Canucks Army Postgame: Streak breakers

Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

Do you have a streak in need of breaking? Call your friendly neighbourhood Vancouver Canucks, they’ll take care of it for you.

The Montreal Canadiens rolled into Vancouver with an opportunity to set an NHL record with their 10th consecutive win to open the season. And the Canucks, like they did with Detroit’s home unbeaten streak back in 2011-12, snapped it thanks to a dominant first-period performance from their fourth line.

In addition to breaking Montreal’s streak, Vancouver broke their own home losing streak. It took them five tries, but the Canucks have finally got themselves into the win column on Rogers Arena ice.

The Canucks iced an interesting lineup on Tuesday night, particularly along the blue line. With Dan Hamhuis being made a late scratch with a lower-body injury that isn’t serious but required maintenance, Vancouver tried a new pairing with Ben Hutton playing on a secondary defensive pairing with Yannick Weber. 

The freshly minted Hutton-Weber pairing looked pretty good, moving the puck well and playing mostly steady defense in their own end. Through two periods they managed a 55 percent shot attempt differential, which is about as good as any non-Edler/Tanev Canucks pairing has performed in a game this season.

In the first period the Canucks received standout performances from both of their 19-year-olds. Virtanen was throwing his weight around well and finished the game with seven hits.  He did extraordinarily well to bat an errand pass out of the air and create a breakaway opportunity, but he just couldn’t corral the rolling puck. The physical young forward was also credited with his first career NHL point on a Derek Dorsett goal in the third period.

McCann meanwhile made a strong case for remaining in the NHL with his best game in the show. He scored two goals in the first period, the second of which was more impressive as he won an offensive zone faceoff, collected a pass in the slot from Brandon Prust, and quickly wired a hard wrist shot past the best goaltender alive. 

(Courtesy: NHL.com)

Vancouver’s other first-period goal was scored by none other than Luca Sbisa, with Bo Horvat doing a nice job screening the goaltender. That scoring opportunity was set up by some good work on a delayed penalty call by Sven Baertschi, who won several puck battles along the left-side half wall and set up Sbisa with an excellent feed.

Though the kids were in the thick of it in terms of the scoring, it was a very good night for the Sedin twins and Radim Vrbata as well. Vancouver’s top line didn’t find the back of the net at even strength, but Vrbata hit a post in the first period, Daniel had a dangerous tip-in on a second period chance and the line was extremely dangerous all evening long while handily controlling possession. 

Vancouver’s special teams were excellent on Tuesday night also, as they limited the Canadiens to one shot on two power-play opportunities. Vrbata also managed a power-play goal when he batted a puck out of the air to seal the win for Vancouver in the third period. The Canucks power play, dormant early in the year, has now cashed in a goal in three straight games and have tallied four during that stretch.

Dorsett added another tally on an exceptional individual effort in the third period to give Vancouver’s fourth line their third even-strength goal of the evening. 

The Canucks were outshot by the Canadiens through 40 minutes, recovered in the third period. There’s no question that  this may was their best team effort so far this season. The Sutter line has had better nights, and the Luca Sbisa-Matt Bartkowski pairing was a bit of an adventure at times, but a solid effort all around.

And, of course, Ryan Miller continued to be dominant. Miller has owned October, and was nigh unbeatable again on Tuesday – even outduelling Carey Price handily. His save on a Canadiens two-on-one in the first period was an absolute highlight:

Snapping the Canadiens’ record-setting win streak is a good way to cap a disappointing homestand. Though the Canucks only managed four points in five home games, they removed a good deal of that bitter taste with their solid outing on Tuesday.

The club will head out on a short road trip this weekend, and will face two hot offensive teams in the Arizona Coyotes and the Dallas Stars in a back-to-back set on Thursday and Friday.