Canucks comeback to win 3-2 in Overtime in final home game of the year

Thoughts on the game

Ok, onto the game thoughts.

The Kings were on a mission to start the game. But Spencer Martin was up for the task. As John Garret said on the broadcast shortly before puck drop, Martin has not looked nervous and has looked very calm and poised in goal in all the games he has played for the Canucks. Garret was right as Martin did not look nervous at all on Thursday night.

The Kings were firing all sorts of shots on Martin and got five high danger scoring chances in the first according to NaturalStatTrick.

There was a high sticking penalty from Tyler Myers as he got his stick in Quinton Byfield’s face. Before that, Myers coughed up the puck at the blue line. Pretty rough sequence for him.

There was also a silly too many men on the ice penalty. Too many men penalties really can make you feel silly indeed.

The Canucks did not have much going in terms of offence in the first period.

In the second, there wasn’t a whole lot either but there was some pressure near the end of the period. But the Kings got two on the board thanks to Gabriel Vilardi and Adrian Kempe.

Martin continued to make good saves including one which caused his stick to go flying.

Just like their second half of the season, the Canucks did not quit.

They came out by taking lots of shots on Cal Peterson. They got on the board on the power play with a nice tic-tac-toe play from Miller to Elias Pettersson to Quinn Hughes. With the second assist, Miller has 98 points on the season. He still has one more game to reach 100. Pettersson also has a new career high in points with 67 thanks to his assist. I would have said you were crazy if you told me Pettersson would get a new career high in points back in January.

The Canucks were breaking out of their own zone very quickly and moving the puck well. Martin stayed solid and they did get a good job of stopping the Kings’ zone entries. Vasily Podkolzin also got some good chances and he had a good game in which he displayed his hunger for the net.

The game was tied when Alex Chiasson buried his Hughes’ rebound past Peterson but not before Hughes made a nice spin move at the blue line. I see he is learning from Conor Garland.

In overtime, Martin continued to make his case for being the Canucks backup goalie next season. While the Canucks were letting the Kings get by them too easily, Martin made some incredible saves on Blake Lizotte and Andreas Athanasiou. He also got some puck luck as Kempe hit the post.

Boeser ended the game with 29.7 seconds in overtime after his first shot was blocked by Jordan Spence. That’s 23 goals on the year for Boeser.

It was a game where the Vancouver started sluggish and dull but they made it up with an exciting finish. It was a fitting final home game of the season for them. The Canucks were the Call the Ambulance but not for me meme in this game.

What was said

Bruce Boudreau spoke about the love he gets from the fans and the “Bruce There It Is” chants.

“I’m 67 years old and never experienced anything like this before,” said the Canucks head coach. “The people in Vancouver have been amazing. It’s pretty incredible.”

It would be a huge mistake if the they don’t bring him back. It sounds like he really wants to stay in Vancouver and enjoys the city.

Boeser talked about the team’s resilency.

“Shows what our team is capable of,” he said. ” It’s pretty amazing where we are right now compared to the beginning of the year and we take a lot of pride in that.”

Advanced stat of the night

Boeser was second on the Canucks in Corsi For behind Juho Lammikko with 70%. (Lammikko had 78.57%.)

Wrap up

Schenn thanked the fans for their support. After over a year without fans at Rogers Arena, it was good to have them in the building.

Martin was the receiver of the WWE Championship Belt. No surprise there.

There is one more rodeo for the Canucks. It is Friday in Edmonton against the Oilers. Puck drop is at 6:00 p.m.