New Jersey Devils vs Vancouver Canucks Post Game Recap
By Cole Marton
5 years agoThe Rundown
The Canucks got set to face the New Jersey Devils tonight in a game where both Taylor Hall or Nico Hischier were not in the Devils lineup. New Jersey has been one of the few teams with more man games lost than the Canucks, as tonight they saw their number rise above 300 on the season. What did this mean for the Canucks, well it was another game on their schedule that was quite winnable. The Canucks hadn’t won 2 straight games since January 18th – January 20th. Sure, a win might hurt the tank, but it’d be nice for the younger players to build on something as they trucked through the end of another long March.
In lineup news, the Canucks lost Antoine Roussel for the season on Wednesday after he suffered a lower body injury. This meant Loui Eriksson was slotted back into the lineup after he was scratched for the first time in his career. Tim Schaller also saw some ice tonight for the first time since February 21st, as Jay Beagle was scratched due to an illness. Jakob Markstrom got the start in goal tonight after another solid performance against the New York Rangers.
Finally, Pettersson mentioned to the media earlier today he might have to be a little more selfish in order to score, and fans who have waited patiently for him to break out of his slump didn’t mind one bit.
1st Period
It was a pretty tame start to the hockey game, as both teams exchanged some pressure in each others zone throughout the first 5 minutes. However, the Canucks pressure didn’t lead to any shots on goal, and the Devils took a 5-0 shot advantage early. It looked like the Canucks had fallen victims to another slow start.
Around the 6:30 minute mark, the Canucks slow start was compounded when Pettersson was called for hooking. The Canucks without Beagle were short-handed for the first time tonight.
Some bad news for the Canucks a minute into the penalty kill, as Chris Tanev blocked a slap shot from Kyle Palmieri right above his recently injured ankle. Tanev went to the locker room, and wasn’t available for the rest of the penalty kill.
Meanwhile, it took some guts, and some big stops by Markstrom right on the doorstep but the Canucks were able to kill off the penalty. They were rewarded with a power-play of their own 30 seconds later when Blake Pietila was called for cross checking Eriksson in the corner.
Unfortunately, the Canucks power-play didn’t get set up at all and dropped to 0 for 1. Was a pretty poor showing from the Canucks, which wasn’t a surprise at all.
The home team received another chance with the man advantage a few minutes later when Kurtis Gabriel reached around and held up Troy Stecher. Gabriel was called for holding and the Canucks went to their 2nd power-play of the game.
In a shocking (not really) turn of events, the power-play looked even worse the 2nd time around. The Canucks almost gave up a short handed goal over a minute in, and entered the zone once over the 2 minute stretch.
The best chance for the Canucks came a little past the 17-minute mark of the period, when Tanner Pearson made a nice pass over to Alex Biega, who had some space just above the left face-off circle. However, his shot was easily stopped by the blocker of Mackenzie Blackwood.
With around 20 seconds left in the period, Jake Virtanen laid a huge hit on Colton White. That was the biggest highlight of an otherwise dull first period.
The Devils and Canucks were scoreless after 1, and the Devils led in the shot column by a 13-6 margin. Didn’t talk about him much through the first, but Markstrom had a quietly solid opening frame. Nothing spectacular, but was a rock behind a Canucks team which was without Tanev through half of the period. The Canucks found out Tanev wouldn’t return for the remainder of the game in the intermission. He tested the ankle during a TV timeout, and after he tried to stick it out on the bench, went back to the locker room and didn’t return for the rest of the game…
2nd Period
Some fortunate news for the Canucks, as Ashton Sautner returned to the bench at the start of the 2nd period after he went to the dressing room late in the first, so the Canucks were only short 1 defenseman as the period began.
Some more good news (Possibly?) for the Canucks as 2:30 minutes in, they received their 3rd power-play of the game. Drew Stafford tripped up Edler in the Canucks zone, and a porous Canucks power-play went back to work.
It wasn’t a traditional power-play goal, but the Canucks capitalized with the man-advantage just past the 4 minute mark of the period. Brock Boeser grabbed the puck in the neutral zone after the Devils turned it over, and fed Pettersson just over the blue-line. Pettersson walked to the right face-off dot, and ripped a beautiful shot over the shoulder of Blackwood for his first goal in 12 games. The Canucks also scored a power-play goal in back to back games for the first time since November 2018… Quite a stretch. Boeser’s assist saw his point streak improve to 5 games, his 2nd 5 game point streak of the season.
