Vancouver Canucks at St. Louis Blues Post-Game Recap: Singeing The Blues

Coming off a 5-3 victory on Thursday against the Nashville Predators, the Vancouver Canucks were riding their most significant wave of momentum in weeks as they prepared to face off against the St. Louis Blues for a Sunday matinee. Vancouver hadn’t won in consecutive games in more than a month and Afternoon matchups have traditionally been tricky for the Canucks’ franchise, but the floundering Blues presented a fantastic opportunity to open up a desperately-needed winning streak—one the Canucks really wouldn’t want to miss.

As always, Jeff Paterson provided the lineups on Twitter. On the Canucks side of things, the only change was Adam Gaudette out an illness, and Tim Schaller replacing him. Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen were the starting goaltenders in a classic all-Jacob matchup.

In fine afternoon form, the Canucks started things off with some shaky play in their own end and three icings in the first 1:14 of the game. The questionable defense continued as Erik Gudbranson made the inexplicable decision to shove Pat Maroon into Jacob Markstrom, an incident that somehow resulted in John Garrett asking for a goaltender interference penalty and John Shorthouse responding with confused silence.

Despite the iffy start, it’d be Vancouver who struck first—and it was a strange one. Brock Boeser appeared to miss a great chance in front after a slick backhand pass from Elias Pettersson in Gretzky’s Office, but his rocket of a shot bounced off the end-glass and then hit Jake Allen before dropping into the net. It was another true testament to the power of Boeser’s shot, and the perfect start for another matinee game full of weirdness.

With zero official shots on goal, the Canucks had a 1-0 lead just 2:31 into the first period.

The next moment of significance came when the Canucks’ old friend Jordan Nolan took two sizeable runs at Tim Schaller and Troy Stecher within the span of about 15 seconds. Where’s Tom Sestito when you need him?

The St. Louis Blues received their first powerplay of the game when Gudbranson whacked Alex Steen with an undisciplined high stick—after just missing his head seconds before. The healthy smack drew blood, and Gudbranson sat down for four minutes—or less.

The Canucks began the penalty kill with the 27^th-ranked PK in the league, but this time around the Jay Beagle-led corps were up to the challenge and killed off all four minutes with relative ease. The Blues’ powerplay failed to generate a legitimate scoring chance.

After the double minor expired, Pettersson and Boeser hit the ice again, and after Stecher made a nice stick-check to break up a play in the neutral zone, Pettersson took advantage. Taking the puck in stride, Pettersson danced through four Blues defenders and beat Allen with a sharp wrister low on the glove-side. With a goal and an assist just 12:46 into the period, Pettersson moved into a tie with Bo Horvat for the team scoring lead.

And he wasn’t done yet.

The next time the top line hit the ice, Ben Hutton forced another Blues turnover at the Canucks’ blueline and Boeser picked it up, allowing he and Pettersson to head off on a two-on-one. Pettersson feathered a great pass over to Boeser, who made no mistake in wiring it past Allen’s questionable glove-hand for the 3-0 lead.

 

That was the end of Allen’s afternoon, with the Canucks’ two offensive superstars conspiring to chase him with just under six minutes remaining in the period. Allen, for the record, was coming off a shutout against the Winnipeg Jets. Pettersson moved into sole possession of the team scoring lead with his 28^th point of the season.

He finished the first period with just 3:33 of icetime. That’s efficiency.

The Blues began to become noticeably frustrated as they continued to struggle, with Maroon going after Stecher with some slashes on an icing. Stecher stood his ground and didn’t get suckered into a penalty, and the Canucks continued to control the majority of play for the rest of the period.

Obviously Barkley the Dog.

The Canucks found themselves in a rare circumstance as the second period began, with a three-goal cushion and thus an opportunity to test their defensive mettle. Just over three minutes into the period, the Blues got their best chance of the game as their fourth line crashed the net, but Jacob Markstrom stood tall in his crease. While all this was going on, Jordan Nolan kicked Erik Gudbranson’s legs out from under him, but neither referee appeared to notice.

The game then settled into an uneventful period for either side, and by the halfway mark the most exciting thing to have happened was the Canucks’ Twitter account posting this GIF:

The Blues continued to pile on the shots, but generated little in the way of serious chances—and Markstrom was equal to whatever tasks they threw his way.

The Canucks further silenced an already library-esque home crowd with their fourth goal of the game. Bo Horvat banged in an Antoine Roussel rebound to beat Chad Johnson for his 11^th road goal of the season—and another tie with Elias Pettersson for the team scoring lead in what was becoming an in-game battle between the two.

