By: Brayden Fengler / January 22, 2024 Game 44: January 15th vs. The Columbus Blue Jackets
The Canucks finished off the final game of their road-trip early Monday morning in Columbus, as Martin Luther King Jr. Day south of the 49th parallel allowed for some daytime hockey action to start off the work week.
The Canucks started off strong, just under five minutes into the first period, after putting up eight shots to the Blue Jackets zero, they were finally rewarded, as a J.T. Miller point shot ricocheted off of bodies on the way to the net, but ultimately found it’s way in.
Unfortunately for Vancouver the Blue Jackets did not wait long to answer back. Less than a minute late, while deep in the Canucks zone, Johnny Gaudreau was able to spot teammate Yegor Chinakov all alone in front of the net, and once Chinakov got the puck, he easily put one past Casey DeSmith to bring the game back to even.
Not too long after the score was back to being tied up, Ian Cole earned Vancouver their first penalty of the game thanks to a hooking call against Jonney Gaudreau. Thankfully though the Canucks easily killed off this initial penalty kill.
Columbus continued to produce chances at a similar rate to Vancouver for the rest of the period, but it was Conor Garland for the Canucks that finally tilted the score back in Vancouver’s favour. In a similar fashion to the Blue Jackets opening goal, Teddy Blueger fed a stationary and wide-open Conor Garland in front of CBJ’s net, and the rest was history.
The second period started off strong for the home team, as Columbus applied initial pressure to Casey DeSmith with a flurry of chances in front of the Canucks net. The pattern of this game then continued, on a Blue Jackets power play, courtesy of a J.T. Miller high-sticking call, CBJ earned their net goal. A seeing-eye point shot at the hands of Dmitri Voronkov tied the game.
The home team continued to keep up the pressure as continued shot attempts in the Canucks zone attributed to a number of scrambles in front of Casey Desmith. CBJ definitely had the bulk of the shot attempts during the initial half of the second frame. It was clear that the Canucks were on the tail end of a long road trip and running on empty.
Before the halfway mark in the second period, however, things did go right for the Canucks. Thanks to a Jake Bean hooking call. Vancouver was on the power play for the second time in the game, and this time they made the most of it. During continued possession in the Jacket end, J.T. Miller spotted Elias Pettersson all alone on the near side faceoff circle, and with all the time in the world Petey cleanly beat Elvis Merzlikins to tilt the score back in Van’s favour once more.
The third frame provided further evidence of what had been evident all game, the Canucks’ energy level during the final game of this trip was rapidly depleting. Vancouver continued to allow more pressure and more scrambles for the puck to occur directly in front of their netminder. With thoughts of home, clearly in their heads, Vancouver allowed the opening quarter of the frame to play out without a single whistle until 14:38 left on the clock.
The Blue Jackets continued pressure saw them rewarded once more as halfway through the period, CBJ’s Dmitri Voronkov from behind the net managed to somehow just gently tuck the puck in, far side on DeSmith. This didn’t make for a very pretty goal, but nonetheless, it sent the game to overtime.
Columbus won the opening draw against Vancouver and kept the puck away from the Canucks for a decent amount of time to start the overtime period. Vancouver only got possession for the first time when a member of the Blue Jackets blew a tire in the Canucks zone and sent Petey and Kuzmenko headed the other way on a two-on-one. Unfortunately though, on a cross-ice pass attempt from Petey Kuzmenko couldn’t receive it well, and nothing came of this chance.
Despite some lopsided opportunities for both teams with CBJ earning a too many men call and Elias Pettersson sitting for tripping not long after, this game required a shootout.
The first three rounds of shooters were exhausted from both teams before the first goal of the spectacle was scored. Kuzmenko, Miller, and Pettersson, all had their chance, but with no results. It was CBJ’s fourth shooter Kirill Marchenko who finally beat DeSmith, and sent Vancouver home packing, with just one point in the contest.
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Game 45: January 18th vs. The Arizona Coyotes
To kick off their homestand, the Canucks celebrated Pride night against the Arizona Coyotes. They celebrated by dominating the first period. Their first period 78.57% Corsi wasn’t the only part of the game that popped off early. 5 minutes in, Sam Lafferty ran Kesselring into the boards and Liam O’Brien quickly took exception, throwing his gloves off and laying into Lafferty. Lafferty played it smart and didn’t retaliate, but somehow O’Brien only earned himself a 2-minute roughing penalty.
Shortly after, O’Brien earned more than he could handle when Zadorov took justice into his own hands, likely due to the officials only giving O’Brien a minor for jumping Lafferty.
