeser’s stick.
Roughly 1:30 later, Boeser scored on the powerplay redirecting a Miller shot. In the 42nd game of the season, Boeser now has 27 goals. 27 is the second-highest goal total he has put together in a season, and he has barely hit the halfway mark. If he keeps this up, 55 goals is not out of reach this season. And to think, the Penguins could have had him for free almost exactly a year ago to the day.
With this goal, Boeser now has 10 goals in 10 career games against the Penguins. You just gotta laugh.
Nearing the end of the period 1st period Pettersson scored to make it 2-1. Wait. That can’t be right…. Oh, the other Pettersson. Marcus Pettersson scored by shooting a puck and having it redirected off Suter to bring the game within one.
The following goal came from Petterson to make it 2-2. Wait no, I have that wrong again. This time it was our Pettersson making it 3-1. Hronek shot from the point and Pettersson, unimpeded was able to tip the puck and score the third of the period for the Canucks. Just in case you are counting, the combination of Miller, Pettersson and Boeser have all been on the ice for each of the goals for the Canucks so far.
Starting the second period, the Penguins switched goaltenders and put Tristan Jarry in the net who made a few big stops early to keep the Penguins in it and allow Crosby to score to bring the game within one. That was all from the second period.
In the third Sid was on a mission to tie the game and Demko was putting in the work to keep that from happening. The best example of this was this massive save Demko made:
However, Crosby is one of the greats. He may not be young, but he is great and he eventually tied the game despite Demko’s hard work. Crosby scored by having the puck bounce off his leg with less than 30 seconds remaining, the Penguins were tied 3-3 and forced overtime.
The first minute and a half of overtime was end-to-end action before being settled down for about a minute. But it opened up again and ended with just under two minutes remaining. Pettersson scored his second of the night to end the game. But what Pettersson? Let me check… okay it was our Pettersson. Elias scored on a breakaway beating the Penguins to keep the road wins alive!
Pettersson remains red hot since the Lotto Line was reunited.
Game 43: January 13th vs. The Buffalo Sabers
The Canucks finished off the week and their second-to-last game of this road trip in Buffalo Saturday afternoon. Buffalo is second to last in the Atlantic Division and third last in all of the Eastern Conference, so the odds were definitely in the Canucks favour as they entered this contest.
Both goalies were tested somewhat equally in the first period. Thatcher Demko was in net for the Canucks, and although Vancouver didn’t allow him to get peppered with shots as much as they have often done in the opening frame of their games, Demko was still the difference maker during key Buffalo opportunities in the first frame. This included Demko turning away a near breakaway attempt from Jordan Greenway, after Dylan Cozens sent his teammate a pass that snuck past Canucks defenders on the rush, giving him time to produce a quality shot attempt.
The Canucks had the one and only power play opportunity of the first period thanks to a Peyton Krebs tripping call against Conor Garland. but despite a couple of pedestrian shots on net Vancouver did not make the most of this opportunity and the game remained tied at one after Buffalo’s penalty kill, and for the remainder of the first period.
The second period saw the most action in the game by far. Pressure and intensity from both teams continued to rise in the second period. Less than a minute into the period things appeared to be tilting in the Canucks direction, as a far-side Canucks break-in led to a cross-ice pass that found Boeser and allowed #6 to beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen cleanly blocker side.
Unfortunately for Vancouver, a messy zone entry by Miller and Pettersson resulted in the Canucks opening goal being called back. Just like that, the game was back at zeros.
Thankfully for Vancouver, this didn’t last long, as only a few minutes after their first goal was called back Sam Lafferty cleaned up some garbage in front of the net and earned his team a far less pretty goal than Boesers, but one that counted nevertheless.
Intensity only ramped up in this game, after the Canucks finally earned a goal that stuck. At the four-minute mark in the Sabres’ end, J.T. Miller delivered a hit on Rasum Dahlin which was called for elbowing. Before Miller could serve time, Owen Power sprung to Dahlin’s defence. Power was then called for roughing against J.T. Miller and both players went to the box.
After this altercation, Buffalo still felt as though there was unfinished business with Miller as just under the ten-minute mark in the frame, Erik Johnson and Miller squared up for a proper fight at centre ice. The fight was short-lived but saw heavy punches being thrown from both sides. Ultimately though it looked as though Miller came out on top, leaving Buffalo without their planned redemption against the Canucks #9.
Fortunately for Vancouver and unfortunately for Buffalo, the final period of play was more of a repeat of the first period rather than the second. Tempers appeared to settle ever so slightly as the frame’s only penalty which came just over two minutes in, went to Nils Höglander off the back of an Interference call against Rasmus Dahlin.
The Canucks managed to kill Höglanders penalty and despite continued pressure from the Sabres in the final frame, never allowed anything to get past Demko. by the end of the game, the Sabres came away with a narrow lead in shots, earning 26 on Demko. However the Canucks goaltender of course turned away all 26, and despite the Canucks being unable to beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen more than once, once turned out to be all they needed.
The Canucks finished this game with a win and a new first-place designation in the entirety of the national hockey league.
