The Canucks are indeed NHL calibre
Club responds to Markstrom’s misquoted critique of its effort by blasting past the Stars
TDALLAS he sagging Canucks just needed a beat-down. And not the one that the Carolina Hurricanes gave them Friday.
Brock Boeser’s return helped. But, seemingly, so did a call to arms from Jacob Markstrom, who got lots of juice on the weekend for calling his team and himself embarrassing, while suggesting they hadn’t been playing like NHL players during a four-game losing streak. Losing four in a row probably didn’t hurt either.
The Canucks responded by living large in Texas, routing the Dallas Stars 6-0. The effort was there and so were the goals:
CANUCKS HAVE MISSED BOUCHER
Pop quiz: How many goals would Reid Boucher have if he played the whole season with the Canucks? He managed to match Henrik Sedin’s season-long total in one Sunday afternoon.
If you’ve ever seen Boucher play, you know he has a smooth, quick shot. But the Utica, N.Y., goal-scorer was all over the place Sunday and by place, I mean the Dallas’ net front.
“If you want to score goals, you have to get to the net,” Boucher said. “They’re not always going to be pretty. I wanted to get my nose in there tonight and luckily a couple of bounces went my way.”
He’s being modest. He did some embarrassing of his own, stripping Dan Hamhuis of the puck and presumably his hockey soul before wrapping it into the net. It wasn’t immediately called a goal, but Boucher told the officials it was in and they promised they’d have a look at the next play stoppage. Of course, Boucher was right.
Later, Boucher was again owning the area around the goal when he redirected a Derrick Pouliot shot into the net.
The Canucks have needed a guy to get to the so-called dirty areas. Can Boucher be that guy?
MARKSTROM WALKS THE WALK
The Canucks goalie never wanted to meet with his teammates to explain he really did think they were NHL players. But that’s the position he found himself in after a couple of words were missing in a Markstrom quote that figuratively lit the Canucks’ social-media world on fire.
After the loss against Carolina, Markstrom called his play and the play of his teammates embarrassing and said they weren’t playing like they belong in the NHL. The message got slightly twisted when his quote appeared online and a key part of it was taken out, making it seem like he didn’t think his teammates were NHL players.
However, after it all played out, the Canucks’ response was tremendous. They played maybe their most complete game of the season and Markstrom got a shutout.
“Like I said to the guys, that’s media sometimes,” he said. “I was talking about the past four games, knowing how good we can play and then we had not been playing that good the past four when we were losing.”
GUDBRANSON WAS ACTUALLY ON THE TOP PAIRING
Even head coach Travis Green didn’t seem sure what to expect when he announced that Erik Gudbranson would be playing on his top pairing.
Green had some decisions to make with Chris Tanev expected to miss the next week or two. He chose to go with a pairing he hadn’t relied on much at all this season.
After the Canucks shut out one of the top teams in the Western Conference, it’s a safe bet they’ll be back for Wednesday’s game. Gudbranson even scored. It was a floater, but it’s probably not how his agent will remember it.
BOESER IS OK.
I REPEAT, BOESER IS OK
All the concern about Boeser’s wrist was put to rest for good in this game. Green said the injury was “a bruise.” The pain Boeser was feeling Friday had subsided enough that he was good to go Sunday. He looked as good as ever, barely missing the net on a couple of opportunities.
“(For a day), I couldn’t shoot,” Boeser said. “It’s not good when I can’t shoot a puck. It’s one of my strengths, obviously.”
He had a sneaky good setup Sunday to Bo Horvat, too, which led directly to a Horvat goal.
“I felt better (Sunday),” Boeser said. “It still hurts a little bit shooting. But it’s good enough where I can manage the pain.”
EFFORT WAS THERE FROM EVERYONE
Ben Hutton was flying. Gudbranson was hitting guys in front of the net. Nic Dowd was sticking up for teammates. Alex Edler used a bigtime effort to get the puck through the neutral zone on the power play, leading to Horvat’s goal.
If you could measure “try,” Sunday was probably the most the Canucks have had of the stuff all year. Even when they had the lead, they didn’t let up or revert to some type of defensive shell. They scored six goals and could have had more.
Hutton, in particular, created a great play by churning through the middle of the ice and using his speed to set up a 2-on-1 with Horvat. He didn’t score, but it was pretty.
VIRTANEN CAME TO PLAY
Add this game to the Jake Virtanen legend. He had the game in Detroit in October. The game against San Jose in December. And this one.
Virtanen scored on a breakaway he set up by intercepting a pass. He later made the play that led to Boucher’s goal by basically owning Hamhuis, who he took for a ride around the offensive zone, clearing out space.