Markstrom stands taller than ever in Canucks’ win over Hurricanes

Markstrom dialled in

Jacob Markstrom looked like one of the best goaltenders in the league early in the season. He was quickly making a habit of bailing the Canucks out and stealing games for his team. All that changed in November, however, when Markstrom managed to win just three of his nine starts.

To be fair, the Canucks as a whole had a brutal month of November, and many of those losses weren’t the fault of Markstrom — but he definitely wasn’t playing at the level that the Canucks were used to seeing from him.

Markstrom faced some serious adversity with the tragic loss of his father to cancer, but being the competitor he is, all Markstrom wanted to do was play once he returned to the Canucks.

There was no goaltender in the NHL who played as well as Markstrom did last night.

The Canucks looked like they were eager to see just how many times their goaltender could bail them out, because they continued to turn the puck over and failed to keep possession of the puck for most of the night.

Although the team in front of him turned in one of their weakest performances of the season, this was certainly Markstrom’s strongest game of the season. In fact, it may have been the strongest performance of Markstrom’s entire career.

The Canucks can’t play like this night in and night out, but the goaltender is a part of the team, and when a goaltender turns in a performance like Markstrom’s last night, teams tend to rally off that. I fully expect the Canucks to come out firing when they face the San Jose Sharks tomorrow.

Pettersson’s backhand, Boeser’s hustle

Aside from Markstrom, the highlight of the night was certainly Elias Pettersson‘s sweet backhand to win it in overtime. This was a goal where Brock Boeser showed an insane amount of will to outwork his opponent that the Canucks seemed to have been lacking for parts of the game.

Boeser not only keeps the play alive, but fights off two Hurricanes while he waits for Pettersson to make a mad dash from the Canucks’ bench. Boeser does a quick glance over his shoulder and sees Pettersson streaking to the net, and throws a backhand pass to where he knows Pettersson will be.

Had that stick not been there, Boeser’s pass may not have actually reached Pettersson in the first place; but the poise on Pettersson to take the puck off the errant stick and roof a backhand over Petr Mrazek’s shoulder in the blink of an eye was truly remarkable to watch.

The Canucks are a team that are dangerous in overtime, and they proved that once again with last night’s win.