STAR ROOKIES CLASH
The cream of the NHL’s newbie crop faced off last night, but for Vancouver a late injury spoiled the show
Travis Green said it wasn’t about another clash of the top two Calder Trophy contenders.
The Vancouver coach was right. And wrong.
In another sorry NHL season, where playoff hopes for the Canucks faded as fast as injuries and indifferent play piled up, count the highlights and you won’t run out of fingers. Wins over Boston, Nashville, Washington and a pair against Pittsburgh are distant memories.
However, the anticipation of another chapter in the rookie scoring race drama between the leading Mathew Barzal and the pursuing Brock Boeser Monday at Rogers Arena was going to be better than the monsoon season finally ending. Better than the Academy Awards.
Then again, big matchups often result in a bit of letdown when one club is chasing a playoff berth and the other is consumed by structure.
And when Boeser’s tailbone hit the open door at the Canucks’ bench with 27.1 seconds remaining in regulation time after a hit by Cal Clutterbuck — the rookie had to be helped off the ice — the air went out of the arena.
Here’s what we learned as the Canucks rallied from a 2-0 deficit before winning 4-3 in overtime against the New York Islanders:
Virtanen flying, Leipsic trying
Jake Virtanen looked like a playmaker. He looked like a scorer. He looked like the only guy who could probably keep pace with Barzal.
On yet another night where Virtanen proved he has taken a step, he started the scoring sequence on Brendan Leipsic’s goal by first finding Bo Horvat behind the net and then finding a way to get the puck into the crease so Leipsic could roof a backhander home. Virtanen had a bolt down the left side and a rightside wraparound that nearly found net.
And then Virtanen took a Leipsic
feed on a 2-on-1 and quickly snapped his eighth goal of the season at 10:31 of the third frame that looked like the winner. He then almost scored in overtime.
It also said something about Leipsic. He took a tripping penalty in the first period and a high-sticking minor in the second, but kept pressing and playing and impressing. Then he took a late third-period slashing minor.
Green won’t be impressed because Jordan Eberle scored on the ensuing power play. Then Leipsic scored in overtime. Go figure.
Archibald making roster case
Darren Archibald is a lot of things. He’s a big winger who will play big and stick up for his teammates. He’s also smart. He’s also opportunistic.
Purposely paired with Brandon Sutter in even-strength shutdown situations and in a penalty killing duo, Archibald showed another side Monday that’s going to endear him to Green.
On a second-period turnover in
the Canucks’ zone, the winger easily blew past Johnny Boychuk and drew a hook that resulted in his first career penalty shot.
Archibald didn’t hesitate to score his third goal in 12 games since signing a pro-rated US$650,000 contract for the remainder of this season.
He came at netminder Jaroslav Halak with speed and snapped a wrist shot to the stick side. And in the third period, he nearly converted a cross-ice feed from Sutter with the scored deadlocked 2-2.
Blazing Barzal has giddy-up
The Coquitlam native had his pocket picked on the first shift by Leipsic that resulted in a scoring chance. It wasn’t surprising. Barzal was jacked. He had more than 100 family and friends in the stands. He wanted to make a statement.
Barzal would finish with two assists to stretch his rookie points race lead over Boeser to 14 points. But that wasn’t the story. It was how the 20-year-old easily became
a one-man zone entry for the Islanders. It was how he took on defenders 1-on-1 and dared them to slow him down.
“He gets a step on a guy and there’s no way that guy is catching him,” said Islanders veteran winger Andrew Ladd.
Barzal does everything at speed. He skates fast. He stickhandles fast and gets pucks away in a hurry. He tried to change his shooting angle several times on a power-play dangle. He whipped through the slot and slipped a sweet back pass to Eberle.
He set up John Tavares on a crossice, power-play feed and then started a scoring sequence that ended with a Tavares’ short-side laser that froze Jacob Markstrom.
Boeser the professor had game
For the hotshot Canucks rookie, it’s all about getting better in every facet of his game.
He wasn’t going to blow the zone to start a rush. He wasn’t going to be lazy on the backcheck and miss his
man. He was going to take advantage of everything that got him here and if you watched closely, he didn’t disappoint.
On a first-period power play, Boeser was deking his way to the net when Daniel Sedin was called for a cheesy tripping minor. Boeser caught Barzal with a good check along the wall. He found Sam Gagner behind the net when he could have taken a sharp-angle wrister because it was a better play. He had a late second-period chance because he got into the right position to take feeding pass from Gagner.
And in the third period, Boeser showed cool patience and didn’t panic with the puck in the offensive zone. He worked his way and waited to get into the high slot to let a high wrister go on Halak.
None of it will make the highlight reel because he didn’t score. But the injury will. It will be a cruel blow if it sidelines the winger.