HOT HANDS IN VEGAS
BO’S GOAL ‘FLEURY’ Canucks deal with injury bug, but refuse to just fold in Sin City
Safe bets are hard to find in Sin City.
A good one was to add up the injuries — even before Alex Edler was lost midway through the first period Wednesday to a lower-body injury and Sven Baertschi late in the second to an upperbody ailment — and bet the farm on the Golden Knights.
With Elias Pettersson continuing his post-concussion protocol, despite taking the game-day skate, and Brock Boeser also taking a morning twirl but being cautious to push it with a groin strain, the Vancouver Canucks were betting against the house that they could score their first franchise victory over the Stanley Cup finalists.
And, of course, the odds usually heavily favour the house, right?
Already struggling to improve even-strength scoring and re-energize the oncefeared power play, the Canucks got a gutty two-goal performance from Bo Horvat, some giddy-up from Brendan Leipsic and enough good saves from goaltender Jacob Markstrom to make it a memorable effort.
Here’s what we learned as Jake Virtanen nearly converted a spin-o-rama shot in overtime before Markus Granlund converted in the skills show for a wild 3-2 shootout victory:
RAIN IN VANCOUVER, EDLER ON THE SHELF
Two unfortunate certainties in later October. The rain returns to Vancouver and Edler returns to the injury list.
The defenceman suffered a medical collateral ligament (MCL) sprain last Oct. 14 and on Wednesday, he went down hard after getting tangled up in the offensive zone with Vegas winger Max Pacioretty.
And when the play went back into the Canucks’ zone, he took a heavy sideboards hit from Pacioretty. Either the sprawl or the hit took him out.
Edler was leading the NHL with 39 blocked shots.
Michael Del Zotto will finally draw into the lineup on Thursday in Glendale, Ariz. after being a healthy scratch for eight games.
And if that wasn’t enough bad enough, Baertschi was circling back in the neutral zone when he got hit high on the back and fell to the ice. His injury either means the recalled Darren Archibald gets into the lineup against the Coyotes and the Canucks shuffle the forward deck.
If you want even more concern, Chris Tanev was getting medical attention at the bench in the third period. And Erik Gudbranson was favouring his wrist.
HORVAT SHOULDERS HEAVY LOAD
Horvat has to drive the offence in the absence of Pettersson and Boeser and he was asked to do it with Leipsic and Loui Eriksson as his firstline wingers. He did more than that. The future captain led by example, because both of his goals showcased what the centre does best.
With the Canucks trailing 1-0 in the second period, Horvat took a long cross-ice feed from Tim Schaller at top speed and ripped a wrist shot past Marc-Andre Fleury on the glove side. Less than a minute later, Horvat worked his way into the high slot and established position before getting his stick blade on an Eriksson point shot for a deft deflection and a 2-1 lead.
MARKSTROM GETS THE TOUGH CALL
The Golden Knights had won three in a row and Fleury had found his form with just two goals allowed in that span. Getting pucks by him was going to be tough and taking away the Golden Knights’ momentum — especially in front of their raucous home crowd — was going to be even harder.
When William Carrier walked around Derrick Pouliot early in the first period for a great chance before Pacioretty opened the scoring on another Pouliot mistake, the night could have gone south.
Especially when Brandon Sutter walked around Colin Miller, and with Alex Tuch sprawled on his stomach, nearly scored with a toe-drag move early in the first and Eriksson was stymied on a second-period power play.
On the ensuring odd-man rush, Ryan Reeves beat Markstrom to the short side to set up the third-period drama.
LEIPSIC SHOWS US SOMETHING
It was evident from the outset.
Leipsic had that extra jump that comes with being a healthy scratch for six consecutive games. Everything he has teased us about with offensive potential is going to be vital with Baertschi sidelined.
Leipsic got first power play time and his ability to move, manoeuvre and quickly release shots — on top of making some good reads and slick passes at full speed — couldn’t come at a better time. He nearly jammed home a chance in the crease to give the Canucks a second-period lead before Reeves scored.