Vancouver Canucks vs Montreal Canadiens Post-Game Recap: Sacré Bleh

With the Canucks coming off an Eastern time zone road trip that ended with a four-game losing streak—and a four-game pointless streak for Elias Pettersson—the Vancouver fanbase was eagerly anticipating a bounceback game for both the home team and its star rookie. Unfortunately, they’d still have to put up with a 4:00PM PST start-time to accommodate the incoming Montreal Canadiens.

 

The lineups were, as always, provided by Jeff Paterson: 

Brendan Gaunce drew back into the lineup, with Darren Archibald replacing him in the pressbox.

Thirteen seconds into the game, the makings of a long night seemed to already be apparent. Adam Gaudette—newly placed between Antoine Roussel and Jake Virtanen—took a penalty after a series of quick defensive miscues to put the Canadiens on the man advantage before a lot of fans had even reached their seats. Fortunately, the penalty killers found some early success.

Pettersson made his first impressive play three minutes into the game by setting up Michael Del Zotto with an insane side-eyed cross-ice flip-dish, but Del Zotto missed the net with his shot.

 

Other than that, the next most exciting moment of the period’s first eight minutes was apparently Carey Price drinking out of a straw.

The fans finally had a reason to cheer as Jacob Markstrom made a strong cross-crease play to stymy a two-on-one chance by the Canadiens, and for the first time in a while the “Go Canucks Go” chants drowned out the “Habs” variation.

 

Shortly thereafter, Phillip Danault took a hooking penalty to put Vancouver on their first powerplay. Many fans let out an additional cheer when Ben Hutton, not Derrick Pouliot, came out with the first unit—not that it made much difference in another lackluster Brock Boeser-less effort on the man advantage.

Max Domi, who had previously mixed it up with Tim Schaller, then smacked Tyler Motte with a careless high stick, putting the Canucks right back on the powerplay heading into the second TV timeout. This time around, the returns were much strong—and Hutton looked like a genuine quarterback—but the top unit would again fail to convert, despite some clever stickhandling by Pettersson in the corner.

 

When Derrick Pouliot came out with the second unit, he very nearly gave the puck away for an in-close shorthanded attempt, and the rest of the penalty expired without incident—until Domi sprang from the box to head in on a breakaway that Markstrom stopped with ease. Motte went in on a breakway of his own on the next play, but didn’t accomplish anything other than driving the Montreal defender into Price and the net.

The rest of the period passed without any further events of significance. Shots were 10-9 in favour of Vancouver.

Don Cherry absolutely loving the fashion sense of the Vancouver Canucks—especially Troy Stecher and his “little jacket”—but not loving how hard “Goldobin” is to pronounce.

 

Everything else about Don Cherry’s finger-pointing ramblings, including chastising Pettersson for not leaping to his feet when his teammate got in a fight and saying “Thank God for Doug Ford.” How does Luke Cage get cancelled while this guy gets to stay on the air?

Early in the second, Troy Stecher made a nice defensive play to interrupt a two-on-one for the Canadiens. Meanwhile, Coach Travis Green had the lines in a blender right away in an attempt to spark some offense, placing Bo Horvat between the grinding Antoine Roussel and Jake Virtanen. The game began to move into a back-and-forth segment, with Tim Schaller earning a nice rush on yet another odd-man rush.

Near the five-minute mark, Ben Hutton demonstrated his newfound two-way abilities on a single shift in which he made a nice offensive foray in the offensive zone—and then slid on the ice to break up some tic-tac-toe passing from the Habs in his own end with a desperation pokecheck.

The first goal of the game finally arrived just past the eight-minute mark, as Jeff Petry sprang Tomas Tatar on a breakaway and Tatar made no mistake in blowing his ninth goal of the season over Jacob Markstrom’s arm. Jim Hughson couldn’t help but reference the “Tatar!” guy in celebration.

 

I don’t have anything to add to this tweet, I just found it really funny:

 

It’s a good thing there were humourous tweets to amuse the fanbase, too, as—rather than open up the game—Tatar’s goal seemed to lull both teams into another section of relatively eventless hockey.

The next incident of significance was Erik Gudbranson getting defensively clowned and then pushed around by Max Domi—not a great showing for the big defenseman. While that was going on, Hutton was busy ripping off Andrew Shaw’s helmet behind the net.

Clearly inspired by Hutton’s bravery, the Canucks evened the score on their very next shift. Bo Horvat won a defensive faceoff and Michael Del Zotto rushed the puck up the ice before dishing it back and crashing the net. Del Zotto would end up putting in the rebound after Roussel tipped a Tyler Motte point shot, and the score was knotted at one.

 

The period ended with the Canucks shorthanded after an undisciplined, retaliatory penalty by Jake Virtanen. Fortunately, the PK crew—led by a continually impressive Hutton—stymied the Montreal offense and the teams remained tied heading into the intermission.

Not having to listen to Don Cherry.

