FREE SHOT AT STARS?
Canucks defend lack of response against Los Angeles’ Lewis after hit on Boeser
Fans were howling Tuesday when Trevor Lewis hit rookie Brock Boeser head-first into the boards. And they were angrier when none of the Canucks punished the King
Before we take a deeper dive into the story that has inflamed the masses, members of the Vancouver Canucks did challenge Trevor Lewis Tuesday after his hit from behind on Brock Boeser.
“I know a couple of guys went up to (Lewis) to make amends,” said defenceman Michael Del Zotto. “(Lewis) hurt his hand. That’s why there wasn’t a fight there. It didn’t go unnoticed. Guys were willing to step up.”
Over to you Jake Virtanen, a player whose role in this affair against the Los Angeles Kings has been questioned.
“When our franchise player gets hit like that you have to do something,” said the Canucks’ right-winger. “I talked to (Lewis) a bit out there. I let him know I was out there. But he also had his hand taped, so he couldn’t fight (or risk taking a match penalty).”
So the Canucks were aware a response was needed when Lewis, the Kings’ forward, hit Boeser from behind into the boards. The problem was the appropriate message was never sent and that became a hot-button issue that blew up on social media and the airwaves well into Wednesday.
To recap, the Canucks were winning 5-2 in the second period and on the power play when Lewis crosschecked Boeser, the team’s leading scorer and a Calder Trophy candidate, from behind.
There is some disagreement over the force of the hit, but it was a dangerous play that launched Boeser headfirst into the boards, the kind of play Canucks GM Jim Benning said “we’re trying to get out of the game. I don’t think there’s anything more to say about that.” We’ll return to Benning later. Boeser was shaken up and ordered to the bench, as per league rules, while Lewis was assessed a cross-checking minor. Twelve seconds later, in one of the more memorable moments at Rogers Arena this season, Boeser ripped a slapshot past Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper for his 24th goal of the season and a 6-2 Canucks lead.
That, however, seemed to be of secondary importance after the game.
Boeser is still a rookie, but he’s also the Canucks’ star player and, according to hockey’s code, you can’t let teams take liberties with your star players without some kind of response.
In the old days — cripes, even seven, eight years ago — that would have meant a fight, but the game has changed dramatically. In the 200102 season, there were an average of 0.65 fights per game in the NHL (all fight data has been borrowed from the estimable hockeyfights.com website). In 2010-11, the year the Canucks made the Stanley Cup final, there were 0.52 on average.
This year, there have been 0.23 fights per game and it’s projected there will be 609 fewer fighting majors than there were in 2001-02.
So the game has changed. The next question is how much has it changed and that’s what led to the fiery debate over Lewis’s hit on Boeser.
Canucks head coach Travis Green didn’t seem to have a problem with the hit or his team’s response. At least he didn’t for public consumption. During an exchange with your agent Wednesday, Green said he was more concerned about the 5-on-3 power play and Boeser’s goal than any acts of revenge.
“Was I looking at Henrik (Sedin) to jump Lewis and take away the 5-on3?” Green said. “I wanted the goal.
“Truthfully, I think Lewis could have cross-checked him a lot harder if he wanted to. I don’t think he was trying to hit him headfirst in the wall. Every top player in the league gets leaned on. That’s hockey.”
But so is protecting your stars and it should be noted Lewis wasn’t the only instance Tuesday of the Kings’ aggression. Daniel Sedin was rocked by serial Canuck abuser Dustin Brown, who took an interference penalty in the third period. Later in the final frame, Adrian Kempe had a Kings goal nullified when he got his stick up around the mask of Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom.
Now, for many in the Canucks congregation, this all goes back to the 2011 Cup final when Boston’s villainous Brad Marchand repeatedly punched Daniel in a scrum without retribution.
That image has been burned into the memory of virtually every Canucks fans and, according to a large faction of the faithful, the organization hasn’t done enough to address the team’s grit factor over the years.
That was supposed to change when Benning took over as GM. Benning, who last worked with the Bruins, is an old-school hockey man who knows the value of team toughness and in his first year on the job he traded for Derek Dorsett, drafted Virtanen and Nikita Tryamkin, then traded for defenceman Erik Gudbranson two years ago.
Those players were supposed to address the toughness issue. The problem is Dorsett was forced into retirement this year with a chronic neck injury, Gudbranson is hurt, Tryamkin is in Russia and Virtanen has yet to embrace the role of sheriff.
“We miss Dorsett,” Benning said. “No matter what people say, he could play and he stuck up for his teammates.”
The GM continued: “You never want to see your players get hit from behind where they crash into the boards headfirst. If that’s a problem going forward, we’ll address it.”
Benning added the Canucks are “on the lookout” for a Dorsett type and might have one in Utica with Darren Archibald, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound winger who returned to the lineup in late December after missing six weeks with a fractured cheekbone.
But Archibald, who would still have to sign an NHL contract, isn’t going to change the Canucks’ identity by himself. That will require other changes in the lineup.
Or changes in the Canucks’ players.
“We’ll always remember those hits,” said Virtanen. “We can’t let Brock get hit like that. We need him to score goals. We have to make sure they can’t take liberties with our best players.”
Good point, but in this case doing is a lot more important than saying.