Vancouver Canucks D Troy Stecher Ties Game Late, but Team Falls to Isles in OT

Reid Boucher and Sven Baertschi also scored for the Vancouver Canucks, but a subpar performance from Ryan Miller meant a victory for the Islanders.

It’s never easy being the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. After guiding the team back to the playoffs in 2014-15, Willie Desjardins has faced constant criticism for almost two years.

One of the biggest sore spots for fans during the futility of the last two seasons has been ice time. Specifically, the ice time of the youngest players. The team is building for the future, but fans want to see that future right now.

And so Willie D fields nonstop questions about why Bo Horvat is not playing enough, and why Jayson Megna is playing too much. Nikolay Goldobin has been a Canuck for all of 10 days, but Desjardins is already being criticized for how his ice time, too.

You may not realize it, but it looks a lot like the head coach is slowly coming around and giving fans what they wanted. Just look at Vancouver lineup from yesterday’s practice:

With practically zero acknowledgement from the fanbase, the coach has made Horvat the second-line center. He put Goldobin on his line, as well. Brendan Gaunce is getting a bigger role, and Reid Boucher is finding his way into the lineup more often than not.

It looked like fans were going to have their every wish come true for tonight’s lineup. But fate, it seemed, had other ideas:

Goldobin missed his chance with the flu. Still, Vancouver’s youth were on full display tonight versus the New York Islanders.

Final Score:

Recap:

John Tavares opened the scoring on a first period power play for New York.

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In the second period, Reid Boucher got the Canucks on the board. Boucher was the last-minute replacement for Goldobin on Horvat’s line — proving that Willie D is, in fact, giving the kids chances to play. Horvat fed Boucher right in front, who took two swipes to bury the puck.

Just over a minute after that, their other linemate Sven Baertschi picked Tavares’ pocket, and deked goaltender Thomas Greiss for an unassisted goal.

The Isles got those two goals back — courtesy of Anthony Beauvillier and Brock Nelson — giving themselves a 3-2 lead heading into the third. That lead stood until the final few seconds. With Ryan Miller on the bench, Troy Stecher‘s third goal of the year tied the game. Stecher also assisted on the first goal.

Overtime proved Vancouver’s downfall once again. After some good offensive chances, Ben Hutton was trapped on the ice for a 93-second shift. Dead on his feet, he could do nothing to prevent Calvin de Haan‘s pass to Andrew Ladd, who had a tap in for the winning goal.

So, despite all the criticisms, the Canucks coach gave the young players prominent minutes tonight.

Those young players were responsible for all the offense tonight. But those same young players were responsible for the overtime goal: Horvat, Baertschi and Hutton were on the ice when the Isles won the game.

By the same token though, their veteran goaltender also let the down at times tonight. After recent 30- and 40-save efforts, Ryan Miller was just ordinary tonight, allowing four goals on 22 shots.

The fans want to see the young players as much as possible, while the coach preaches caution and patience. Who is right?

Next: Baertschi Steals, Dangles, Scores on Greiss

Based on the Vancouver Canucks’ game tonight, both. The Canucks outshot the Islanders, and got three goals from players under the age of 25. Vancouver saw some exciting hockey, which has been missing for a lot of the past two seasons. Yet, the kids did commit some of the defensive errors the coach is always warning us about.

Youth is being served, even if it’s slower than we would like.