CANUCKS MAKING GAINS WITH ELITE GOALTENDING
We wake up to find the Vancouver Canucks in a playoff spot and the Calgary Flames not.
Speaking of things which should make you happy, here are the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports:
With their 3-2 win over the Rangers in New York on Sunday, the Canucks have won five of their past six outings and a win in Detroit on Tuesday will send them home from their four-game roadie with a 3-1 record. That’s laudable.
But some context is also required as the first three weeks of their season are considered.
Three of the Canucks’ five wins have come on the strength of their goaltending. That doesn’t mean their goalies have stolen wins. It does mean they’ve won because they had the better goalie for that game.
That was certainly the case on Sunday with Jacob Markstrom stopping 38 of 40 shots against the Blueshirts. It was the case in St. Louis when Thatcher Demko stopped all six Blues’ shootout attempts in a 4-3 Canucks win. And it applies to the 3-2 win over the Flyers when Markstrom was named the game’s first star after stopping 30 of 32, then two of three in the shootout.
The one loss on the road trip, in fact, came on Saturday in New Jersey when the Canucks were blanked 1-0 by the Devils.
That’s a run of elite goaltending performances.
But is that sustainable over an 82-game schedule?
Demko is currently fifth in the league with a .943 save percentage. Markstrom is 18th at .926, which left the Canucks sixth overall in save percentage and that was before Markstrom’s big game at Madison Square.
Methinks you can also draw a straight line from the Canucks’ goalkeepers to their 92.6 penalty killing percentage, third best in the NHL.
It’s a given, of course, the Canucks need superior goaltending to have any hope at the post-season and if this keeps up, they’ll be around in April.
There’s also a relationship between goaltending and team confidence and it could be that the performances of Markstrom and Demko will allow the Canucks to gain some traction in their team game.
At least they better hope that’s the case because it’s unrealistic to expect this level of goaltending every night over the next six months.
■ Onward, it’s hard to know the message Lions owner David Braley is trying to send when he says the team is unequivocally for sale, then says he’ll conduct a thorough review of the CFL team’s performance and make changes if they’re required. Which is it?
Look, Braley has been an exceptional owner for the Lions but this soap opera has gone on long enough. By now, it’s clear he doesn’t want to sell to a consortium of Vancouver businessmen led by Mark Woodall and Moray Keith — and that’s his prerogative. But to suggest there’s massive interest in the Lions both locally and all over North America is hard to swallow.
There may be someone with a big wallet who’s interested in owning the Lions and there’s some suggestion the fate of the Halifax expansion franchise will impact the Lions’ sale.
But it’s revealing to know Woodall and Keith are committed to supporting whoever buys the team.
They’ve been standup guys throughout this tortured process. If another out-of-towner buys the club, the Lions will need them.
■ Solomon Elimimian had eight tackles and a sack in the Roughriders’ 27-19 win over the Lions on Friday night. On the season, he’s fourth in the CFL with 81 tackles, despite missing three games earlier in the year.
Elimimian spent nine seasons with the Lions and established himself as the greatest linebacker in franchise history. Three weeks before the start of this year’s training camp, he was released before signing with the Roughriders — and if you think Elimimian isn’t taking satisfaction about the way things worked this season, we invite you to think again.
“Things don’t always work out the way you want to but if you have the right mind set and do things the right way, things will work out the way they’re supposed to,” he said.
“At the end of the day, I wasn’t supposed to be here.
“I don’t think things were done the right way. I was lied to (Elimimian says he was told he was in the Lions’ plan for 2019). But sometimes the best things come from the worst situations. It wasn’t my decision to leave but I feel I’m in the right place.”
■ In the 2018 NFL draft, four quarterbacks were taken in the first 10 picks — including Josh Rosen, who has been traded by Arizona, the team that took him 10th overall.
With the last pick in the first round, Baltimore took Lamar Jackson 32nd overall. On Sunday, Jackson rushed for 116 yards and threw for another 143 as the 5-2 Ravens thumped the 5-2 Seahawks 30-16.
The Louisville product is now eighth in the NFL in rushing, ahead of backs like Alvin Kamara and Todd Gurley. You’re not supposed to win in the NFL with a running quarterback. Someone forgot to tell Jackson.
■ And finally, let’s stop and consider the World Series matchup for a moment. The Washington Nationals — who were once, sigh, the Montreal Expos — haven’t named their pitching rotation for the Fall Classic but it figures Game 1 will see Max Scherzer against Houston’s Gerrit Cole. Beyond that, we’re looking at some combination of Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez for the Nats and Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke for the Astros.
OK, their Game 4 starter won’t be quite as sexy but who cares. That group represents 29 All-Star Games and five Cy Youngs, six when either Cole or Verlander are given the National League award this year. You have to go back to the 2001 Diamondbacks-Yankees Series (Arizona: Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, Miguel Batista, New York: Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Orlando Hernandez) to find anything comparable.
For all that’s wrong with MLB, there remains something magical about baseball in October as witnessed by Jose Altuve’s walkoff, series-winning homer against the Yankees on Saturday night.
You just hope this Series delivers on its promise.