CANUCKS BANTER By Andrew Chernoff January 17, 2016
HUTTON SCORES FIRST NHL GOAL,
HENRIK SEDIN INJURED,
RADIM VRBATA SCORES WINNER IN SHOOT OUT
The Vancouver Canucks (19-17-10) played the third game of their 6-game road trip this afternoon against the New York Islanders ( 20-18-8) at Barclays Center.
The Islanders took Vancouver to overtime, with a last minute goal in regulation, and then with nothing settled, both teams ended up in a shoot out, where Radim Vrbata would score the only goal between the two teams, as the Canucks would win their 4rth shoot out game of the season, and win their second game of the road trip, defeating New York, 2-1 in SO.
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 17: Radim Vrbata #17 of the Vancouver Canucks scores the game winning goal on Jaroslav Halak #41 of the New York Islanders in the shoot-out during the game at the Barclays Center on January 17, 2016 in Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images)
Vancouver is now 11-9-5 against the Eastern Conference, and and 6-5-1 against Metropolitan division teams.
Ben Hutton, with his first goal in the NHL in the second period; and Ryan Miller, who stopped 47 of 48 shots for a .979 Sv%, along with Vrbata’s shoot out goal, led the team effort, for the Canucks.
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 17: Ben Hutton #27 of the Vancouver Canucks holds his first NHL goal puck following a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on January 17, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Henrik Sedin left the game in the first period with an upper body injury and would not return for the rest of the game. He will be evaluated and may miss the rest of the road trip.
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 17: Henrik Sedin #33 of the Vancouver Canucks shows the effect of a boarding major assessed to Mikhail Grabovski #84 of the New York Islanders during the first period at the Barclays Center on January 17, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Coach Willie Desjardins was appreciative of the win, giving credit to his guys, for doing it all.
“Our young guys played hard tonight & it was good to see. Our goaltending stepped up again and that was big for us.”
Source: Canucks Twitter
Jared McCann echoed Desjardins comments by saying after the game:
“Millsy shut the door for us tonight. From 1st line through 4th line, everyone played well tonight.”
Source: Canucks Twitter
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 17: Ryan Miller #30 of the Vancouver Canucks makes the second period save against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on January 17, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Bo Horvat’s points streak ended at 6 games (6-3=9), while Radim Vrbata’s points streak also ended, at 3 games (1-2=3).
Miller is 4-4-1 in his last 9 games overall, with a 2.95 GAA and .919 Sv%. He also has a record of 3-4-2 in his last 9 games on the road, with a 3.21 GAA and .909 Sv%.
For Vancouver, the victory gave them their 8th win in 13 games (8-3-2) and their 4rth win on the road in their last 6 games (4-1-1).
And the Canucks would score their second consecutive opening game goal tonight, to go with the one on January 15 against Carolina, the first two since just before the Christmas break of 2015, after which they went eight consecutive games without be able to do it.
Vancouver had scored a power play goal in five straight games, that came to an end tonight as they were 0 for 4. In in their last 6 games, where they have had at least one man advantage, they are 5 for 20 during that stretch, 25 percent.
On the penalty kill, the Canucks were 3 for 3, and are 35 for 42 in their last 13 games, 83.3 percent; 15 for 17 in their last 7 games, 88.2 percent.
Vancouver is 2-1-0 on the six-game road trip that continues Tuesday night at the New York Rangers, game two in the Big Apple.
In the opening period, the Canucks were having issues shaking the pressure in the Islander zone to establish good puck possession and get some good scoring chances.
The Canucks were attempting to open the scoring for the second straight game but were finding it easier said than done.
Vancouver was out shot 6-1 by the Islanders with less than ten minutes left in the period, as scoring chances were either getting blocked or missing the net entirely.
The first power play of the game went to the Canucks at 12:42 when Matt Martin went off for holding Derek Dorsett’s stick. Canucks 0 for 1 with the man advantage.
In the last four minutes of the period, the Islanders started peppering the Canucks with scoring chances, and Vancouver would weather the storm, thanks to Ryan Miller, to keep the game scoreless.
With less than two minutes left, Henrik Sedin was given a hit by Mikhail Grabovski and went into the boards and onto the ice immediately. Grabovski would be given five minutes for boarding and a game misconduct. Matt Bartkowski would receive a roughing penalty for stepping in to take on Grabovski for the dirty hit. All this happening at 18:16.
The game would continue to heat up between the two teams,when players from both teams would take exception to some questionable stick play. Alex Biega would get the only penalty out of it, two minutes for high sticking Ryan Strome at 19:54.
The Canucks and Islanders would end a chippy period scoreless; but the intensity level would be high.
After one period:
- Islanders out shot Vancouver 11 to 5; Face-offs 9 for 16 for Vancouver; Hits, 13 to 9 Islander.
