The Vancouver Canucks closed out the home portion of their schedule with a 3-2 shootout win over the Calgary Flames.
The Vancouver Canucks finished up the home portion of their schedule by downing the Calgary Flames 3-2 in a shootout on Saturday night. The Canucks got off to the start they were looking for, but a desperate Calgary team refused to go quietly and pushed back to force overtime. The three-on-three session was spectacular, but ultimately did not produce a winner leaving the game to be settled in a skills competition. Some thoughts and observations from the final night of hockey at Rogers Arena for this season:
- Thatcher Demko made a late season push for save of the year in the National Hockey League when he absolutely robbed Flames centre Elias Lindholm in the second period. The Canucks were up 2-0 and working on the power play when the Flames broke out two on one with Blake Coleman carrying the puck into the offensive zone. With Quinn Hughes back as the lone defender, Coleman slipped the puck to his right to Lindholm who wired a quick shot that looked labelled for the back the of the net. But Thatcher Demko read the play perfectly and stretched out with his catcher and snared the puck on his short side. It was as spectacular a save as Demko has made all season. On the night, Demko stopped 41 of 43 Flames shots during the run of play and all three Calgary shootout attempts. He made a number of key saves on Saturday night, but none better than the one off Lindholm.
- JT Miller didn't figure prominently in the scoring on Saturday, but he had a monster game for the Canucks. Miller collected an assist on Elias Pettersson's short-handed goal that put the Canucks up 2-0 midway through the first period. But it was Miller's play in a number of other facets that stood out on the night. Most notably, the veteran forward went 20 & 5 in the face-off circle accounting for 20 of the team's 32 victories on the draw throughout the hockey game. Miller won 10 of 14 face-offs head to head with Elias Lindholm and schooled Nazim Kadri winning seven of eight head to head match-ups. Most importantly though, with questions still being asked about Miller's ability to be the number two centre on the hockey club next season (and beyond), he won all 10 of the face-offs he took in the defensive zone on Saturday including all six while the Canucks were short-handed. In addition to his face-off mastery of the Flames, Miller had four shots on goal and a team-high six hits and carried an individual Corsi of 60% at even-strength while the Canucks outshot the Flames 10-7.
- The last time the Canucks faced the Flames Aidan McDonough scored his first NHL while Cole McWard hadn't even signed with the hockey club. That was just eight days ago. Life moves quickly in professional hockey. On Saturday, McWard became the 30th player this season score a goal for the Canucks when he opened the scoring with a seeing-eye wrist shot from the right point. With Jack Studnicka doing a nice job of screening Jacob Markstom, McWard let a shot go that found its way through traffic which sparked a solid celebration from the rookie rearguard. Goals from defensemen have been a scarce commodity for the Canucks this season. They are last in the NHL with 22 now which puts them three back of the Toronto Maple Leafs. By comparison, Carolina leads the league with 53 goals from blue liners followed by Florida with 52.
- The Canucks offense appears to have hit a wall in the late stages of this lost season. While the team opened its five game homestand with four goals against the Flames on March 31st, the Canucks managed just eight goals over the final four games of the homestand -- and one of those was JT Miller's empty netter on Thursday against Chicago. Despite opening the scoring in all five games to close out the home portion of their season schedule, the Canucks had trouble building on those leads. They scored once against Los Angeles last Sunday and twice in the run of play against Seattle, Chicago and on Saturday versus the Flames. Elias Pettersson accounted for three of the 12 goals scored over the past five games while Anthony Beauvillier had a pair. Otherwise seven different players tallied single goals over the past five games. A big part of the offensive challenge has been a power play that went 0 for 3 against Calgary on Saturday and just 2 for 17 (11.8%) over the past five outings.
- The Canucks announced their season ending individual awards on Saturday night. As predicted in this space earlier in the week, there were no surprises in terms of who walked away with the hardware. Elias Pettersson was rightfully the Canucks MVP (he reached the 99 point mark with his goal on Saturday) while Quinn Hughes was the only option as the team's Top Defenseman. Andrei Kuzmenko was benched for much of the third period but showed some of the skill and flair in the shootout that made him the fans choice for Most Exciting Player. Big winger Dakota Joshua who had a breakout season in his first full campaign in the NHL was handed the Unsung Hero Award. And while it has been a tough campaign in terms of his goal totals, Brock Boeser was named the recipient of the Daniel and Henrik Sedin Award for Community Leadership. According to a club press release, 'Boeser has been an integral part of the community for a number of seasons thanks to his efforts to help raise funds for the Canucks for Kids Fund. Boeser's contributions to the community include his donations and the purchasing of tickets for children fighting illness or injury through the Boeser's Beauties program, launched in 2019. He also continues to contribute to Parkinson Society BC and Parkinson's Foundation Minnesota through his Pucks for Parkinson's program, where he donates $1,000 for every goal he scores, in honour of his late father, Duke.'