CanucksArmy Post-Game: A Hellish Night
By J.D. Burke
6 years agoCanucks Lose 3-2 to the Devils in Jersey
The thought of a young New Jersey Devils team built on speed and skill is as foreign a concept as a sunny November day in Vancouver. It just doesn’t add up.
You look at the Devils leading scorers though, and they’re almost entirely of the young variety. Taylor Hall is hardly a grizzled vet, and he leads the team in scoring. Not far behind Hall in offensive output is Will Butcher, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt. Each, save for Bratt, had a hand in felling the Canucks.
It was Hall who started the party. The Devils recovered a loose puck behind the Canucks net, fed it to Hall who buried it from the side of the net. All Canucks defenceman Derrick Pouliot could do was watch, and reach for the puck in vain. Hall added another two assists by the end of the period and caught Brock Boeser with a thunderous, clean shoulder check to the chest; he was going tonight.
Daniel Sedin responded to knot the game at one, bouncing the puck off a Devils defender and past Cory Schneider. The game didn’t stay square at one for very long, though. Not even five minutes, actually.
Devils defenceman Will Butcher carried the puck through the neutral and then through the entire Canucks lineup before setting Brian Boyle up in front, who made no mistake, regaining the Devils lead. It was all the more special for Boyle, who’s battling a cancer diagnosis, to score this goal tonight, in the Hockey Fights Cancer night at the Prudential Centre.
Another five minutes later, Devils defenceman Damon Severson doubled the Devils lead burying the rebound of a Hall breakaway that beat Jacob Markstrom but bounced off the post.
The Canucks made a run at a comeback in the third period. They had their chances. According to NaturalStatTrick, the Canucks out-chanced the Devils in the third by a rate of 7-3. Based on the only stat that counts, though, they fell decidedly short. Only Bo Horvat found the back of the net for the Canucks, using a crafty deke to bring the puck into the crease before roofing it on Schneider.
Markstrom stopped 23 of the Devils 26 shots. Schneider stopped 23 of his former team’s 25 shots on the night.
The Numbers
Quick Hits
- Brandon Sutter left tonight’s game halfway through the third period after a John Moore check sent him to the ice with a thud. Obviously, first and foremost, our concerns relate to Sutter’s health. That’s what matters the most here. Secondarily, I’m starting to have concerns about his quality of play… again. Tonight, the Devils out-attempted the Canucks by a margin of eight shot attempts with Sutter on the ice. The bigger picture of the entire season does Sutter no favours. I hope he’s healthy, and I bet every Canucks fan does too! Every Canucks fan should hope that when he returns to the lineup, whether it’s next game or next week, he starts to pick his game up. We’re getting to a point where it wouldn’t be unreasonable to healthy scratch him.
- Bo Horvat had one of his best games of the season tonight. He was a force between the blues, dominated the run of play at even strength and even chipped in with a goal in the third period. I still have a hard time getting a grasp on what Horvat is, and this season hasn’t granted any more clarity in that regard. If he can stack up a couple of performances like tonight’s, though, that would bode well for his future. At some point, he has to, at the very least, stop being a drag defensively at even strength. Tonight, he was dominant. It’s a good sign.
- Ben Hutton’s had a very up-and-down season. Jeremy Davis’ article on Hutton made a fairly convincing case for Hutton as value added to the Canucks lineup, and for the most part, I’m a believer. Tonight was a mixed bag for the #HuttonTruthers. Brian Boyle’s goal in the second wasn’t a good look for any Canuck, but Hutton looked especially poor on that play. By that same token, Hutton shows very well in Darryl Keeping’s transition data, and the Canucks out-attempted the Devils with him on the ice. A bit of the good and some of the bad tonight.
- Brock Boeser had an assist on Horvat’s goal, bringing his point streak to six games. That Calder case of Boeser’s is starting to look fairly sound.
- How much longer can the Canucks afford to keep tinkering with their lineup to find a fit for Sam Gagner? There are a lot of underlying signs to suggest that the goals are going to come, but the fact of the matter is, they’re not. Gagner doesn’t seem comfortable in any of the roles the Canucks have played him in, and frankly, I don’t think that’s his fault. Right now, for example, he’s playing left wing on a shutdown line. None of that makes an iota of sense. If that’s the only spot the Canucks can find for Gagner, perhaps it’s time they stopped trying to force it and let Alexander Burmistrov get back into the lineup for a game or two? He can play in a shutdown role, on both phases of special teams and on the left wing. It just makes sense that he would perform better than Gagner would on that role on the “shutdown” line
- Henrik Sedin’s assist on Daniel’s goal tonight gives him a three-game point streak. Good to see the Twins contribute offensively tonight. It just doesn’t seem right, watching them languish in ten minutes or so a night.
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