Stanley Cup champions are too much for the banged-up Canucks
Vancouver finds some symmetry with new parings and lines in second period
TWASHINGTON, D.C. wo disturbing sequences could have drawn one sobering conclusion Tuesday.
When an untouched Lars Eller unleashed a first-period slot shot, got his own rebound and wheeled back into the slot to whip a backhander on net while being chased by Elias Pettersson, it was an early indication of how much the Vancouver Canucks were chasing the game and how much the Washington Capitals were owning it.
It was further emphasized later in the same frame when T.J. Oshie flipped the puck between the new pairing of Chris Tanev and Erik Gudbranson, split the defenders and got to the crease. Three NHL games in four nights probably had something to do with the Canucks’ lethargic start and so did the loss of the injured Alex Edler.
You get outshot 18-5 and allow the defending Stanley Cup champions to control the boards and have a free-fly zone in front of Jacob Markstrom and it had the makings of a very long night.
Yet, the Canucks found their legs and some symmetry with new pairings and new lines and had a half dozen scoring chances in the second period, including a failed penalty-shot attempt by Bo Horvat.
It was as simple as this: The Capitals won the first period and took a 1-0 lead on an early Oshie goal when he stripped Tanev and got to the net to bury a rebound.
The Canucks won the second period with a 13-4 shot advantage and nearly tied it when Ben Hutton hit the crossbar. That came after Pettersson nearly picked the high short side on a cross-ice power-play feed by Nikolay Goldobin. Jay Beagle had a chance down low and Tyler Motte had a re-direct.
Who would win the third?
The Capitals built a twogoal cushion when Evgeny Kuznetsov waltzed around Alex Biega and Brent Connolly pounced on a loose puck in the crease. Antoine Roussel then responded with a backhand pass into the slot that Markus Granlund buried.
Here’s what we learned as a bouncing puck off the shoulder of Markstrom was credited to Jakub Vrana as the deciding blow before Pettersson scored with 6.3 seconds left as the Canucks fell 3-2:
The deciding goal was tough to stomach because of the manner in which the Canucks came on to push the game in the second half of back-to-back games. The weird Vrana goal stung.
“It was a fluke play,” said Hutton. “Stechy had the guy behind the net and he tried to come to my side and I just poked it (puck) off his stick. It
bounced up, hit the top of the net and gloves and sticks were flying around and it hit Marky in the back and rolled in. Tough play.
“I saw it come up and land on top of the net and I was like: ‘OK, stay there.’ Nothing can happen if it stays there and it bounced off and then it was like slow motion and running down his back. I thought it was a close call.”
So did Markstrom.
“I saw their guy Vrana and he went from my left to my right and when I switched sides, there was no puck there but guys were swinging their sticks on the top of my head,” he said. “I felt something on my back and I tried to turn my body to get the glove there and bank it out.”
Coach Travis Green said it was difficult to tell if a stick made contact above the crossbar on the winning goal, but not hard to figure how the game played out.
“We weren’t very good in the first — we didn’t have our legs under us and weren’t competing the way we need to and we started going to work,” said the Canucks’ bench boss.
HORVAT GETS HIS WINGS AND A PRAYER
The centre has dutifully carried a heavy load and rotating wingers in the hope that the Canucks can spread scoring and maybe he finds some magic. He had Tim Schaller and Josh Leivo on his flanks on Monday in Philadelphia and has had a revolving door of wingers that include Sven Baertschi, Granlund, Loui Eriksson, Jake Virtanen and Roussel.
On Tuesday, Horvat had to warm up to the prospect of skating with Goldobin and Brock Boeser. This wasn’t about heavy wingers banging the boards and winning battles. It was about doing something off the rush.
But at even strength it was more Horvat than his linemates and his bull rush to the net in the second period, in which he was pitchforked by Jonas Siegenthaler, showed raw will. He went forehand on the penalty shot and tried to beat Braden Holtby to the stick side but the Capitals’ netminder got just enough of the effort. Boeser didn’t have a shot attempt.
HUTTON LOGS A LOAD, BEAGLE SALUTED
Hutton was going to get the point call on the first power-play unit. He was also going to get called upon to work well with Troy Stecher and eat up minutes with Edler sidelined. He relished the role and confidently played 28:35 while Tanev got better as the game went on in a pairing with Gudbranson and Derrick Pouliot was with Biega.
Long-serving Capitals’ centre Beagle received a standing ovation, a video tribute and chants of “Beagle Beagle” and even a long hug from Alex Ovechkin in his first game in Washington after signing with the Canucks as a free agent on July 1.