Canucks Army Postgame: Horvat’s first career hat-trick propels Canucks to 5-2 victory over Red Wings
4 years ago
Tonight’s game against the Red Wings was very much a mirror image of the performance the Canucks put up on Sunday afternoon against the Rangers. In New York, the Canucks shot out of the gate in the first period to the tune of three goals, but struggled to hold it together towards the end of the game, facing a barrage of shots and a couple of goals late in the third frame.
Tonight, the Canucks looked discombobulated against a very poor Red Wings squad for long stretches throughout the first two periods, struggling to clear the zone effectively and get set up Detroit’s end. The regression we expected to see on the penalty kill finally began to take form tonight, as the Canucks gave up two power play goals to the Wings in each of the first two periods, first on a 5-on-3 and later on a 4-on-3.
Luckily, the power play experienced some regression as well, in a positive sense. Right on cue, Bo Horvat generated his own pair of power play goals for the Canucks, setting the stage for a dominant third period performance for the visitors. The Canucks would come roaring back, scoring 5 unanswered goals, with Horvat potting the empty-netter to complete the first hat trick of his career.
Stats
Highlights
Game Notes
- It can be easily lost in a game where they managed 5 goals on 41 shots, but the Canucks really looked out of sorts for the first 2/3 of tonight’s game. While they managed to keep the shot share fairly even at even strength through the first two frames, they struggled to clear the zone for long stretches and couldn’t muster much of anything in the way of scoring chances. If not for the stellar play of Jacob Markstrom (and the help of a couple of goal posts), we could have seen a much different result.
- It really looked like it was going to be another one of those nights where the Canucks could put 100 shots on goal and still come away with nothing, but the power play had other plans. The decision to keep Hughes on PP1 finally paid off, as he potted an assist on each of Horvat’s first two goals. The Canucks have been lucky in a number of areas so far this season, but the man advantage has not been one of them. There’s been plenty of consternation regarding the Canucks’ power play through the first stretch of games this season, but the personnel is simply too strong for the PP% to remain as low as it was through the first 8 games of the season. Don’t be surprised if tonight marks the start of a run of success for the team’s first unit.
- I did not know Tim Schaller could shoot the puck like that.
- While the Boeser-Pettersson combo has had a quiet start to the season in terms of goal production, they’ve still done a great job of controlling play through nine games. Pettersson leads the team in points (along with J.T. Miller) and the Miller-Pettersson-Boeser line has been far and away the team’s best in terms of shot-share. Despite his ten points, Pettersson’s play has been the subject of criticism so far in some corners of the hockey media. I can’t stress this enough, but if 10 points in 9 games is not good enough, we may need to dial back expectations a little bit. Teams are keying in on the team’s top young players like never before and they’re still winning the shot and goal battle.
- The play of Micheal Ferland is beginning to be cause for concern. He’s 4th-last on the team in shot share with 42.6%, has just two points, and played under 10 minutes tonight for the second time in as many games. He may still be suffering some long-term effects from the illness that kept him out of the lineup for most of training camp, but needless to say he’s had an inauspicious start to his time in Vancouver.
- It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a player put the team on his back like Horvat did tonight. He was the team’s only consistent forward through the first two periods, and was on the ice for four of the team five goals in the third. The Horvat-Pearson combo was probably the team’s best early in the season, but Pearson was getting the headlines early on thanks to his ridiculous 11-shot performance in Edmonton. Pearson’s cooled off since scoring 4 points in 4 games to start the year, but Horvat has picked up the slack. He’s up to five goals now, which is tidy work for a player who was still looking for his first 6 games into the season. He earned every one of his goals tonight, and it’s nice to see the new captain get rewarded after some bad luck to start the year.
