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Canucks Army Postgame: Vancouver Canucks Participate In Hockey Game, Final Score Isn’t 5-2
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Grainne Downey
Feb 22, 2016, 00:56 ESTUpdated:
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Coming off of their fourth straight 5-2 loss, the Canucks met the Avalanche at Rogers Arena, a place that had not seen a home win since January 11th. The 5-2 score did not show up for the Canucks tonight, but Ryan Miller, the Sedins, and more did!

THE GOALS 

Adam Cracknell opened the scoring midway through the first. This was Cracknell’s second goal in as many games and it was actually a very nice goal.
 
Jannik Hansen doubled the lead late in the opening frame, setting yet another career high with his 18th (which he does every time he scores). Like so many Hansen goals this season, this one came as a result of a nice Sedin passing play:
 
The dream of continuing the 5-2 streak survived until the final seconds of the second, when Radim Vrbata scored. For real. 
Hansen added another, making it 4-0 and prompting Patrick Roy to pull Semyon Varlamov with 10 minutes left in the game. Chris Tanev then made it hot in Rogers Arena with an empty netter from Henrik and Daniel – Henrik had four assists on the night. Late in the third, Matt Duchene scored to end Miller’s shut out bid but the Avs didn’t score after that and the score wasn’t 5-2 so whatever. 

THE SAVES

Ryan Miller was in top form tonight. He kept the game tight despite some defensive breakdowns from his team. He probably deserved the shutout but the win is still nice.

THE STATS

Scoring chances:
5v5 ES Corsi:
via hockeystats

OTHER STUFF

  • The Vrbata goal was noted by the scouts in attendance. It’s pretty funny imagining the scouts all writing down “scored a goal” at once.
  • Early in the third period, Vrbata left the game with an apparent leg injury. If the injury is serious, it likely throws a wrench into Jim Benning’s trade deadline plans.  
  • The kid line looked good tonight, especially Hometown Hockey star Jake Virtanen, who almost finished off this nice play from Bo Horvat:
  • Henrik Sedin is good. 
  • The official Canucks Twitter account openly celebrated their official release from the 5-2 spiral. What a season this is. 

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