- Islanders had 5 giveaways to the Canucks 1; No Canucks had more than one shot.
- Henrik Sedin was 4 for 5 on face-offs; Linden Vey, 2 for 3; Bo Horvat, 2 for 6.
- New York would have a Corsi For of 20; Canucks, 15, in all situations 5-on-5
The second period would start without Henrik Sedin continuing in the game because of an upper body injury suffered from the Grabovski boarding incident in the opening period.
Canucks would receive some scoring chances from an early power play in the middle frame but would not score.
Vancouver would get another power play, their third of the game, when Marek Zidlicky would go off for roughing at 3:45. Scoring chances for the Canucks would continue on this power play, but they could not bury the puck.
After going 0 for 3 on the power play, Derek Dorsett would be assessed a penalty for roughing John Tavares at 5:50. Ryan Miller would make some great stops and Canucks would keep the game scoreless.
The Canucks would score the first goal of the game, on a wrist shot by Ben Hutton, his first goal in the NHL, at 9:46, from Daniel Sedin (22)and Jared McCann (5).
Vancouver has now opened up the scoring in two consecutive games, after going eight consecutive games with their opposition scoring the opening goal.
Jared McCann, Jake Virtanen, Brendan Gaunce, have been the other Canucks to score their first goal in the NHL this season.
Canucks would get a chance to go up by two goals with their 4rth power play opportunity of the game, when Ryan Strome received a penalty for cross checking Brandon Prust at 12:45.
Vancouver would make it 0 for 4 with the man advantage though, making it 1 for 18, 5.5 percent, in their last 9 road games, that’s including this game.
Second period would end with Canucks up 1-0.
In the second period:
- Islanders out shot Canucks 13 to 12; Face-offs, 14 for 28 Canucks; Hits, 7 to 4, Islanders
- Islanders, 7 giveaways to Canucks 2; Daniel Sedin leading Canucks with 3 shots after two periods;
- Hutton, Edler, Horvat and McCann with 2. Linden Vey, 7 for 12 on face-offs after two periods.
- Islanders would have a Corsi For of 33; Canucks, 22, in 5v5; Islanders CF 48 to Canucks 31, in all situations, after two periods.
The Islanders started the final period out shooting the Canucks 6-0 and getting a power play opportunity; all this by the 5:16 mark, with Jared McCann getting the penalty for delay of game.
Canucks would get their first shot of the period off a breakaway by Jared McCann when he came out of the penalty box but Jaroslav Halak would stop him in front of the net.
With 12:13 left in the final period, the Islanders continued to out shoot the Canucks by a wide margin, 13 to 1.
Jared McCann would have a partial breakaway inside the Islander blue line, this time he would try Halak’s right side, but once again, he was foiled.
With 8:52 left, the Canucks were getting big stops from Miller, as New York continued to out shoot Vancouver, 15 to 3.
Derek Dorsett, had a breakaway of his own, but lost the puck as he came in on Halak and tried a fancy move. Dorsett missing a great opportunity to make it 2-0.
Back to back saves by Miller with less than six minutes left, would keep Vancouver leading 1-0, as the Islanders were relentless in their pressure in the Canucks end.
Desjardins would call a timeout to give his team a breather on an icing call, to relieve some of the pressure from the Islanders domination in the third period.
With 4:09 left, the Islanders were out shooting the Canucks 43-20.
With 75 seconds left, Halak was pulled for the extra attacker for the Islanders, and an icing call with a minute left would put a face off in the Canuck end. New York would take a timeout to draw up a plan.
Canucks would win the faceoff, but get scored on in the final minute of regulation play, and the game would be tied up at 1-1.
Ryan Strome, his 5th of the season, from Nick Leddy(15) and Franz Nielsen (14), at 19:09.
And off to overtime the game would go. And then a shoot out, as nothing was settled in the overtime.
Radim Vrbata would score, John Travares would miss on the Islanders last chance, and the Canucks win 2-1 in a shoot out.
The Canucks move into a tie for 3rd place with San Jose with 48 points, in the Pacific division, a point behind Arizona who occupy 2nd spot with 49 points. Vancouver is three points in front of Anaheim and 9 points behind the 1rst place Los Angeles Kings.
GAME REVIEW
CORSI EVEN STRENGTH 5v5 @ ISLANDERS
CORSI ALL STRENGTHS @ISLANDERS
CANUCKS PLAYERS CORSI STATS
ISLANDER PLAYERS CORSI STATS
CANUCKS PLAYERS STATS
WESTERN CONFERENCE WILD CARD STANDINGS
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE STANDINGS
STATISTICS COURTESY OF THE NHL AND VANCOUVER CANUCKS
Andrew Phillip Chernoff 