 

Pettersson returned fire less than two minutes after Horvat scored. Sitting in his usual spot in the offensive zone, Pettersson corralled a pinballing puck and deftly fed it to Nikolay Goldobin, who found himself facing a wide open net and made no mistake. The Canucks moved into a 5-0 lead and Pettersson moved back into the scoring lead—and the St. Louis crowd’s apparent vow of silence continued.

 

At the 15:25 mark of the second period, the Canucks finally received their first powerplay of the game as Pat Maroon picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. With the score being what it was, the Canucks’ top unit didn’t appear to have much urgency and a whole lot of nice passing didn’t end up amounting to anything more than two more minutes off the clock.

Horvat nearly tied the scoring lead again as he just missed tapping in a caroming puck with a handful of seconds remaining, but the second period ended with the Canucks enjoying a 5-0 lead—despite the Blues holding a 19-16 edge in shots and 18-9 advantage in hits.

Learning just how effective Bo Horvat is at beaking his own teammates. #CaptainComedy

Also, the complete self-destruction of the St. Louis fanbase:

The Canucks were firmly in unfamiliar territory as they got set to defend a 5-0 in the third period of this Sunday matinee. Instead of coming out flying, the Blues looked like a defeated team, and it wasn’t long before Oskar Sundqvist put the Canucks back on the powerplay with a foolish holding penalty.

The Canucks led with their second unit—complete with Troy Stecher on the point in recognition of both his strong play and Travis Green’s desire to avoid a shorthanded goal against. That mission ended up being accomplished, but the Canucks also didn’t generate a shot during the man advantage.

This conservative mindset set the tone for the rest of the third period. The Canucks did their best to limit the Blues’ offensive opportunities, and the Blues didn’t really press them on the issue. St. Louis failed to capitalize on an ugly Erik Gudbranson turnover at the netside, and it took them over eight minutes to record a shot—but that shot was a significant one.

Jordan Kyrou picked up the puck after a broken passing play and sniped the first goal of his NHL career past Jacob Markstrom. Unfortunately for Markstrom, that was the end of his shutout bid—but not the end of the five-goal lead!

 

40 seconds after the Kyrou goal, the Canucks’ top line turned the momentum into the offensive zone and Elias Pettersson fed Brock Boeser at the point. Boeser fired a hard, low shot—looking for a tip by Josh Leivo—but the puck ended up bouncing off a Blues player and past Chad Johnson, making it a hattrick for Boeser. It was also Pettersson’s fifth point of the night, and 30^th of the season.

 

Pettersson’s second five-point game of the season was a fairly significant accomplishment, as it turned out:

For many St. Louis fans on Twitter and in the arena, this was the last straw. The game finished without much further incident, and the final score was 6-1.

There’s nothing to complain about and a lot to get excited about in this dominant start-to-finish victory. To be fair, the St. Louis Blues did not present much of a challenge, but that still doesn’t take away from accomplishments of the Canucks—and Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser in particular.

It would be unrealistic to expect this sort of play from the franchise’s two offensive centerpieces on a nightly basis quite yet, but this afternoon’s matchup provided fans with another tantalizing preview of what is to come. The future is indeed bright in Vancouver, and games like this will one day be remembered as the earliest indicators that the Canucks had put together something special with their latest rebuild.

Gameflow from Canucks at Blues December 9, 2018 (Courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

 

Heatmap from Canucks at Blues December 9, 2018 (Courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

 

Enough was said about Pettersson in the game description to justify no further text here, but it’s impossible to stop gushing about his performance. Traumatized by years of disappointment, many Canuck fans are still waiting for the other shoe to drop with Pettersson, but that moment just doesn’t appear to be coming. He got five points and made it look easy, and it’s a bit terrifying to think of what he’s going to look like once he gets more comfortable in the NHL.

You know it’s a good game for the Canucks when Boeser scores a hattrick and isn’t named the first star. Sure, Boeser was the beneficiary of some pitch perfect passes by Pettersson and some truly fluky bounces, but he still had to put himself in a scoring position on those plays—something Boeser does with an impressive consistency. That’s not to mention the fact that his second goal of the night was a classic Boeser snipe—no flukiness required.

Stecher only recorded one assist on the scoresheet, but he was constantly involved in plays that pushed the puck in the right direction for the Canucks. Stecher made a couple of elegant stickchecks in the neutral zone to breakup St. Louis chances before they had a chance to develop, and he was eventually rewarded for his strong play with a spot on the powerplay.

The Canucks continue their brief roadtrip on Tuesday, December 11 as they visit Columbus to take on John Tortorella and the Blue Jackets—with a start time of 4:00PM PST.