Vrbata sharp in Sabre-rattler role
Forward snaps funk with hat trick, team ends five-game losing skid
As noted philosopher Todd Bertuzzi once said — actually, more than once — it is what it is.
In this case, it was a win for the Vancouver Canucks, who snapped a five-game losing streak on West Coast Express night at Rogers Arena.
So what if Monday’s 5-2 victory came against the Buffalo Sabres, who aren’t exactly the class of the National Hockey League. It was a win and the Canucks desperately needed one of those.
Radim Vrbata got things started with two first-period goals and completed his hat trick late in the third as the Canucks won for just the fourth time on home ice this season.
“We needed it,” Vrbata said. “We were looking for a good performance, for a win, and to start feeling a little better about ourselves. And even though it was just one game, it’s a good start.”
The Canucks won with Bertuzzi and former linemates Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison in attendance.
The Canucks used to routinely score four or five goals when the West Coast Express line was rolling. This season, especially lately, the goals have been tough to find. During their fivegame skid, the Canucks scored a total of five goals. Monday, they matched that total.
Brandon Prust and Henrik Sedin also scored for the Canucks, who improved to 10-11-8 on the season.
Vrbata, whose struggles this season have been well documented, tied the game at 8:08 of the first, just over a minute after Brian Gionta had given Buffalo a 1-0 lead.
Vrbata had pretty much the whole net to shoot at after Buffalo goalie Linus Ullmark had stopped a Chris Higgins’ backhand shot.
“That always helps on your first or second shift if you get an open net like that,” Vrbata said. “And then you get a tip there and it seems like everything is falling in place.”
That tip came at 16:42 of the first when Vrbata deflected a Dan Hamhuis point shot by Ullmark to give the Canucks the lead.
Prust’s goal was his first as a Canuck. He finished off a nice shift by the fourth line, ripping a one-timer past Ullmark at 4:34 of the second period. Linemates Derek Dorsett and Adam Cracknell earned assists.
“We’re not looking to do anything fancy,” Cracknell said of the line. “We know what our mentality is and what we are out there to do.
“We accept our role and anytime we can cycle it, use our strength and get to the net, we just whack away at it. Dorse made a great play from behind the goal-line, it’s something we work on. It’s not going to work every time but when it does we are definitely pretty happy.”
That line was terrific all night and Cracknell set up Vrbata’s third goal late in the third period.
The goal was vintage Vrbata, as he rifled a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot past Ullmark for his ninth goal of the season.
“It’s a confidence-builder,” Vrbata said of the win. “The last couple of games you could see that we were not really a confident group and it seemed like every mistake we made turned against us. So it is good to have a game like that where you have a good performance and you get a result for it.”
Of course, it’s just one win. The Canucks have not won consecutive games in more than a month. And next up are the New York Rangers, who visit Rogers Arena on Wednesday.
“We are going to see one of the best teams in the East here on Wednesday,” said winger Jannik Hansen.
“The Rangers are firing on all cylinders. But again, it’s a win. You can see it in the faces of the guys. It was what we needed. We needed two points, we needed a lot of guys getting monkeys off their backs and getting back producing. We had a lot of guys stepping up today and creating opportunities ... the fourth line was huge.”
ICE CHIPS: Defenceman Alex Biega and winger Sven Baertschi drew back into the lineup, while Yannick Weber and Ronalds Kenins were healthy scratches ... Defenceman Luca Sbisa missed his third game with a hand injury.