Postgame: Beantown Beatdown

For a while, it appeared as though Jake Virtanen was becoming a mainstay on the Canucks’ first line. He filled in on Brock Boeser’s usual spot and looked right at home alongside J.T Miller and Elias Pettersson.

Virtanen has gone pointless in the Canucks’ last two games, which gave head coach Travis Green the perfect opportunity to reunite the Lotto Line. Boeser was back on the line for parts of the loss in Carolina, and appears as though he’s getting another shot to show why he deserves to be on the first line.

The trio were considered one of the best lines in the league for most of this season, and fans were wondering how long it would be until they were reunited on a regular basis. Well, that’s two games in a row now where the Canucks’ starting lineup has featured the lotto line.

The Canucks were sure to be in tough trying to beat the Bruins in their own building. This season, the Bruins have lost just two games in regulation at the TD Garden, which gave tonight’s game a playoff-like atmosphere — which even transcended to Twitter.

There was plenty of talk about how the game could serve as a measuring stick and give observers a look at whether or not the team’s recent success has been a mirage.

Boston is one of the best teams in the league, and have one of the best lines in hockey with their perfection line, consisting of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak.

Tonight’s formula could perhaps be the best way to make Canucks fans lose their minds. A failed coach’s challenge that looked like it would certainly go in the Canucks’ favour came shortly after a late hit that shook up Pettersson.

Let’s break this down.

Here’s the hit from Matt Grzelyck that came a few seconds too late for most Canucks’ fans liking:

To his credit, Grzelyck checked on Pettersson after the whistle and genuinely appeared like he didn’t mean to send Pettersson into the boards so awkwardly. Thankfully, it appeared Pettersson was no worse for wear, as he finished the remainder of the game.

Next up, we have the offside play that confused the play-by-play team on both the Canucks and Bruins broadcasts.

One can see how this would cause confusion, Charlie McAvoy waits for his teammate to get onside, but the puck enters the zone. Now here’s why it wasn’t deemed offside:

In the second period, the Canucks pressed hard against the Bruins, but it was downhill from that point forward. The Canucks struggled to generate much in the way of shots toward Boston netminder Tuukka Rask, and failed to stop Boston from doing the same thing against their goaltender.

The Bruins held a two-goal lead going into the third period and the Canucks were forced to play catch up against a powerhouse Boston team. The Canucks didn’t put up much of a fight in the third, and the game was practically sealed after David Krejci scored with a little over 5 minutes remaining.

Adding a little more salt in the wound, Karson Kuhlman scored at 18:10 to make the game 4-0.

The Canucks will wrap up their five game road trip this Thursday, where they will do battle with the Minnesota Wild.