Hansen finds way to snap ugly run
SAN JOSE, Calif — History will have to wait for another season. The Canucks found a way to avoid tying a record for consecutive losses. Scratch that.
Jannik Hansen found a way to avoid the team tying a record of ineptitude.
It was another game the Canucks were playing to lose. When their one-goal, third-period lead evaporated, the Canucks appeared to be melting, again.
But Hansen looked off Daniel Sedin on a 2-on-1, and drilled a slapshot into the net. It was his 20th goal of the season and it stopped Vancouver’s string of losses at nine in a game they went on to win 4-2.
If there was ever a place to end one of the most unloved stretches of Vancouver Canucks hockey, this was it. For much of the season, the Sharks have been an alarmingly bad home team. Even the Canucks win here. Five straight times, too.
But these Canucks, the ones stitched together with string, teens and journeymen, are a different animal. What kind of animal? One that’s as gentle as a lamb, as fragile as a kitten and as timid, with the lead, as a rabbit. Not a good combination for winning, as it turns out. And this team hasn’t won many.
The Canucks have been choking on leads all season. They’ve done it healthy. They’ve done it hobbled. And they’ve done it after being called out by their best player.
On Thursday, they had the lead, and they really were due for a win. Really, for something, anything to go their way. It did, but only because of Hansen, one of the Canucks’ sole good stories this year. He set up the first goal about a minute into the game.
Bo Horvat scored a beauty. Cutting to the net with the puck, like he’s done dozens of times this season, only on this one he beat the goalie. It was the most exciting thing the Canucks had done offensively in weeks, only to be topped by Hansen later.
What a time to be alive.