Canucks Army Postgame: When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Highlights

Quick Hits

• With tonight’s victory, the Canucks have all but ended any hope the Flyers might have been able to pretend they had of making the playoffs. Going into tonight’s contest, they were sitting at 0.1% chance of making the dance. Vancouver, on the other hand, is sitting pretty at a nearly 90% clip – this, before tonight’s victory. 
• Chris Tanev had a remarkably strong night. His presence was Gandalf vs. Balrog-esque at the blue line, letting none pass with anything even resembling a clean entry. The sturdy defender also posted a strong night where territorial play is concerned, leaving well in the black where Corsi For% is concerned. 
• Eddie Lack had another stellar performance tonight, shutting out all but one of the Flyers chances tonight. It’s just another in a lengthy stretch of great games for Lack, who has an even-strength Sv% of 92.58% since taking over for Ryan Miller on Feb. 22nd. It looks even better when you look at his adjusted Sv%, which is 93.93%. Can I be that guy and utter those infamous words: goalie controversy? Well, likely not, if for no other reason than it’s a terrible look for everyone involved to have a goalie lose his job to injury.
• [Editor’s note: JD had to run at this point, so the rest of this postgamer is by Rhys. Direct all relevant complaints towards him.]
• Three of the Canucks four forward lines won the even-strength shot attempt battle tonight, led by yet another incredibly strong night from the “fourth” line. Still, Vancouver lost the overall shot attempt battle by a very narrow margin. How? Well, the Higgins-Richardson-Dorsett line was absolutely drilled.
• It’s not like they were tasked with shutting down Claude Giroux either. Dorsett played the majority of his team-high 13.4 even strength minutes against either Chris VandeVelde’s line or Nick Cousins’ line and lost those matchups handily.
• Dorsett’s been a weird case this season. In years prior, he was a super-premium 4th liner with sparkling underlying numbers relative to his role. He took tough deployments and managed to break even playing in a roster spot that’s usually occupied by guys who just can’t do that. His points are still there but he’s being crushed defensively. Maybe being The Ultimate Warrior all year has worn him down to the point where a spell in the pressbox would restore some of his effectiveness. After all, it would be a mistake to take Ronalds Kenins out of the lineup to make room for him right now.

Conclusion