The Vancouver Canucks came into tonight’s matchup looking to turn a streak of 3 wins in a row into one of 4 in a row for the first time since the end of March… last year.

Storylines for each team included players making returns from injury. James Neal slotted back into the Flames lineup after missing 17 games with a lower body injury, whereas Travis Green decided not to make any changes to his winning roster in spite of the announcement that Sven Baertschi was available to play.

Having allowed 2 goals or less in 3 straight games, Mike Smith was given the start for Calgary in his first back-to-back start in a month. At the other end of the ice, Jacob Markstrom tied a career-high by making his 57th start of the year for Vancouver.

As usual, Jeff Paterson provided tonight’s rosters via Twitter:

Leivo, Pettersson, and Boeser started the game off with an excellent first shift. Leivo was able to use his speed to carry the puck into the offensive zone while his line mates sought out open ice. After Calgary retook the puck and carried it back towards Jacob Markstrom, the trio executed a series of strong defensive plays that denied the Flames a decent scoring chance and allowed Pettersson to set Boeser off on a breakaway. He managed to let loose a wicked wrist shot, but Smith was ready to make his first big save of the game.

Even though nothing came from any of it, the shift set the tone for how the rest of the period, and much of the game, began to unfold. There was a high pace of play, with the first whistle not coming until the first 5 minutes of the game had already come and gone.

The shot clock wasn’t necessarily on fire, but both teams looked prepared to bring energy and effort to the game. Calgary’s motivation came from wanting to create separation between themselves and San Jose in the standings, so that they draw Colorado in the first round of the playoffs instead of Vegas. The Canucks, meanwhile, have convinced themselves that this recent winning streak, coupled with an upcoming schedule that features relatively weaker opponents, is an opportunity to claw their way back into the playoff conversation at all.

The bottom line is that both teams obviously felt they had something important to fight for, but it would be the Calgary Flames who would be the first to light the lamp this evening:

Horvat wins the draw to Markstrom’s left. The play stays alive on the half-wall as both teams struggle to gain possession. The puck breaks free and finds itself on the stick of Garnet Hathaway. Hathaway makes a short pass to Derek Ryan, who circles around behind the net before setting up Mark Giordano for his 16th goal and 70th point of the year.

It was Giordano’s 12th career goal against Vancouver, the most he has scored against any one team in the NHL.

After the goal, there was an immediate reapplication of pressure by Calgary. The Flames, outscored league-wide only by the stupidly good Tampa Bay Lightning, were trying to take advantage of the moment to go in for the kill. Whenever one team is pressing another this hard, the defending team is always at risk of taking dumb penalties, and that’s exactly what happened when Alex Edler was called for tripping at 14:31.

The Flames’ first unit had no trouble setting up in the Vancouver zone. Johnny Gaudreau looked particularly dangerous, managing to put a couple of sharp wrist shots on net. Their passing was mostly perfect until Jay Beagle managed to steal the puck and chip it ahead to send himself and Alex Biega towards the Calgary net on a 2-on-1:

Beagle did a great job of getting the puck over to Biega, who tried his best to get a shot off as high as he could, but it wasn’t enough to beat Mike Smith.

The Canucks did a great job killing the rest of the penalty, and Jake Virtanen had a great shift near the end of the frame where he used his speed to easily skate the puck into the Calgary end and cause a bit of havoc. He may not have been able to finish the job, but he still managed to generate 3 solid shots on net in quick succession.

Calgary carried their 1-0 lead into the next period, as well as a 12-6 lead in total shots.

Bo Horvat made one of his classic bull rushes up the right wing, and helped to set up Tanner Pearson for a pair of great chances. The Canucks were visibly trying to up their game and create more scoring chances for themselves.

It was around this point where the effort level of both teams began to spill over into more… antagonizing behaviour on both sides. Around three and a half minutes into the period, Virtanen found himself getting caught up in a scrum with four Flames, including Mike Smith.

Action after whistles increased. With the tension in scrums boiling over, Tyler Motte and Travis Hamonic both found themselves receiving minor penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct at 7:46.

With 4-on-4 for two minutes, the Flames took advantage early and looked as if they had the puck on a string with all of the available open ice. Vancouver was able to get a bit of momentum going their way as soon as Pettersson and Boeser replaced Horvat and Leivo on the ice, but it didn’t lead to much more than a chance or two before the penalties to both teams expired.

With Vancouver slowly catching up to Calgary’s shot lead, there was a bit of drama at about the halfway point:

As all smaller players must learn to do if they want to be successful playing hockey at this level, Gaudreau manages to avoid hits from larger players by “rolling” off of them as they make contact.

In this instance, Horvat made the decision to follow through on a hit, and Gaudreau’s “roll” backwards ended up bringing his stick into contact with Horvat’s face, as well as his own. Unfortunately, he took the worst of the impact and crumpled to the ice in front of the Flames’ bench. Clearly dazed, Gaudreau managed to make his way off the ice and back to the visitor’s dressing room to be checked out.

Incensed, the Flames began to challenge Horvat one by one in response. The cooler, if not larger, head prevailed, however, and he luckily understood that taking the bait was a bad idea that would only put the Canucks at a disadvantage in a game they were already behind in.

Gaudreau soon returned, no worse for wear, but the aggression in the game felt amplified by the event. Perhaps spurred on because of it, Calgary managed to increase their lead to 2-0 after an ugly turnover by Luke Schenn:

I have no idea whether Schenn was trying to make a pass to someone or if he was just trying to clear the puck. Either way, he put it right on the tape of Giordano’s stick, who then made an excellent centering pass to Hathaway. A couple of ugly bounces later, the puck was through the legs of Jacob Markstrom and in the back of the net.

