Sports

Vancouver Canucks Straight Up: Thunderous end to seven-game winning streak

by Nathan Caddell on January 7th, 2020 at 9:34 PM
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      Two seven-game winning streaks. Something had to give. At least that was the narrative following the Vancouver Canucks into Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay.

      And it wasn’t looking like a terrible one after 20 minutes. The Canucks had been outplayed, sure, but they emerged from the first period up 1-0 thanks to Brock Boeser forcing a turnover that Elias Pettersson expertly capitalized on.

      The rest of the game? Well, aside from Loui Eriksson scoring (seriously), it was not pretty.

      The Canucks defence was routinely pinned in their own zone while Tampa Bay quickly and smartly moved pucks and forced turnovers.

      In the end, the scoresheet will read Tampa Bay 9 Vancouver 2. And it felt like that, too. Here’s what we saw from tonight’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

      Feel-good moment of the night

      As we detailed, there weren’t many for the Canucks, but it was unquestionably the first goal of the night, which Pettersson easily converted. We’re not sure what was better, the sophomore calmly putting the puck past Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevski, or him checking to make sure _____ was alright after saucering a puck off his face.

      What a kid.

      “Who is that” moment of the night

      24-year-old rookie Carter Verhaeghe scored his first NHL hat trick, as even Tampa’s bottom six was able to have its way with the Canucks. With the three tonight, he’s now up to five in 29 games. 

      “Who is that” moment of the night II

      Another unheralded Lightning forward also played like a household name, as Mitchell Stephens (who?) was all over the ice tonight. He registered an assist and had a goal taken back (only because Verhaeghe had actually scored moments earlier).

      Question of the night

      Does this loss get Jordie Benn back in the lineup?

      The Canucks blueline as a whole was absolutely dreadful on the night. But Benn has been, by the underlying numbers (and the eye-test ain’t saying much different) the worst rearguard on the team

      We know coach Travis Green is averse to making lineup changes when the team wins (as are most bench bosses). But will he now after one of the worst losses of the season?

      Oscar Fantenberg certainly was not very good tonight. He had a decent defensive play early in the night but was routinely turnstiled and had a minus-10 Relative Corsi on a night when only one Canuck (Troy Stecher) had a positive Corsi percentage.

      It’ll be interesting to see if Green opts to get Benn back in the lineup. We have a hunch he will.

      Outlier of the night

      Speaking of Relative Corsi, Elias Pettersson posted the team’s second-worst mark in the metric (ahead of only Tyler Myers’s dismal minus-15), registering a minus-12.1. Petey obviously wasn’t the team’s worst forward on the night, and it’s easy to call Corsi a flawed stat (it is—so are most of them). But Pettersson is rarely, if ever, on the negative side of underlying stats.

      Weirdest sentences of the night

      Loui Eriksson was quite good tonight. He’s actually been pretty good for a few games in a row now. 

      Snipe of the night

      Just in case you weren’t sure, Steven Stamkos can still shoot the puck really well.

      Question of the night II

      Who starts Thursday night in Florida?

      Does Green go right back to Markstrom after a tough night in which he was eventually replaced by Thatcher Demko?

      Green was probably saving Demko until the Canucks play back-to-back in Buffalo and then Minnesota this weekend. So we wouldn’t be surprised to see Markstrom right back out there against his old team.

      Penalty drawer of the night

      The Vancouver Canucks are second in the league in terms of powerplay opportunities, and Elias Pettersson is a major part of that. The forward drew another one tonight and currently sits in fourth in terms of individual penalties drawn. That’s impressive.

      But he was surpassed tonight by another star, Nikita Kucherov. The game was still at hand when Kucherov drew both of his calls tonight.

      The first was an admittedly light hooking call on Bo Horvat

      The refs would later get Alex Edler on the same infraction against Kucherov later in the game.

      Return of the night

      J.T. Miller had a great chance off a beautiful pass from Pettersson, but couldn’t convert.

      Other than that, he had something of a quiet night.

      But where would the Canucks be right now without J.T. Miller? Almost certainly not in a playoff spot. Just over halfway through the season, it’s hard to dispute Tampa Bay coach John Cooper’s assessment on the deal that sent Miller from Tampa to Vancouver.

      “Probably one of those trades that was a win-win for both,” Cooper told Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre.

      The Canucks very well could not make the playoffs and end up giving up an unprotected pick in 2021. And say injuries hit and the team has a terrible season. That would be disastrous. But you have to think about what’s the most likely thing to happen. And with J.T. Miller providing tremendous value against the cap on the Canucks’ first line, he could be a pillar in the team’s top six for years to come.

      Or, you know, the Lightning could land a steal in the draft either this year or next and make everyone feel a whole lot different about the deal.

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