CanucksArmy Post Game: The tank broke
6 years ago
Puck Drop
With the Team Tank out in full force, Ryan Kesler and the Anaheim Ducks were in town Tuesday night.
The Canucks opened the scoring halfway through the first. Sam Gagner made a great read, curling back behind the net anticipating the shot. As he got lost in coverage backdoor, the rebound came right to him
The Ducks didn’t appear to be a particularly inspired group Tuesday night in Vancouver, especially considering they’re in a fight for their playoff lives.
Despite the lacklustre Ducks effort, the didn’t give up another goal in the period. The score remained one-nothing Canucks after twenty minutes.
2nd Period
After the Canucks dominated possession to the tune of 68% of shot attempts in the first, it was the Ducks controlling over 76% in the second period.
Despite the utter dominance on the shot clock by the Kesler’s Ducks, the Canucks held onto their one-nothing lead until the seventeen-minute mark of the second.
It took a weird one for the Ducks to get on the board, as the puck took an odd bounce right into the slot leaving Jacob Markstrom helpless behind his net. Andrew Cogliano had a head of steam and pounced on the puck, burying it into the open net as Markstrom tried desperately to make a diving save.
3rd Period
After the Ducks second period pushback, the pendulum once again swung the other way. In the third period, the Canucks kicked down the door and took over the game on the scoreboard.
Doing his best Tyon Barrie impression, Alex Biega ripped a shot from the point that managed to elude traffic and find it’s way behind John Gibson.
Brandon Sutter takes a lot of heat, and rightfully so, but he’s made some nice plays as of late. Non were likely sweeter for Canucks fans to watch than his goal tonight as it came at the expense of Ryan Kesler.
Sutter beats Kesler coming down the right side and makes a nice move to pull the puck to his backhand, sending Gibson sprawling. Tho he didn’t score initially, Sutter followed up the play and scored with Gibson helpless face down on the ice.
Sutter later added an empty net goal, cracking double digits for the year.
The Canucks win doesn’t come as welcome news to many; these are mean nothing games. The ramification these points have could be felt for years as the Canucks picking up points, not only hurts their chances of drafting first, every spot the move out of the basement is another spot farther they can fall in the draft. Finishing at the bottom is every bit as much about guaranteeing yourself a top-four pick, and the first pick of each subsequent round as it is a shot at Dahlin.
The Numbers
Quick Hits
- The story of the week is the Canucks signing of 2015 5th round pick Adam Gaudette. It’s been a steady climb to prominence for Gaudette since he was drafted, culminating in a season that sees him as a Hobey Baker front-runner as the NCAA’s best player. Expectations for Gaudette have reached peak levels as he turns pro, as good as Gaudette is the expectations are out of hand in my opinion. He’s a good player and Canucks fans should be excited about him, but the talk of the town has been “Is he better than Kesler?”. If the barometer for success is a 40 goal, Selke winning player, he’s being set up for failure. Gaudette deserves a chance to be Gaudette if he carves out a career as an NHL player of any sort the pick is a resounding success. I’m always of the mind it’s better to under promise when it comes to prospects, as we’ve seen with Jake Virtanen the burden of expectation can be a very heavy one.
- With five games to go, the Canucks sit in 28th place. Five points out of 31st, but only two out of 30th. The dream of a guaranteed top-five pick and the second pick of every other round is still alive.
