Highlights

Quick Hits

• One of the more endearing qualities of Willie Desjardins has been his ability to roll four lines throughout the entirety of this season. He promised as much in the honeymoon phase, and it’s been nice to see his word carries more weight than that of his predecessor – does an up-tempo offensive attack ring a bell, anyone? Henrik Sedin played the second least ice-time among Canucks centers. There’s a distant gap though between Hank and the fourth most played center, Linden Vey, but who’s upset by that at this point? Vey’s parents? Maybe?
• It’s a lot easier to roll four lines when the contributions from your fourth are there right off the hop. Bo Horvat’s line led the way in ice-time throughout the first period, with very little of that coming from special teams play. It’s not hard to see why they were given so much play, either. Ronalds Kenins (who I thought might be scratched going into tonight’s contest) was buzzing again early, providing the Canucks with the physicality that earned him his spot. The pesky Latvian also had three great scoring chances in the first 30-minutes of tonight’s contest. The whole line was buzzing and contributing in every facet of the game. 
• I wasn’t overly surprised to see Radim Vrbata knot things up at three and send this game to overtime. The Czech sniper had been around the net all game with several grade A scoring chances by the time he had finally been rewarded in the form of a goal. Vrbata had also displayed a fiery side, retaliating to an Alex Goligoski hook with a stick infraction of his own. When Vrbata was called for it, he quite angrily pleaded his innocence from the box. Every man has his breaking point…
• Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Luca Sbisa really struggled tonight. The cumbersome Swiss defender was on the ice for two goals against and posted a 25% Corsi. That is, really, something. I know it’s not likely to happen, but there should at least be consideration of a Ryan Stanton return in Sbisa’s place. Stanton had really been turning his game around before a healthy Canucks blue line and numbers game forced him out of the lineup. Just a thought…
• Glad to see Nick Bonino finally getting rewarded for his better play of late. That’s two goals on the week for Bonino, which isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but a far cry better than what he’d been producing immediately after his return from injury. The last time Bonino hit three goals in a month was in December. Things could be looking up. 

Conclusion