With only 3 minutes left in the first, Pettersson scored a beautiful one-timer from a Canucks set play off the face-off while on the powerplay. We’ve seen this play a few times now from the Canucks. Miller wins the draw back to Hughes, who immediately passes it over to Pettersson for his patented one-timer. We aren’t going to see many nicer shots in the league.
Despite dominating the period, Arizona tied it up before it was over on their fourth shot of the game. It was only fitting that it was their one player sporting pride tape who scored, Travis Dermott, off of a deflected puck that landed right on his stick, allowing him to put it past a reactive Demko.
Dermott has been one of the biggest LGBTQ+ supporters throughout the league. It was our writer, Trent, who, earlier this season, was the first to highlight Dermott’s decision to wear pride tape during a game while it was technically banned by the NHL. His tweet gained traction throughout social media and led to major discussions around the topic. Eventually, the league decided to rescind their decision, which allowed the Canucks to wear pride tape during warmup on Thursday’s game.
Arizona came out firing on all cylinders to start the second. They controlled play and, thanks to Tyler Myers, had two powerplay opportunities in the first 5 minutes of the second. But Demko was able to keep the game even until the Canucks could recover. Despite 3 powerplays for each team in the second, the score remained even until the last minute when Hoglander entered the edge of Arizona’s zone off of the turnover and centred to a cutting Joshua who showed off his soft touch with a sweet toe drag off his own rebound to tuck the puck in.
Despite the 2-1 scoreline, it was an intense game, with lots of emotion and tight checking. It was the type of game you love to see the Canucks come out on top of. One major note was Kuzmenko’s lack of ice time in the third with the Canucks holding the lead. He had no shifts in the final frame, riding the pine to end the game. There have been many discussions surrounding Kuzmenko throughout the season and the final frame of this game did nothing to calm the scrutiny.
Game 46: January 20th vs. The Toronto Maple Leafs
Saturday was hockey day in Canada, with 3 all-Canadian matchups throughout the day. The Canucks were facing off against their cross-country rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although these two teams only face off twice a season, the fans are always into it, with the amount of Toronto fans almost turning Rogers Arena into a neutral site.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have much to cheer for early when Hoglander quickly got the home crowd going with two goals in three minutes. His first goal was a hard-working play in front of Toronto’s net. He fought off Giordano and smacked the loose puck past Martin Jones. his second goal was the highlight goal though as he cut toward Toronto’s net from the hash marks and sniped a beautiful top-shelf shot over Jone’s shoulder.
The dominance continued with Garland scoring from a beautiful pass from Blueger, which led to an even better celebration, one that should be considered for celebration of the year.
The game had tilted heavily in Vancouver’s favour by the end of the first, with the Canucks easily controlling the pace. However, Toronto found their way back into the game from a mixture of luck and skill, quickly tying it halfway through the second off a Nylander rush shot that deflected off Soucy’s stick and past Demko. The comeback led to this heated exchange between Hughes and his stick.
Garland salvaged the period with a goal in the final minute, his second of the game. Setting up a dramatic final frame between the two teams.
The Maple Leafs must have watched the tape from Thursday’s game against Arizona. When the Canucks set up for a draw in the offensive zone while on the powerplay, they had their set play in mind, looking to give Petey the one-timer opportunity. However, Marner played it beautifully and blocked the shot, allowing Toronto to exit the zone. He then picked Boeser’s pocket on Vancouver’s break-in attempt and sped the other way all alone, putting it past Demko to tie the game at 4 a piece.
Vancouver took the lead again shortly after, this time on the powerplay with Miller using his skates as a backboard, deflecting a Quinn Hughes pass/shot towards the net.
Unlike Thursday’s game, Kuzmenko was given a shift while the Canucks held a lead in the third. His line controlled play and he personally drew a penalty to put the Canucks back on the powerplay while up one. That same powerplay showed its chops for a second time on the night with Pettersson scoring an eerily similar goal to Miller’s earlier goal, only using his stick for a deft tip after sneaking behind the Toronto defence.
After the Canucks went up 6-4, things remained entertaining, with Toronto clearly getting frustrated. This cumulated in Myers giving Morgan Reilly a healthy cross-check next to the Canucks net, causing Reilly to come back at Myers, who immediately puts him in a headlock and then simultaneously punches a charging John Tavares, giving us the clear highlight of the game.
Despite a late push by Toronto, Vancouver was able to hold onto the lead and send the many Toronto fans home without much to cheer for. All in all, it was an exciting end to an exciting week of Canucks hockey.
