Balanced lineup boon to Canucks
Team able to generate scoring chances from a couple of different places
In the wake of a Christmas miracle for Vancouver Canucks’ fans on Sunday, here’s something else that reflects the best of the holiday season: the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
Hard to know what to make of the Canucks’ 6-1 win in St. Louis. On the one hand, it was a welcome tonic for a team that endured a ton of misfortune through the month of November.
On the other hand, unless they can figure out a way to score five goals on their first 15 shots every game that rate of production isn’t sustainable.
But we will say this.
For the first time since Ryan Kesler blew town, the Canucks have the look of a balanced lineup that can generate scoring from a couple of different places. It won’t be every night when everything they throw at the net goes in. But when you’ve got a dynamic pair in Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser driving the offence, a second line built around Bo Horvat and depth scoring from Josh Leivo, Nikolay Goldobin and Jake Virtanen, you’ve got a chance to be dangerous every night.
That seems to be the one thing you can say about this Canucks’ team. They have a chance and they’ll have a better chance when Sven Baertschi and Brandon Sutter return to the lineup. You’d just like to see that lineup have some meaningful playing time together to see if that chance is realistic.
This one will be worth tracking as the season unfolds. After his five-point outing against the Blues, Pettersson is in position to challenge Pavel Bure’s record for goals and points by a Canucks’ rookie. Pettersson is on pace for 32 goals and 64 points. Bure had 34 goals and 60 points in 65 games back in 1991-92, which doesn’t seem that long ago.
Except, of course, it is.
Been trying to figure out the player Bo Horvat is most reminiscent of and it came in a flash on Sunday.
Rod Brind’Amour.
With a minute left in Sunday’s game, Baltimore had a chance to go 8-5 and become the team no one wants to face in the playoffs. Then they let Patrick Mahomes get out of the pocket and make a play on fourth and nine.
The Ravens might still be that team but, following the overtime loss to Kansas City, it will be a tougher climb to the playoffs from 7-6. As for the team no one wants to face, the Dallas Cowboys have now won five straight, including two victories over the defending Super Bowl champions from Philly and another one over New Orleans. They’ve been a different team with Amari Cooper in the lineup.
Let’s see if we’ve got this straight. The Flames’ Mark Giordano is suspended two games for kneeing Mikko Koivu, a play that resulted in a minor penalty for tripping on Thursday night.
Ryan Reaves, meanwhile, gets nothing for a late, blindside hit on Tom Wilson that earned him a major and game misconnection and left the Washington Capitals forward concussed and out of the lineup for three games and counting. Wilson, who’s been suspended four times over the last 105 games also escaped supplementary discipline for a similar hit on the Devils’ Brett Seney, which resulted in a match penalty.
We’ll spare you the usual screed about the comically inconsistent department of player safety. But the NHL has never adequately formed a definition for late, blindside hits and they are among the most dangerous in the game. Might be an idea to look into that.
And finally, one of the fascinating things about this B.C. Lions’ season was watching the relationship between Ed Hervey and Wally Buono evolve. Hervey is a complex man, tough and insightful but also highly sensitive and given to mistrust.
During the season, he had a couple of run-ins with members of the media over, essentially, nothing and maybe that isn’t important. But in the forthcoming years, the Lions GM is going to succeed Buono as one of the faces of the CFL and presenting a positive image is important.
The old coach talked to Hervey about this during the season, told him sometimes a question is just a question and there’s nothing sinister behind it. The impact those conversations had says a lot about both men.
“He’s allowed me to become more comfortable in myself and recognize not everyone is out to get to you,” Hervey said. “I’m high strung. I feel that anyone who comes in, asking too many questions has an agenda. He’s shown me there isn’t always an agenda. It allowed me to calm down and be more comfortable in the job.
“We all learn something from someone and I think, no I know, I’ve learned a lifetime worth of experience that’s going to allow me to be a better GM and person. I’m going to be a more relaxed person when it comes to the highs and lows of the game. I want to make sure I’m more understood.”
Hervey said there was a great deal of mutual respect between the two men at the start of the season, but something else developed by the end of their year together.
“We built a mutual friendship we didn’t have before. I think we both walk away from this as friends.”
We all learn something from someone and I think, no I know, I’ve learned a lifetime worth of experience that’s going to allow me to be a better GM.