The Canucks came out of their COVID-19 quarantine with stunning back-to-back wins over the top team in the all-Canadian North Division, the Toronto Maple Leafs. With those two wins — along with a dreadful skid from the Montreal Canadiens — the Canucks suddenly found themselves back in the playoff race.
The team’s long playoff odds became just that little bit shorter. They were only eight points back of the Canadiens for the final playoff spot and had four games in hand. All other things being equal, the Canucks just needed to win those four extra games and the two teams would be tied.
To top it off, the Canucks’ next four games were against the Ottawa Senators, the worst team in the North. After taking two straight against Toronto, why couldn’t the Canucks win four more to give themselves a real chance? After all, the Canucks had already won five of five against the Senators this season.
Should the Canucks even be playing right now? Maybe not but imagine the stories you could tell about them overcoming the odds to make the playoffs after being so far behind and succumbing to a global pandemic. That would be inspirational as hell and why is the NHL risking the health of professional athletes if not to inspire the masses?
Other than money, I mean.
Alas, any miracle run will need to wait for at least one more game. The Senators frustratingly refused to lose, with Matt Murray somehow finding his mojo again and posting his second shutout in the last three games. Considering how many times Brock Boeser has made Murray look like the unluckiest goaltender alive, that just doesn't seem right.
Look, the Canucks’ odds were already longer than Pinocchio’s nose at the before they had 22 players test positive for COVID-19 and have the rest of their scheduled jammed into a 32-day period with little time to rest. Yes, the Canucks have a chance of making the playoffs, but you don’t want to look at it too closely because the very act of observing it could make it change.
In other words, if you want the Canucks to make the playoffs, ignore that they even have a chance at doing so. Pretend they’re already out of the playoffs — eliminated mathematically. Then every game can be enjoyed on its own merits, win or lose. And, if by some marvel the Canucks actually do make the playoffs, you can be delightfully surprised.
This game, on its own merits, was bad. I know because I watched this game.
- The Canucks have a depth problem. The Canucks’ top players, like Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, and Quinn Hughes, were quite good in this game. I thought Nate Schmidt, in particular, had an outstanding game. They just didn’t get much of anything from the rest of their lineup.
- “I don't know if we created as much as we'd like,” said head coach Travis Green. “With our lineup, we know we have to play a bit of a greasy game. Put Horvat, Miller and Boeser together in the last two periods, I thought they started to go a little bit. We were looking for some offence from some guys.”
- Special teams decided the game. The Senators went 2-for-4 on the power play and the Canucks went 0-for-4. There’s the difference.
- The two teams ended up with the same number of power plays but the game was, shall we say, confusingly officiated. It wasn’t one-sided: the referees made odd — some might say bad — calls in both directions. It was just weird and confusing.
- It started with the fight between Brady Tkachuk and Travis Hamonic. Tkachuk hit new Canuck Matthew Highmore late and Hamonic took exception, dropping the gloves and challenging Tkachuk to a scrap. It was surprising to see Hamonic get an instigator penalty on the play — it was only the 11th instigator penalty this season — and was especially confusing when it was announced as a game misconduct. Thankfully, it was corrected — Hamonic only got a ten-minute misconduct — but it was still a baffling call and one that erased a potential power play.
- There were plenty of other confusing calls or non-calls. The Canucks first power play was on a bit of a soft call when J.T. Miller lost an edge and fell, Quinn Hughes got a baffling interference call when it looked like he was being held, but more concerning were the seemingly obvious penalties that were simply ignored.
- The most frustrating missed call came directly before the Senator’s second goal. Brandon Sutter skated into the offensive zone shorthanded but his path to the net was cut off. Tim Stützle came up behind him, tried to lift up his stick, then blatantly — probably unintentionally — kicked Sutter’s skate out from under him, directly in front of the referee.
- To that referee, : “What would you say you do here?”
- Seconds later, the Senators sent a pass in front that Tyler Myers had a chance to intercept, only to see it deflect off his stick directly to Drake Batherson at the backdoor. Unlike Myers, Batherson made no mistake.
- Thatcher Demko, in his first start since the team’s COVID-19 outbreak, had no chance on Batherson’s goal and less-than-no chance on the Senators’ opening goal, which was brilliantly tipped by Stützle in front. Demko was otherwise fantastic, considering he hadn’t played in over three weeks and, obviously, was sick.
- “I think I struggled with it. I think a lot of guys did and it was tough on the body,” said Demko about his symptoms. “Biggest thing for me was just some fatigue and just the body aches and some of the brain fog stuff that you've seen in the media, stuff that comes with COVID.”
- “I don’t know if anyone’s really at 100 [per cent],” Demko added a moment later. “COVID took a toll on us.”
- While Demko kept the Canucks in the game, their power play couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity. The most frustrating moment came in the second period, when Myers broke a penalty killer’s stick with a shot. Instead of staying in the play, the penalty killer rushed off to be replaced. With the long change, that gave the Canucks a few precious seconds of 5-on-3, which Jimmy Vesey squandered by sending a pass back to the point right as the replacement penalty killer arrived.
- The Canucks managed just four shots on goal on four power plays. They gave up three shorthanded shots on goal. The Senators were aggressive on the penalty kill, which can only be combated by crisp puck movement and the Canucks’ puck movement was like soggy Weet-Bix, which all Australian kids know .
- “You gotta move the puck quick. The puck goes way faster than they can skate,” said J.T. Miller. “I thought after the first power play, we did a good job, that we created some good looks, had some good shots, had a couple tips, just weren't really going in. They do a good job of keeping the pressure on but I thought we found a way to break them down a little bit a couple of times in the last couple of power plays.”
- Miller better be right: they’ve got three more games coming up against the Senators and will likely need to be able to break down their penalty kill a few times in order to have a chance to win.
