WON FOR THE ROAD
Daniel Sedin scores and Eriksson show some extra zip as Miller shuts down the Blue Jackets
Daniel scored, he really scored.
That’s no small thing. He had just played more than a quarter of a National Hockey League season, 21 games, and scored one goal. It wasn’t that long ago when a similar slump would have gripped the entire city in sheer panic. You know, like four centimetres of snow.
But the Sedins aren’t what they once were. There are still wonderful times, like moments Thursday against John Tortorella’s Columbus Blue Jackets, when they look like they could be.
Daniel scored his slump-buster off the rush. He did it at speed, sliding in a Markus Granlund rebound. The fact it was Granlund on the Sedins’ line is something of a point earned for head coach Willie Desjardins. He saw the spark when Granlund played with the Sedins briefly in Nashville Tuesday, and kept them together, going with his gut, not convention.
It worked. The goal set up an important 3-0 win, one that lets Vancouver breathe again. For a day.
As in most wins this season, Ryan Miller was electric. His biggest stop coming on a Cam Atkinson breakaway. Once again, when he’s rested, he tends to be brilliant. And the Canucks do tend to need great goaltending to win games.
Of course, the coach didn’t look quite as brilliant when Loui Eriksson scored the Canucks’ second goal, playing net front with the Sedins on the first power-play unit.
It’s a power-play combo the coach has avoided like peanuts in grade school. It didn’t seem to matter how bad things got, how low the power play sunk, playing Eriksson on the first unit was a non-starter.
It often felt like a popular meme except Desjardins was the dog wearing a hat sitting at the kitchen table as the house burned down around him, saying “This is fine.”
Even when Sven Baertschi got hurt, Desjardins instinctively put Alex Burrows on the first unit. He later changed that up, finally reuniting the three forwards who all played on the same power play for Team Sweden, theoretically against the best penalty killing units in the world.
Thursday’s power-play goal was vintage Sedins.
It started with Henrik making a blind, backhand pass through his legs. Then, the Sedins combined on three more ridiculously tight passes before Eriksson dunked the puck into an empty net.
Having Eriksson play net front appeared to allow the Sedins to move all over the ice, and it was that movement which left the backdoor wide open.
The win will be surprising to some, but this is how the Canucks have gone this season. When you think they’ve finally played themselves into the playoff race, they lose four in a row.
And when you think they have no chance against Columbus on the road, they win easily.