The Warmup
With the playoffs out of sight and two away games remaining in the regular season, the Vancouver Canucks entered Thursday’s game against the Nashville Predators with little to play for.
Perhaps that influenced coach Travis Green’s decision to try something fans have been clamouring for all season—Jake Virtanen on the left wing of Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.
That, and other lineup notes—including Jacob Markstrom playing in his 60th game of the season and the newly-signed defenseman Brogan Rafferty making his NHL debut—were provided by Jeff Paterson on Twitter:
Rafferty lined up on Ben Hutton’s right-side, wearing Kevin Bieksa’s old #3:
1st Period
With the Predators in a dead-heat with the Winnipeg Jets for first place in the Central Division, one might have expected the home team to come out flying against the already-eliminated Canucks—but that’s not what happened.
Though they failed to earn any significant chances and gave up a Kyle Turris one-timer that narrowly missed the net, Vancouver controlled the majority of the play in the game’s opening minutes.
One might have also have predicted that Mikael would be the Granlund brother most likely to notch a goal in this game, but it was Markus who opened the scoring at 8:49 of the first period. After Wayne Simmonds was sent to the box for hooking Quinn Hughes and the top unit was unable to get anything going, Granlund came out with the second group.
Though the second unit immediately gave up a shorthanded breakaway to Viktor Arvidsson, Jacob Markstrom made a fine save—allowing Hughes to get a hold of the puck and get to work. After a couple failed attempts, Hughes facilitated a zone entry via a give-and-go with Granlund—and then took the puck down the boards, drawing three penalty killers with him. This left Granlund wide open in front to receive a perfect backhand dish from Hughes—and Granlund finished the play by sliding it past Pekka Rinne.
Hughes’ second assist in the NHL was arguably as nice as his first. And the calls for his placement of the top powerplay unit continued:
On his next shift, Hughes absorbed the biggest hit of his career thus far from Craig Smith, but the contact was clean—and there was no response from Luke Schenn or anyone else. Vancouver’s newest hype-god wasn’t about to let that stop him.
After another stint of uneventful play that took up most of the period’s latter half—aside from another crushing check from Filip Forsberg on Troy Stecher—the Canucks received another powerplay thanks to a Nashville too-many-men infraction with just over two minutes remaining.
The top unit again failed to get anything done, and Quinn Hughes again led the second group onto the ice. After skating the puck out of the zone past a chasing Forsberg, Hughes ended up with it at the point and fired a shot that didn’t make it through. It did, however, land on the stick of Tanner Pearson, who ripped it off the bar—and then off Rinne’s back—and into the net for his 18th of the season and eighth as a Canuck.
It was Hughes’ third assist in his fourth career game and his second primary powerplay point of the period. The Canucks were ahead 2-0 with just seconds remaining in the period, and that’s where they stood heading into the intermission.
Intermission Highlight
Watching the Quinn Hughes hype reach Chernobyl-esque levels:
2nd Period
The middle frame opened with one hell of a controversy. Less than a minute in, Colton Sissons wired a shot that slowly trickled through Jacob Markstrom and into the net—but after the whistle had blown. However, the War Room in Toronto ruled that—due to an obscure rule—the puck was in “continuous motion,” and thus the whistle was overturned and a goal was awarded.
It’s really impressive that the league is finding such innovative ways to screw the Canucks this late in the season. (Foreshadowing Alert!)
The Canucks failed to get a shot in the first six minutes of the period, and then things got worse when Quinn Hughes took the first penalty of his NHL career—a hooking infraction against Mikael Granlund. Fortunately, Hughes’ teammates were able to pay him back for all those assists by killing the penalty.
Upon returning to the ice, Hughes was high-sticked—Craig Smith again—but no call was made.
Later that shift, Dan Hamhuis nearly tied it up—but Markstrom was able to stop his shot from in close. Elias Pettersson took a holding penalty against Viktor Arvidsson on the play, giving the Predators their second powerplay of the period—but again the penalty killers proved equal to the task. The PK didn’t give up a single shot against—though they did nearly give up a garbage goal and several subsequent chances after Pettersson’s minor expired.
Despite the success on the penalty kill, the Canucks had yet to earn a shot on net with six minutes remaining in the period—while the Predators had 11. Brock Boeser finally broke the goose egg with 5:49 remaining—and he also rang one off the post earlier in the same shift.
