Canucks Shut Out in Pittsburgh, but Hold Crosby to Single Point

The Vancouver Canucks had to face the Stanley Cup champs without Bo Horvat or Brandon Sutter. It went about as well as you would expect.

It’s fair to say the Canucks were always going to be the underdog in this game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are defending Stanley Cup champions, and sit near to top of league standings. Vancouver, meanwhile, is near the bottom. With Sidney Crosby having another excellent season, and Evgeni Malkin returning from injury, the Pens already had an advantage down the middle.

Still, before the puck dropped the Canucks’ situation became just a little bit worse:

Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter were both unable to play due to injury. Without those two key players, Vancouver scrambled to put together their lineup. Brendan Gaunce was recalled from the Utica Comets. Jayson Megna was moved to center. And Alex Biega was forced to play as a forward.

Though the reinforcements played as well as they could, in the end they were overpowered by a healthy Pittsburgh team:

Final Score:

Recap:

Tonight marked another milestone for the twins, as Daniel Sedin played his 1200th NHL game:

Congratulations, Daniel!

Sidney Crosby was also on milestone watch. He entered this game with 998 career points. With Sid held pointless in his last two games, everyone in the league was growing anxious to start Crosby’s 1000-point party.

But Ryan Miller denied them their wish:

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/831663951217725440

The Pens outshot Vancouver 15-9 in the first period, and 42-29 overall. With Miller on top of his game, it took 16 of those shots for Malkin to finally get one past him:

Miller allowed only the one goal on 25 shots in the first 40 minutes, giving his team a chance to pull even in the third.

However, just over two minutes into the final period, Crosby got on the board.

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Jake Guentzel cashed in on the give-and-go with Sid. Alexander Edler dove to block Guentzel’s pass, missed, and couldn’t do anything about the return feed. The Penguins rookie had an easy tap-in for his sixth goal.

It gave Crosby 999 points, and the arena start buzzing. Chants of “Sid!” and “Let’s go Crosby!” cropped up for the rest of the third.

The cheers got a bit louder when Malkin and Phil Kessel entered Vancouver’s zone on a two-on-one. Chris Tanev was forced to play monkey-in-the-middle, trying (unsuccessfully) to knock the puck away from Malkin. Luca Sbisa, meanwhile, was no help at all.

Matt Cullen made it 4-0 with two minutes left. Crosby got one more chance in the final minute of the game, but finished the evening with just one point.

Sid will have to score number 1000 on some other team.

Next: Gaunce Plays Well in Relief of Horvat

Even without a milestone point for Crosby, the Pens gave the Canucks far more than they could handle. Vancouver falls to 2-3 on this road trip, which finishes Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues.