Hertl puts the hurt on Canucks
Skilled Russian has to work harder, writes Ben Kuzma
This is what happens in a slow crawl to an early off-season.
You search for a good story and a better quote with the hope that it may mean more next fall than it did Sunday afternoon to move the interest meter. Nikolay Goldobin could have provided that with his infectious personality and a high risk-reward game against his former club at Rogers Arena.
What would he do? What would he say?
Alas, there would be no gold from the scratched Goldy. But there was a Jayson Megna sighting.
After missing five games to injury, the winger’s one-year, one-way contract extension for US$625,000 with the Vancouver Canucks was announced before puck drop and it could also have expansion draft exposure implications.
That will be a story in June, but roster deployment was the story on Sunday. More than the return of Jannik Hansen as the Sharks, who have lost seven of their last eight games, built an early, twogoal cushion before hanging on to claim a 3-1 NHL victory.
And more than goalie Ryan Miller, who has now appeared in more games (52) than he did last season (51).
If you’re confused about getting another look at the unknown quantity that is the speedy and unpredictable 21-year-old Goldobin, as opposed to a known quantity in the 27-year-old Megna, who has four goals in 54 games, you’re not in the minority.
However, if part of all this is the understanding that a complete game gets you in the lineup, especially against the bigger and swifter Sharks, and anything less than that gets you a seat in the press box, then you know what Willie Desjardins is all about.
If the Canucks’ coach is indeed on his way out, he’s going to do it his way. He’s going to try to win with structure and perhaps convince a future employer that he will never waver in his belief for what’s best for the greater good of any club.
“I’m not sending a huge message,” Desjardins said of Goldobin. “He’s a skilled player and you’ve got to get your skill working hard. I didn’t think he worked hard enough last game and he’ll be back in (Tuesday in San Jose). He needs to prove that he can go hard at this level, but he’s got to go hard.
“It’s a two-way street. It’s not that I don’t play young guys like (Brock) Boeser. If they come in and they’re going, they play. We just have to get him (Goldobin) more engaged.”
The Canucks can’t score — Sven Baertschi got a late gift goal on a Martin Jones bobble — and playing Goldobin on the third line Sunday, moving Megna to the fourth unit, and giving Alex Biega a break as a converted defenceman, wouldn’t have been the worst move.
Would Goldobin have made a difference Sunday against a playoff-bound club that’s still within striking range of the Pacific Division lead? Maybe? Maybe not? But how will we know?
What we did know was that, when the spirit moves the Sharks, they’re a load. They lost Joe Thornton to a first-period leg injury on a sideboards collision, but once they got a pair of first-period goals by Tomas Hertl, they were going to worry more about shutting the Canucks down than adding to the total.
You could have counted good scoring chances on one hand before the Canucks finally pressed late. And all the Boeser excitement and Griffen Molino curiosity was tempered by the fact that they have much to learn at this level, but there is still a compete level.
Then again, the Canucks could have at least played to Boeser’s strength, especially on the power play. How many times have we seen the winger poised at the faceoff dot waiting for a onetimer? There’s video evidence from his time at the University of North Dakota, where he wired those cross-ice feeds in the top corner of the net. You’d think somebody would have noticed.
How many times has Alex Edler tried to put pucks through a maze of legs from the point, with Boeser ready to pull that cross-ice-feed trigger?
The answer is too many.