A few minutes later, the Canucks nearly took a 2 goal lead after Josh Leivo redirected a hard pass from Eriksson right on goal, but Blackwood was there and made his best stop of the night.
A few minutes after a great stop by Blackwood, Markstrom made a nice glove stop of his own on a shot from Kevin Rooney. Another strong start for Markstrom who looked dialed in through the first half of the game.
Not much else happened until the 14-minute mark when the Canucks came close to extending their lead yet again. Biega took a slap-shot that beat everyone but rang off the post and stayed out.
Just before the 17-minute mark, the Canucks received their 4th power-play of the game when Blake Coleman got called for tripping up Eriksson in the Canucks zone.
The Canucks looked much better with the man-advantage, and came oh so close to extending their lead, but Goldobin hit the post in tight and didn’t get the goal-scorers bounce. The 2nd post the Canucks had hit in the final 6 minutes of the period.
The Canucks were much better in the 2nd than they were in the first (sound familiar?), and had a number of chances to take a 2 goal lead. While they only headed to the locker room with a 1 goal lead, Vancouver had momentum on their side as they got ready for the 3rd period.
3rd Period
Just 2 minute in, the Canucks finally found a way to extend their lead to 2. Pearson entered the Devils zone, and took a shot that looked to be going well wide. Blackwood went to play the puck to the corner with his stick, and it bounced off the inside of his goal stick and into the net for the Canucks 2nd goal of the game. An awful goal for Blackwood to give up, but Pearson didn’t care and the Canucks had a firm grasp on the hockey game.
After the goal, the Canucks got hemmed in their zone the next few shifts. The Devils lack of discipline bit them again , and the Canucks were given their 5th power-play of the game after Gabriel got called for a late hit on Boeser deep in the Canucks zone. It was the 5th straight power-play of the game for Vancouver.
Not much happened on the power-play until the last 30 seconds. However, it was the Devils with the first real chance short-handed when Coleman came in on a breakaway. This battle between skater and goaltender belonged to Markstrom, as he stared Coleman down and made the stop to keep the Canucks up by 2. Right after the Markstrom stop, the puck came down the ice and Adam Gaudette made a nice pass to Pearson who tried to stuff the backhand past Blackwood. Blackwood wasn’t about to get beat twice by Pearson tonight, and made the tough stop to keep the Devils in the game.
The Devils got 1 back just past the 5:30 minute mark of the 3rd period. A weak wrist shot from the point was handled by Markstrom, but the rebound fell right to the stick of Rooney, who flipped a backhand shot over Markstrom and in to cut the Canucks lead to 1 with just over 14 minutes remaining in regulation.
The next 5 minutes saw a team missing a couple of it’s top offensive weapons try to tie the game against a team down to 5 defenseman after one of their top defenders got hurt early in the game. Needless to say play was quite scrambled at times.
It turned out that the Devils found a way to tie the game up at the 13:30 minute mark of the period. Stefan Noesen parked himself right in front of Markstrom, and was left wide alone while the Devils had the puck in the corner. Eric Tangradi saw him, and made a beautiful pass right to Noesen who put it into the wide open net. Canucks defense let Markstrom down again as there was no reason Noesen should’ve been that open in a 1 goal game.
16 minutes in, and the Devils almost took their first lead of the game after Biega turned the puck over in the neutral zone. Noesen picked it up, entered the Canucks zone and found Travis Zajac in the slot, but Zajac was denied by Markstrom and the game remained tied at 2.
The Zajac chance was the last quality chance for either team in regulation, as the 3rd period came to a close with the score tied at 2. The Canucks couldn’t keep up their momentum, even after they took a 2-0 lead and were in danger of letting this game slip away.
Overtime
Took a few minutes, but the first chance of the extra frame belonged to the Devils. Markstrom had to come across to make a nice one-time stop against Pietila, and followed that up with another strong save on Connor Carrick who found himself alone right in front of the Canucks goaltender. Right after the Markstrom stops, Pettersson led a 3 on 1 the other way. Unlike earlier however, Pettersson tried a give and go with Edler that ended when Edler put the puck wide of the Devils goal.