Boeser continued to drive the offense and increase those shot totals in the final minutes of the frame, but was unable to increase the Canucks’ lead. The last two minutes were particularly physical, with Stecher heading off the ice in pain—only to return next shift—and Josh Leivo absorbing a questionable check from Austin Watson.
Intermission Highlight
The league cutting a video to explain the lengths they’ll go to screw the Canucks:
3rd Period
With the out-of-town scoreboard showing leads for Winnipeg and St. Louis, the Nashville Predators entered the third with a lot on the line:
For his part, Jacob Markstrom came out looking for a stronger start to the third period than the second, and he delivered—stoning Nick Bonino and then Roman Josi in the frame’s opening minutes.
In between those saves, Austin Watson tried to level Brogan Rafferty in the corner and found the rookie to be surprisingly solid—and also found himself flat on his ass.
Alex Edler made the questionable decision to tackle his own goaltender with no opposing players anywhere in the vicinity—but Markstrom was somehow able to make a sprawling glove save with his teammate still leg-locking him.
Up in the broadcaster’s booth, John Garrett busted out the rulebook to highlight the NHL’s hypocrisy, and John Shorthouse’s reply reminded fans why he’s the best in the business:
MVP Markstrom continued to hold the Canucks in the game, stopping another Viktor Arvidsson breakaway with his blocker.
Most of the rest of the period passed without further controversy—despite increasing urgency and pressure from the Predators—but not all of it! With 4:20 remaining in the period, Nick Bonino appeared to tie the game—but Travis Green challenged for goaltender interference. Upon further review, Watson dove into Markstrom of his own accord and directed the puck to Bonino with his hand—but somehow, the goal was still awarded after the refs conferenced with Toronto for several minutes.
#TeamTank celebrated on Twitter, but the rest of the #Canucks fanbase was less than impressed:
That makes two goals against Jacob Markstrom that probably shouldn’t have counted, and his tough night didn’t end there.
With less than 30 seconds remaining, Elias Pettersson turned the puck over and Ryan Johansen was able to bank the puck off Troy Stecher on an attempted pass and into the net for a late game-winning goal. The Canucks attempted to challenge for offsides, but it wasn’t particularly close.
Markstrom spent the last moments of a game he deserved to win watching from the bench as his teammates fruitlessly tried to tie it up.
The Wrap-Up
What more can be said about this one? If you’re on #TeamTank, you’ll be a happy camper tonight. But if you’re just the kind of fan who likes watching the team play, you’ll undoubtedly be furious about the NHL pulling a 2011 throwback and doing the Canucks dirty.
In the end, this was a relatively meaningless game—and there’s plenty to be happy about considering Quinn Hughes’ performance—but it’s hard not to have a sour taste about the team’s MVP getting robbed. Jacob Markstrom played one of his best games of the year, but he lost 3-2 because of two highly questionable calls and a bad bounce—and that just sucks.
Fancy Stats At A Glance
Gameflow from Canucks at Nashville April 4, 2019 (courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)
Heatmap from Canucks at Nashville April 4, 2019 (courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)
Top Performers
Quinn Hughes
Four games and three points—all of them assists and two of them on the powerplay. Hughes isn’t just collecting secondary points either—he’s driving the offense with his superior skating whenever he’s on the ice. He’s already the lifeblood of the second powerplay unit, and—like Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson before him—he’s somehow outperforming the seemingly impossible hype that preceded him.
Team USA has obviously taken note:
Jacob Markstrom
Markstrom played so well in this game that the league pretty much had to invent new rules to keep him from winning. Yet another MVP-level performance from the Canucks’ starting goaltender.
Tanner Pearson
Who could have guessed that both the Canucks and the Penguins would be relatively pleased with the results of the Erik Gudbranson trade? Pearson notched a goal and an assist in this one, and his goal was his eighth with the Canucks in just 18 games—putting him on pace for 36 over a full season.
Next Game
The Canucks have made it through Game 81 of the regular season, and that means that Sunday’s matinee matchup with the St. Louis Blues will be their last of the year. The start-time is 1:00PM PST and the game will be broadcast on Sportsnet Pacific.
