Canucks Postgame: La Belle Collapse

When these two teams last faced off, the Habs were off to the third best start in NHL history. Ryan Miller and the Canucks ended their good vibes, so you knew that they’d be out for blood this time. Jacob Markstrom, by virtue of being less exhausted and more talented, donned the masked for tonight’s grudge match. Let’s just say it didn’t go the same way.

The Canucks opened up the scoring in rather surprising fashion. A wide slapshot by Matt Bartkowski turned into a cluster in front of the net, and Adam Cracknell was able to see it through to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead just a minute and a half into the game. The two teams traded penalties throughout the period, but it was a call against Brendan Gallagher that really opened up the game. The little ball of hate high-sticked Daniel Sedin, who looked incredibly worse for wear but returned to the ice a minute after getting all the blood off of his face and jersey.

Jared McCann took advantage of the double minor, finishing a feed from Henrik at the midway mark The Canucks contested that the puck crossed the line during the first penalty, but the refs felt otherwise and brought the game back to even strength. 

That didn’t stop Vancouver from grabbing another powerplay goal. Early into the second period, Alex Galchenyuk went to the box for a late hit on Jake Virtanen, and six seconds after, Daniel scored his sixth of the season, firing a slapshot into the padding of the net so quickly that nobody realized it was in for a few seconds. Things were looking good for the Canucks at this point.

But the Habs pushed back and pushed back hard. Lars Eller took advantage of the disorganization of the Canucks’ PP unit and grabbed a shorthanded goal. Minutes later, Max Pacioretty created some controversy by hooking Chris Tanev and scoring a goal in the same shift.

Late in the third period, the Habs continued to push. Eventually, Tomas Fleischmann found a way to escape Vancouver’s shutdown efforts in order to score the equalizer, setting things up for overtime. Desjardins opted to mostly go for a forward and two defensemen throughout, trying to survive until a shootout, but David Desharnais wrapped up an odd man rush with a blistering snipe to complete Montreal’s comeback. Within 27 minutes, the Canucks went from up 3-0 to picking up another loser point.

Sit back, they said. Let the play come to you and shut it down once it does, they said. Three goals is plenty, they said. Playing for the shootout while in overtime is fine, they said.

The Canucks lost control of this game fast and flatlined when the Habs were putting on their strongest pressure. It’s not a good look at all.

He struggled a bit on the possession end (most of the team did, really), but you have to go to Daniel. He came back from a serious looking incident almost immediately, and eventually scored this beauty that stumped everybody in the arena:

Just a good all around play by young McCann here. Helps his unit get set up, curls around behind the net to free up space, shows up just in time to get Henrik’s pass, and easily beats Mike Condon.

Rookie mistake here by young Ben Hutton, who goes for the hip check on Tomas Fleischmann and misses completely. As such, he’s able to break in and fire the game-tying goal past Jacob Markstrom.

The Canucks are probably sick and tired of Eastern Standard Time, so thankfully, they’re starting to make their way home. The last game of the road trip is on Wednesday night, in Winnipeg. Puck drop is still at 4:30, for some reason; I’m going to assume that Mark Chipman has somewhere he needs to be.