As tensions continued to rise, fans were treated to a brief “Lund-Bowl” when Markus Granlund made a bit of a late hit on Mikael Backlund. Backlund immediately returned the favour, and both were sent to the penalty box with minors for Boarding and Cross Checking. The period would end with 1:24 left in 4-on-4 play.

Even at 4-on-4, Johnny Gaudreau couldn’t help taking a dumb penalty for tripping Virtanen just 29 seconds into the period. The rare appearance of 4-on-3 hockey didn’t last long, though, as Brock Boeser finally got himself on the scoreboard after arguably being Vancouver’s best skater of the night up to that point:

Boeser takes a short drop-pass from Edler and rifles a shot over Smith’s left pad for his 25th of the year.

2-1 Flames with the vast majority of the 3rd period left to go.

The Canucks began to make their big push of the game at this point, looking for that tying goal. Bo Horvat managed to generate a 2-on-1 chance with Tyler Motte. Schenn even managed to make the highlights with an awesome hit on Hathaway:

Talk about hitting a wall. Honestly, Schenn makes the odd bone-headed decision, and he’s certainly not very mobile, but I don’t hate the idea of seeing him and Biega alternating as the team’s 3rd and 4th right side defenceman next year, with the spot obviously going to whoever’s playing better at the time.

The Flames’ 4th line continued to demonstrate why they’re one of the best in the league when Andrew Mangiapane (I’m going to admit right here, right now, that I had to google who this guy was) made it  3-1 Calgary:

With Hathaway banging bodies and creating havoc, he was able to get the puck back to Giordano at the blue line. The Flames captain calmly keeps the puck in play and makes an excellent pass directly to Mangiapane, who smashed it home with a one-timer from 20 feet out.

Jake Virtanen was particularly to blame for this goal, as he clearly had the opportunity to finish his check and interupt what Giordano was doing with the puck. For whatever reason, he decided to let up and simply skated by. I can’t explain it, but it’s not a good look for a player who was otherwise having himself a pretty decent night.

Following the goal, fans were treated to even more 4-on-4 hockey when a Pettersson penalty for hooking was followed 20 seconds later by a Giordano call for interference. Boeser and Horvat both had strong scoring chances before a poorly timed Leivo backpass put the puck on Tkachuk’s stick and set him off on a breakaway:

A strong save by Markstrom as the tempo of the game noticeably began to increase again.

Bo Horvat, who easily could have scored half a dozen goals in this game, was denied once again with an open net in front of him. The play became more frantic as the remaining time slowly but surely disappeared. The Canucks were playing as if this one game really did make or break their playoff chances. Markstrom made another pair of great saves on Tkachuck and Sean Monahan.

With 3 minutes left in the game, Travis Green made the decision to pull Markstrom. What came next was, in my opinion, the best part of the entire game:

That’s right. That’s Alex Edler laying a hit on Mike Smith that, apparently, sent him flying forward.

We don’t need to spend too much time debating whether this was a real dive or not. Between Smith’s bird-in-full-flight impression and Edler’s confused reaction, it’s pretty obvious that Smith was trying to sell this thing for whatever reason.

Even Markstrom was enjoying the show:

Either way, I could watch that gif over and over again, all freakin’ day long.

So good.

That mostly humourous incident did not do a heck of a lot to better relations between the two teams. As if they needed more fuel added to the fire, both teams looked to be on the verge of breaking out in a full on brouhaha.

Smith even looked like he wanted a piece of the action until a referee “politely suggested” that he return to his crease. Edler took a penalty for goaltender interference and, with 1:36 remaining in the game, it appeared as if a win was finally out of reach.

Before the final buzzer sounded, however, there was a terrifying incident when Troy Stecher took a puck to the face from a vulnerable position at point blank range after blocking a shot:

Truly horrifying to witness, and Stecher is unbelievably lucky that all he ended up having to show for it was a fat lip. The Canucks defence may need to be totally rebuilt, but Stecher is one player who is a lock in my mind to be a part of this group moving forward. He isn’t just a hometown kid. The guy is an absolute warrior. That’s the kind of player you win with.

The Canucks actually didn’t do too badly in this one, stats wise. They dominated in faceoffs, scored a power play goal, killed 4 penalties, and dramatically outhit the Flames. They played with a serious amount of effort and jump all night long.

So what was the problem?

Well, the Canucks just aren’t there yet, for one thing. The Calgary Flames have been one of the best teams in the league this season by far. They’re deep. They’re fast. They score at will. They’re going to finish the year with five players at over 70 points on the season, and one of them has the Norris Trophy basically locked up at this point. The Canucks just don’t have the horses to compete with that, even at their best.

And they certainly were at their best. Horvat was playing like a man possessed, doing absolutely everything but score. Boeser continued his impressive point streak and was rifling the puck at Smith from everywhere on the ice all night. Most of the rest of the team had at least a few moments where they really stood out in a positive way. They just can’t compete with a real contender yet.

Games like this are crucial, because they demonstrate to the players, coaches, management, ownership, and even the fans just how far the team still has to go before they can realistically call themselves a contender. It’s a reminder of just how much work is left to be done, but teams like Calgary are also a reminder of what hockey fans in Vancouver have to look forward to if the rebuild is done properly.

Personally, the Flames have always been my favourite opponent for the Canucks to play. It’s encouraging to see signs of life in that rivalry, since it’s been so dormant for the last few years now. Both teams have exciting, young core players that look like they’re going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next decade or so. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.

The next time you can catch your Vancouver Canucks in action again is tomorrow night at 7:00 PST. Former head coach John Tortorella and his Columbus Blue Jackets are in town and are desperate to make the playoffs. Should be a good one!