The Canucks got off on the right foot Saturday night as they started their 6 game roadie with a 4-3 win over the Senators. The score belied the actual game play, as the Canucks were pretty dominant aside from a couple minutes at the end where the Sens made it close. If you missed the game, you can watch the good parts here:
The Canucks are facing some adversity: no Miller, no Boeser, no Demko… and for 47+ minutes of last night no Hughes. The captain was given a major plus misconduct for his hit on Josh Norris, which was heavy handed to say the least. Penalty for sure – but the misconduct was a bit ticky tacky. However, it seems like all this adversity for the Canucks is actually positive: since Miller stepped away from the team, the boys seem to be solidifying their hard-working defensive-mindset identity. The loss to the Rangers the other night showed signs of it, and last night the team built on it.
“It definitely builds some camaraderie and some character,” Sherwood said after another one-goal, one-assist, 10-hit night (he’s the only Canuck in Canucks history with multiple games of 10+ hits in a season… and he has four of those games now). “Listen, we have a lot of our top guys out right now, you know? But in saying that, I thought a lot of the guys came in and played to their identity and stuck with it. That kind of builds character over time. It's hard to win in this league, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of lessons to keep building on.”
Sherwood has been everything the Canucks wanted and more when they signed him. He’s up to 6 goals and 12 points on the season, and is playing alongside Petey and DeBrusk on what’s shaping up to be a solid at-the-moment first line (and second line once Miller and Boeser are back). Those three are finding their chemistry, and between DeBrusk’s two goals and Petey’s two assists, they carried the load offensively for the team last night.
Defensively it was a bit of a juggling match with Hughes going out so early. The team and the fans are aware of the struggles of everyone outside of the Hughes-Hronek pairing, so it was great to see everyone else step up when they needed to. Hronek ended up as the top minute muncher last night, Soucy led the team at 5 on 5 minutes for most of the night, Myers made some big plays that led to a goal, Brännström played top pair minutes five-on-five, and Juulsen was effective in his role on the PK especially.
Hopefully that helps give the group a little more confidence to assert themselves as the road trip goes on. It was a chippy game – especially towards the end – but the defenders weathered it well.
“We liked the battle”, Soucy said after the game. “Honestly, I think our team had a fun game. Obviously, it helps to win, but we kind of liked that intensity. I think that brought the best out of us.”
“I think that was a character win,” goalie Kevin Lankinen added. “I think when we are at our best, we play a direct game, we play selfless, we just move the puck ahead and everybody's chipping in. I think that's what we showed tonight. It was nice to see guys stepping up for each other, too, showing character. I think that's a huge momentum builder for this team.”
The Canucks will look to take that momentum into Boston for a game with the reeling Bruins on Tuesday night. Until then, commento:
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