Also, this:

The third period began with a few more line adjustments courtesy of Travis Green, including Nikolay Goldobin on Bo Horvat’s wing. Despite the changeup, the early offensive chances went were in the Canadiens’ favour, including an in-close chance for Brendan Gallagher that Jacob Markstrom denied.

Horvat earned the Canucks’ third powerplay of the game with a strong power move in the Montreal zone, drawing a hooking penalty against Xavier Ouellet. The second unit came out to start and Jake Virtanen got an early chance at a rebound at the netfront—and then engaged in a serious facewashing session with Jeff Petry. The first unit hit the ice for the last half of the penalty, but they didn’t accomplish much other than giving Artturi Lehkonen a nice look at a shorthanded breakway.

On the positive side of the physical game, Virtanen landed his best hit of the game the next time he got on the ice, renewing acquaintances with Petry via a crunching check in the corner.

The Canucks received a great opportunity to firmly shift the momentum when Lehkonen took an interference penalty off an offensive zone faceoff, and this time the first unit came out right away and made an immediate impact. Nikolay Goldobin rang one off the iron, and the next play saw Horvat and Adam Gaudette almost jam one in. But it would be the slump-busting Elias Pettersson who finally converted. After a one-timer that Carey Price kicked out, Pettersson remained in position and cranked another one past Price a handful of seconds later, assisted by Ben Hutton and Goldobin. Rogers Arena erupted, and Elias’ march to the Calder Trophy resumed in earnest.

 

Despite all the excitement, it wasn’t long before the Canadiens tied it up. After Jonathan Drouin nearly tucked in a bad bounce off the endboards, the Habs kept up the pressure and Max Domi bounced a puck off Andrew Shaw’s foot and past Markstrom. With both fanbases in attendance now electrified, the building got noticeably louder.

 

A shift or two later, the Canucks had their longest sustained sequence of pressure yet, responding to the crowd with several offensive chances, but Price proved equal to the task. Horvat came the closest to scoring with a near tap-in, but the period entered its second-last TV timeout with the score at “deuces wild.” When the play resumed, the Canucks kept up the assault, and Derrick Pouliot nearly converted a great pass from Horvat.

The Canadiens got a chance of their own on the next shift, but that turned into a very dangerous-looking Pettersson/Virtanen two-on-one that was ultimately unsuccessful. The game began to open up into firewagon hockey once again. Unfortunately, that ended when Michael Del Zotto took an outrageously late shot at Jesperi Kotkaniemi and was tagged with an interference minor for his troubles.

 

The Habs went on the powerplay with less than three minutes remaining in the period, and it only took them eight seconds to convert. Brendan Gallagher battled his way to the front of the net to screen Markstrom, and Jonathan Drouin hammered a point shot into the top corner to put Montreal ahead with 2:44 left on the clock.

 

The Canucks pulled the goaltender with just under two minutes left, and received an immediate chance on net, resulting in an offensive zone faceoff. After Matthew Peca nearly put it in the empty net, the Canucks brought the puck back up the ice and got set up—only for Goldobin to loudly ring one off the post.

Green called for his timeout with 37.6 seconds on the clock, and Markstrom remained at the bench. Hutton and Pouliot generated a couple of last-ditch chances on net, but Price stood tall and closed out the 3-2 win for his squad.

 

This game seemed to be on the verge of a fantastic conclusion, and then Michael Del Zotto took a late undisciplined penalty in an effort to rub out a teenager. It’s fair to say that the entirety of the blame for this loss will fall on Del Zotto’s shoulders, and that he’s subsequently lost any good will that his first period goal.

At the very least, Elias Pettersson bumped his slump in a fittingly definitive fashion, but the Canucks also earned their fifth straight loss. It’s a win for Team #LoseForHughes, but it’s the sort of loss that should leave a bitter taste in the mouth of any fan regardless of their proclivities.

Gameflow from Canucks vs. Montreal November 19, 2018 (Courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

Heatmap from Canucks vs. Montreal November 19, 2019 (Courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

Hutton has stepped into the void left by Alex Edler’s absence with aplomb. He led all Canuck defenders in icetime with 20:01, and looked confident on both the powerplay and the penalty kill. Fans have been asking for Hutton on the first unit for a while now, and he gave Travis Green plenty of reason to keep him there with several strong plays and the primary assist on Elias Pettersson’s goal.

Pettersson bumped his four-game point slump with a powerplay one-time blast, but that was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of his on-ice dominance. He had the second-most icetime of any Canuck, including the defensemen, trailing only Bo Horvat. Once again, Pettersson made several eye-popping plays that combined to make his opponents look silly, and he looks more than ready to continue his offensive dominance as the Canucks continue their homestand.

Motte played this game like he did in the preseason when he was in the process of forcing his way onto the team. Motte generated several offensive chances by driving the play, picked up an assist on Del Zotto’s goal, and led all forwards in shorthanded time on the ice.

The Canucks continue at home on Monday, November 19, with a game against Brandon Tanev and the Winnipeg Jets. The puck drops at 7:00PM PST.