Offence comes to life in Canucks 5-1 win over Arizona Coyotes

What happened and thoughts on the game

As said in my last article, the Canucks defence needed to step up in the next few games with Hughes out but that is a tough ask.

Unfortunately, the Coyotes were breezing by the Canucks defence and invading the Vancouver zone like the coyotes taking over Stanley Park. Looks like that is going to be life without Hughes.

The Canucks were giving up a lot of rushes and the Coyotes forwards were easily getting by the defenders. The Canucks gave up six high danger chances in the first period alone. On the night, they gave up 13. Against Arizona, that isn’t a good look.

Fortunately, Thatcher Demko was there to save the day. Fresh off the All-Star Game, Demko didn’t let the Las Vegas hangover get to him. Like he has done all season, he was making the big saves, especially with the blocker and pads. Demko made 35 saves and Lawson Crouse was the only Coyote to beat him.

Demko made two brilliant saves off Riley Nash and stopped Clayton Kellar on a partial breakaway. No wonder he is an All-Star.

The lack of offence has plagued the Canucks and they really needed to get going especially guys like Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Garland. Well, the offence and the power play woke up and after a sluggish first period, the Canucks looked much better in the second.

Garland got it started with a snipe past Karel Vejmelka after a nice pass from Juulsen. Garland has struggled offensively recently and that was his first point in seven games. It must have felt sweet for him to end the drought against his old team.

Bo Horvat also needs to step up the offence and he got a goal on the power play which he deflected Ekman-Larsson’s point shot off his knee. Ekman-Larsson is a lot better on the top of the blue line rather than on the side. That was also his second of three assists against his former team. It would be great to see OEL unlock more offence with Hughes out.

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1491264272378515456

Pettersson was reunited with Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Höglander and I think should be kept together. Pettersson was also moved back to centre after playing the wing for a couple of games. He is much better at centre. Pettersson looked more involved playing down the middle and looks more creative and that is where he is at his best.

Pettersson also got back on the scoresheet after receiving a slick pass from Podkolzin on the rush.

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1491264672590594050

Pettersson has eight points, including six goals, in his last ten games in case you are wondering.

The fourth goal was just insane stuff from J.T. Miller. This has to be a contender for goal of the year. In fact, this is Miller’s second highlight-reel goal of the season as he scored a similar one against the Ottawa Senators on December 1.

Here he starts from behind Demko’s net and just goes coast-to-coast. I guess that skyrockets his trade value.

Expect to be on the highlight reels over the next few days. What a goal.

Boeser also got on the scoresheet on the power play. There was some great puck movement and passing on the man advantage and it went two-for-two on the night. Pettersson makes a great pass (at first glance, it looked like a shot.) to Boeser who tips it home.

Boeser was second on the Canucks in Corsi For with 58.33% according to NaturalStatTrick.

The first period could have been better and the Canucks defence still let the Coyotes get good chances but it was great to see production defencemen such as Ekman-Larsson and Juulsen as well as Garland, Boeser and Pettersson score. Sure, the Coyotes are a bad team but they were getting good looks offensively and looked dangerous on the rush.

What was said

Bruce Boudreau was happy that the Canucks top-six players led the offence.

“If your best players aren’t your best players you rarely win,” said Boudreau. “Tonight they did their job and stepped up when they had to.”

He also praised the defence and Demko.

“I thought all the defence stepped up,” said Boudreau. “OEL had three points, (Tyler) Myers played 26 minutes. The forwards have to help them a little bit more but the defence as a whole was good tonight. The goaltending as usual, was out of this world.”

Ekman-Larsson spoke about facing his former team.

“It was tough, to be honest with you,” said Ekman-Larsson. ” A lot of emotions. Just seeing the guys on the other side. I thought it was going to be easier.”

Miller joked about his end-to-end goal with the media.

“It’s a much better story if I turn that over and they go down and score, right, for you guys? “said Miller per Daniel Wagner of Vancouver is Awesome.

Advanced stat of the night

Juulsen played his best game as a Canuck notching two assists. He also led the Canucks in expected goals percentage with 59.28%.

Tweet of the night

That is not Canucks Army’s David Quadrelli (and former Canuck Way site expert.) waving to the camera but it kind of looks like him.

Other notes

• With his two points, Miller has surpassed the 400 point mark in his career.
• This has to be one of the worst penalty calls I have ever seen. Tyler Motte gets his stick chopped out of his hands and it goes flying and hits Jakob Chychrun in the face. For whatever reason, Motte is the one who gets a high-sticking penalty.

• With Tuesday’s win, the Canucks have 48 points and are four points back of the Calgary Flames for the final wild card spot and seven points behind the Anaheim Ducks for third in the Pacific Division.

The Canucks get right back at it on Wednesday night as the New York Islanders come to town. Puck drop is at 7:30 PM.