NO ROOM AND BOARD IN VANCOUVER
The Canadiens score a late power-play goal to knock over the Canucks, who have now dropped five straight games
With two of the league’s high scoring teams in action Saturday at Rogers Arena, you figured this would be a thriller.
The last home game for Vancouver was a thriller. Why not more, right?
Except, the Montreal Canadiens and Canucks had other plans. With both NHL teams giving away little in the middle of the ice and the puck being unwilling to slide flat too often, there wasn’t much action to be had for long stretches, even as the visitors pulled out a late 3-2 victory.
Current hockey lingo is seeing players and coaches compare the game to works of art. They seem to trend toward Picasso as being the pinnacle, which is somewhat ironic since his style is not known as being terribly orderly.
This game was definitely not a Picasso, but not because of confusion of how art is defined, rather because it was more like watching the paint on your fence dry at times.
The scoring chances were a rarity for much of the game, albeit things picked up in the third period. Defensively, both teams did well to keep each other’s attack to the outside. The Canadiens were especially successful at breaking up the Canucks’ rushes, and the home team struggled for much of the night to gain the offensive zone with puck possession.
Canucks coach Travis Green was proud of how his team performed and was frustrated with the late loss.
“It’s a hard game to lose,” he said.
Both goalies, Jacob Markstrom for the Canucks and Carey Price for the Canadiens, have had rough starts to the year but both proved to be steady customers in their respective creases. Markstrom made 28 saves, Price 34.
Montreal opened scoring 8:07 into the second, when Tomas Tatar connected on a breakaway. He was sprung by a sublime, perfectly threaded pass by defenceman Jeff Petry from well inside the blue-line.
Canucks’ defenceman Michael Del Zotto tied the game 1-1 just over eight minutes later, banging in a puck from the side of the net.
Elias Pettersson put his team ahead on a third-period power-play goal, while a fluke Andrew Shaw tally tied the game 2-2 just a minute later.
The game winner came with 2:44 left in the game, a power-play marker by Jonathan Drouin that handed the Canucks their fifth consecutive loss. Del Zotto was parked in the penalty box, having taken an interference penalty seconds before for the late hit he threw on Montreal rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
Here’s what we learned: DEL ZOTTO’S PUCK LUCK
Michael Del Zotto’s first goal of the year came in a fashion that suited his instinct as well as what the Canucks’ coaches want from their defencemen: blue-liners finding a way to chip in offensively.
His goal, flipping a sliding puck past Price, came after he’d led the rush, laid off a pass to Bo Horvat at the blueline and then went hard to the net. Horvat pushed the puck back along the blue-line, in the path of an onrushing Tyler Motte, whose one-timed slap shot was deflected on its way toward the net by Antoine Roussel.
The puck landed on Del Zotto’s stick and the blueliner, who’d hit the iron more than once this past week on the road, made no mistake to tie the game 1-1.
Del Zotto disagreed with the call on the hit that led to the game-winning power-play goal, though his coach later called it a late hit.
“My read on the ice is he moves the puck and I finish my check like I do every other play,” he said. “Whether it’s a borderline play or not, it’s a 2-2 game with two minutes left to play (and the ref ) put his whistle away a couple of times. I don’t know how you call that one.” MARKSTROM’S MENTALITY
It’s been a rough go of late for the Canucks’ No. 1 netminder.
But Saturday, he was dialed in early.
You could tell the Canucks’ goaltender was in a groove when he made his first tough save of the game, nudging a bullet off a two-on-one by Nicolas Deslauriers to the corner.
Later in the first, he made a quality stop on Max Domi, who was sprung on a halfbreak out of the penalty box.
Markstrom was the Canucks’ best player in the first. He might have stopped the first goal, Tatar’s breakaway,buthehadnochanceon the second, as the puck was fired out from the corner by Habs’ centre Domi and banked in off the skate of Shaw, who definitely didn’t mean to do that.
But he’d probably like the third goal back. Drouin’s shot from the point was hard, and it picked the top corner, but it was also over his left shoulder.
“It’s very frustrating for me to let in two goals the last 10 minutes of the third,” said Markstrom, who added he felt sharp all night. “We’ve got to win those tight games.” MESSY MAN ADVANTAGES
The Canucks came into Saturday’s game having scored power-play goals in two straight games. They extended the run in the third period, when Pettersson one-timed a laser-like shot over Price’s shoulder and just under the bar.
It wasn’t an easy night for the Canucks’ power-play units, though. Until the opportunity that ended with Pettersson’s slapper, they’d struggled to set up in the offensive zone. The first unit, which has been missing Brock Boeser, really struggled.
But all it took was one goal to forget that.
Jake Virtanen, who has been setting up in front of the net on the power play, said it was mostly about finding the right groove.
“As the game went on, we got set up really quick,” he said. GONNA GET ONE, GAUDETTE
Canucks’ rookie centre Adam Gaudette is due to score.
His team is shooting just a hair over four per cent when he’s on the ice. It should be double that.
Puck luck, it’s a helluva thing.