Canucks: Defeating Markstrom should boost team confidence
After four meetings against their former goalie, the Vancouver Canucks finally got the monkey off their back on Saturday night when they defeated Jacob Markstrom and the Calgary Flames 3-1.
The much-needed victory came on home ice with an excellent all-around team effort from the top of the lineup, all the way down to the bottom. From Elias Pettersson to Tyler Myers, each Canuck came out swinging, and it paid off with two big points and the snapping of a six-game losing streak.
“We had a lot of buy-in from our whole group tonight,” Travis Green said in a post-game interview. “I thought the last game against Calgary we had a pretty good effort again, and tonight was another good one and we got the results.”
Green liked a lot of different things from his team in the victory. They got a ton of scoring chances, they had the majority of possession from first puck drop to the final horn. It was a hard-fought battle at every area of the ice.
“We played hard tonight, we played fast. It wasn’t just offensively. I thought we really committed to both sides of the puck.”
The win comes just hours after Canucks fans demanded answers from ownership. The Canucks owner, Francesco Aquilini, went to Twitter to address the concerns, but he doubled down on his coaching staff, management group and players with full confidence in the ability to turn this season around (read about it here).
For Vancouver, the Canucks should feel a big boost in confidence. They know how good Markstrom can be, and they found a way to beat him when he was playing his best. Relentless pressure on the puck paid off and led to the team’s first win in the month of February.
Hopefully, Vancouver can find a way to feel the positive momentum going. The Canucks are set to battle the Flames two more times before moving on against the Winnipeg Jets. A string of wins would go a long way inside the Scotiabank North division.
Find the Canucks on the ice against the Flames at 7 p.m. Monday night. Turn to The Canuck Way to read all about it!