There weren’t any quality chances for the remainder of the overtime period, and this one went to a shootout.
Shootout
The Canucks elected to shoot first, and they went to Pettersson to get them the early goal. Pettersson promptly did this…
The Devils first shooter was Palmieri, and he was stopped by the pad of Markstrom.
Boeser looked to give the Canucks a 2-0 shootout lead, but his shot went off the pad of Blackwood and then rang off the inside of the post and stayed out.
Stafford was next for the Devils and his shot also rang off the post after it beat Markstrom low glove side, but this one went post and in to tie the shootout at 1.
Pearson was the next shooter for Vancouver, and he also hit the post, but it stayed out.
Coleman tried to win it for New Jersey, but the puck rolled off his stick and he couldn’t get his shot away.
Edler was next, and he tried his patented shot from earlier in his career. It didn’t have the same success it did all those years ago as Blackwood made the stop with his blocker.
Kenny Agostino was next up, and he ended up too close to Markstrom on his attempt. He wound up hitting the side of the goal.
Horvat was the Canucks 5th shooter, and he couldn’t convert as he failed to get his stick underneath the puck on the backhand attempt and was easily stopped by Blackwood.
Noesen was next up, and while he tied the game late in the 3rd, he couldn’t win it in the shootout as he was stoned by the glove of Markstrom.
Goldobin was shooter number 6 for the Canucks, and he promptly lost control of the puck before regaining it, but had no angle to shoot at and Blackwood made another easy stop.
Zajac was shooter number 6 for New Jersey. After he was robbed in regulation, he couldn’t get revenge on Markstrom in the shootout as Markstrom made an outstretched save with his right skate.
Markus Granlund was the next shooter, and he was stopped by Blackwood. He didn’t really try anything special, and I can’t believe he was picked over someone like Leivo or Virtanen.
Damon Severson came in for the Devils as their 7th shooter, and he finally got Markstrom to bite and put it home to give the Devils the win after the lengthy shootout.
Advanced Stats
Both photos courtesy of naturalstattrick.com
Wrap Up
A tough game for the Canucks to lose after they had a 2-0 lead in the 3rd period. The loss of Chris Tanev in the first period played a large part in the loss, as the Canucks defense surely could’ve used him while they attempted to defend their lead. However, the Canucks hit 3 goal posts on the night, and when push came to shove, weren’t able to keep the Devils away from the high danger area 10 feet in front of their goal. All in all, a good effort for the Canucks in the loss, but one the Canucks should’ve closed out.
Pettersson’s goal in regulation was a huge monkey off his back, and it was quite the shot. However, even with his snipe, and the shootout tally (disgusting might I add), I was still left wanting more. Now, that could fully be because Canucks fans and media members have been spoiled throughout the year by what he’s done, but I felt he could’ve taken some more shots. Especially during that overtime 3 on 1 rush he led. Again, can’t complain about Pettersson breaking his goal drought, and pulling off the highlight reel shootout move. He’s been a treat to watch all year, and he showed his stuff tonight.
I quickly mentioned it at the beginning of the wrap up, but the loss of Tanev hurt this team as the game wore on, and frankly just hurts in general. I feel for the guy, because he can’t seem to stay healthy… at all. Like a new age Sami Salo, good when he’s on the ice, just can’t seem to stay on it. It was confirmed by head coach Travis Green his season came to a close after tonight, and I wish him the best this off-season.
Markstrom was great again tonight, and continued to perform well in a season that has gone off the rails. He kept the Canucks in the game through the first period, and gave the Canucks a chance to win throughout the game (Just like Wednesday). He didn’t have a chance on either goal, and saved the team a few minutes after they gave up the equalizer. Then, after he saved the game in overtime, gave the Canucks 4 chances to win in the shootout. He was great, and should’ve been on the winning end of this one.
All in all though, can’t be too mad. Pettersson broke his goal drought, Markstrom continued to play well, Horvat had 2 assists, and Boeser upped his point streak to 5. For fans of team tank, the Canucks also didn’t pick up 2 points (you’ll have to settle for 1 tonight). If the Canucks were close to the playoff bar, fans might be more upset. They’re not, and fans and media members alike can only hope it’ll get better starting next season.
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