The Vancouver Canucks managed to come away with two points in a thrilling battle against the Vegas Golden Knights. Here’s what we learned.
Just one week ago, the Vegas Golden Knights were a point ahead of the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference standings, barely hanging onto the second wild card spot.
Fast forward seven days, and the Golden Knights were now seven points up on the Canucks heading into Thursday night’s tilt — sitting second in the Pacific Division while Vancouver was stuck on the outside looking in.
Coming off of a three-game losing skid, and an overwhelming amount of criticism from fans and media alike, Vancouver knew that moral victories were simply not going to be enough. They needed to find a way to grab two points, by any means necessary.
And that wouldn’t come easy against a Vegas team that was 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, and riding a three-game winning streak — which included a 6-3 walloping of the Canucks this past Sunday. It was a game that encapsulated the Vancouver”s recent nagging defensive struggles, as they were outshot 46-29 and thoroughly dominated overall.
Thursday night’s game, however, was slightly dissimilar. It was full of physical play, controversial reffing, and phenomenal goaltending — with a dash of overtime magic sprinkled on top. In the end, Canucks fans could go home somewhat content as their team pulled out the 5-4 victory in exciting fashion. Here are my three main takeaways.
Canucks come hot out of the gate
There is no doubt that Sunday night’s loss was still sitting fresh in the back of players’ minds. So it was great to see them start the game fast-paced and energetic. There was a sense of urgency and desperation oozing from the team, as losing a fourth-straight game and falling even farther out of the playoff picture would have been a major cause for concern.
The Canucks displayed a high compete-level in the first 10 minutes of the game, relentlessly hounding on pucks and playing noticeably aggressive on the forecheck, which directly lead to forward Antoine Roussel‘s fourth goal of the season 2:49 into the first period. The feisty mustache-less Frenchman banged in a loose puck that was sitting in the crease, after his linemate Adam Gaudette out-hustled a defender to the puck and threw it towards the net.
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Tanner Pearson scored just as a power play was expiring to make it 2-0 five minutes later, and all of a sudden the Canucks had scored the first two goals in a game for the first time since Dec. 7. Although this lead wouldn’t hold up — and the Canucks got generally outplayed in the first period — beginning the game strong was an important part of their play that had been lacking over these past tweo weeks. Starting off on the right foot in Thursday night’s game was crucial to their eventual win.