SHOOTOUT IN MOTOR CITY
Canucks edged by Red Wings
DETROIT For two days, Elias Pettersson pronouncements dominated both locker-rooms.
The Red Wings recited what has become commonplace in the early stages of this NHL season. Like others, they were going to shadow Pettersson. They were going to take his time and space away. They were going to play him hard. They were going to use a five-man unit to shut down one red-hot rookie.
At the same time, the Canucks were trying to turn the dial down a notch on the hyper Pettersson hype. Comparisons to Pavel Datsyuk, Pavel Bure and Peter Forsberg were rolling off opposition tongues here and Vancouver coach Travis Green tried to keep a lid on it all.
And yet, it took one shot Tuesday for the spotlight to shine once again on the Swedish sensation.
When Pettersson got the puck at the top of the left circle in the first period, his heavy slapshot easily eluded the glove of goalie Jimmy Howard, clanged off the post and found nothing but net.
Of course it did.
It’s like Pettersson knew he could find the inside part of the iron for his 10th goal because everything he touches seems to turn to goals. It also looked like the Wayne Gretzky overtime roof job that beat Mike Vernon in a similar manner in the 1988 Stanley Cup playoffs. Did we just compare Pettersson to Gretzky?
If that wasn’t enough, Pettersson sped through two zones in the second period, drew a crowd and feathered a pass to Nikolay Goldobin to remind everybody of his playmaking prowess.
The Canucks nearly won it in overtime with Bo Horvat stopped on a breakaway and Pettersson ringing one off the post — and Jacob Markstrom robbed Gustav Nyquist — before Dylan Larkin settled it in a shootout for a 3-2 Detroit win.
Here’s what we learned in a battle of injury-riddled clubs:
LOUI LOGIC MADE SOME SENSE
Green could have given Brendan Leipsic the lottery ticket as a replacement for the injured Brock Boeser on the Pettersson line. Instead, he aligned Loui Eriksson with his countryman. The obvious reason was to have a responsible defensive presence on formation, but Eriksson did score his first goal of the season Friday and maybe he had some mojo going.
He had a first period to remember. He blocked a shot and had a scoring chance off a partial breakaway. He nearly deposited a backhand and then set up Pettersson. He had three shots and four attempts in the frame.
In the third, he was fed a great pass by Goldobin but couldn’t handle it to snap a 2-2 draw.
NO PUCK LUCK FOR MARKSTROM
It was looking like one of those nights where Markstrom wasn’t going to need the water bottle.
The Canucks dominated the opening 25 minutes and were outshooting the Wings 21-7. They had a 2-0 lead and then came an unassisted power-play goal by Justin Abdelkader that could have been cleared in the slot and a Nyquist effort that deflected in off Troy Stecher.
TANEV TAKES ANOTHER ONE FOR THE TEAM
Chris Tanev returned after missing five games with a hip bone bruise that was worse than most knew. When struck by a puck on Oct. 24 in Las Vegas, it was like a big hematoma or hippointer and there was swelling and bleeding that had to subside.
That didn’t stop Tanev from stepping in front of a secondperiod power-play slapper and then shaking his leg to shake off the effects of doing what he does best. He also settled down Derrick Pouliot, who has a penchant for turning over pucks in his own zone.
“I think he’s the most-underrated player in the NHL,” Stecher said of Tanev. “That’s my opinion. He’s not flashy, but he does so many little things right. Plays tough minutes against tough lines, plays the PK and is so valuable to our team.
“He’s not the biggest guy, but his positioning is always good and he’s able to box guys out.” OVERTIME: The Canucks came out on the right side of two challenges. They won a secondperiod ruling when Martin Frk looked offside before beating Markstrom to the glove side. And later in the period on Ben Hutton’s third goal of the season — a wrister from the point that went through the legs of Danny DeKeyser and found the short side — the Wings challenged that Eriksson was offside trying to keep the puck in at the blue-line. They were wrong.
It took one shot Tuesday for the spotlight to shine once again on the Swedish sensation.