Trevor Linden stated . At that, they utterly failed. Instead, their most important game of the season came in April.
Thursday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes of Phoenix in Glendale had serious draft lottery implications. For the Canucks, it was a must-lose game: their only chance at finishing 29th overall was losing in regulation, giving them an opportunity for the second-best odds at the first overall pick and ensuring they can’t fall further than fifth overall.
The last time these two teams met, this would have been unthinkable. The Canucks were in playoff position, 16 points up on the Coyotes, who were in 29th place. They’ve remained in 29th place all this time, but the Canucks definitely haven’t remained in playoff position.
No one thought it was even possible, but the Canucks somehow fell to 29th in the NHL when they lost this game. And I had the weirdest feeling of elation when I watched this game.
- It still feels weird and wrong to be pleased by a Canucks loss. It would have been a lot more fun to cheer for the Canucks to win this game and thereby improve their draft position, . Of course, then I would be horribly disappointed, because the Canucks can’t win to save their lives. Or Willie’s job.
- Things got off to a great start for the tankophiles, as the Coyotes opened the scoring. Ryan Miller saved Brandon Perlini’s initial shot, but on the rebound the puck , rendering it completely invisible to Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi in front. Luke Schenn saw through the disguise, however, and chipped in his first goal as a Coyote.
- The Sedins suddenly look like viable offensive threats again since Nikolay Goldobin joined their line. As the twins cycled the puck down low, Goldobin stealthily got himself into a scoring position, so when Henrik one-handed the puck to Daniel and he chipped it across, Goldobin was ready to one-time the bouncing puck past Louis Domingue. It was the best finish since “.”
- The Canucks nearly took the lead in the first period: Horvat rang a shot off the post off a Brock Boeser wraparound, then newest Canuck Griffen “Dor” Molino took a beautiful pass from Alex Edler in on a breakaway, but also hit the post on his backhand deke. Clearly, the posts are #TeamTank.
- Edler’s pass to Molino in the second period wasn’t quite so pretty, as his outlet pass went into Molino’s skates. As a result the Canucks couldn’t get the puck out and a Jakob Chychrun shot deflected off the boards to Radim Vrbata at the side of the net. Like a visitor to , Vrbata found twine.
- Apart from that one miscue, Edler had a strong game, with the Canucks out-shooting the Coyotes 13-6 when he was on the ice. He lead the Canucks in ice time, shot attempts, and hits. Luca Sbisa, on the other hand, was a trainwreck at times, giving the puck away and missing assignments, but he somehow wasn’t on the ice for a goal against. Hockey is an unfair sport, but I feel like Edler must wonder .
- Sidenote: ! ! I guess they’re making up for not getting to grow playoff beards. That’s neat.
- The Canucks got into a bit of penalty trouble in the second period and the Coyotes took the bait. They scored 7 seconds into one power play off a ridiculous slap-pass from Alex Goligoski to Alexander Burmistrov. I haven’t seen a pass slapped that hard since my friend used the pickup line, “Are you a termite? Because you’re about to get a mouth full of wood.”
- Radim Vrbata did more for the Canucks organization in this one game than he did all of last season. He picked up his second goal of the game (and eventual game winner) when his shot was saved by Miller, but pinballed off Edler and rolled over the goal line. Does bad luck just attract itself to mopey-looking people or is the causation the other way around?
- The Canucks got a power play goal of their own in the third period. Henrik neatly kicked the puck out of a scrum in front, finding Brock Boeser at the side of the net. He pulled it out from below the goal line, then roofed the puck in one swift move. Later, he put on “” and made a bunch of other Swift moves.
- The Sedins are known more for their long cycling shifts in the offensive zone, but their B-side is capitalizing incredibly quickly off of turnovers. They played that deep cut midway through the third when Ben Hutton forced a Perlini giveaway to Daniel, who found Henrik down low, then set up for a laser of a one-timer that beat Domingue short side. It was Daniel’s first goal in eight games and just his second in his last 19 games.
- Fortunately for the Canucks’ hopes of getting a first-line centre in the upcoming draft, they couldn’t muster up another goal, though they came close. Now it comes down to whether they can lose twice to an Edmonton Oilers team still in the hunt for first in the Pacific Division. Yeah, I know, that felt just as weird to type as it felt to read.
