VANCOUVER -- When coach Travis Green said the Vancouver Canucks needed their top players to be better, he probably wasn’t thinking of Brandon Sutter. But he could have been.
During the Canucks’ alarming start to the National Hockey League season, when attention has understandably been focussed on Elias Pettersson’s inability to score, J.T. Miller’s problems at even strength and the overall chaos on defence caused by turnovers, Sutter and a couple of other players near the bottom of the lineup have quietly been among the team’s best.
Monday, he wasn’t so quiet.
At the start of a very important week for the Canucks, Sutter scored his first NHL hat trick in his 735th game. Fellow grinder Tyler Motte also scored as Vancouver built an early lead and won 7-1 against the Ottawa Senators to ease, for at least a couple of days, some of the tension on the West Coast.
With conjecture percolating about the future of general manager Jim Benning, it felt perfectly scripted that Sutter, one of Benning’s least popular acquisitions, should score a hat trick to steady the team and take some of the heat off the GM.
Sutter is a pro’s pro, a guy who leads by example. But he was oversold to the market when he was acquired by Benning in 2015, and has struggled to stay healthy and score for most of the five years since then.
Teammates, however, love him.
“You never know when you’re going to get one or if you’re going to get one,” Sutter, 30, said after scoring once in each period. “It only took me 13 years. I’m pretty excited. It was a good win for our team... a little bit of confidence for our team going forward.”
It was a game that generated a lot of positive vibes for the Canucks. Rookie defenceman Olli Juoelvi scored his first NHL goal, rookie forward Nils Hoglander impressively set up Tanner Pearson on another, and Thatcher Demko made 34 saves in easily the best performance by a Vancouver goalie so far.
“It was enough is enough for me,” Demko said, relieved to improve on his 0-3 record and .866 save percentage. “First three starts of the year and not getting a win, that's tough. That's not the guy I want to be. I want to be a guy that's going to get wins when the team needs it.
“(It was) the goals that I was giving up at the times I was. That was something that I really wanted to focus on. Just timely saves, making sure that when they do get chances... that I can come up big and kind of give the team a chance to pull away.”
With his team up 2-0, Demko stopped Connor Brown on a breakaway late in the first period. In the second, his point-blank save on Artem Anisimov immediately preceded Sutter’s shorthanded snipe that made it 4-1. Demko made another strong save against Josh Norris at the end of the middle period, allowing his team to comfortably go into the third and pull away.
But he was still happier for Sutter than he was for himself.
“One of the reasons why you play the game is moments like that,” Demko said. “You know he's been around the league 13 years now, and you're not sure if you're going to get one. Everyone's just really excited for him, giving him some hugs after the game.”
Demko and Braden Holtby have largely had a free pass during the Canucks’ poor start because there were so many other, more serious, problems.
But on Monday, the team was much better in front of him – albeit against a weaker opponent – and Demko provided goaltending you can win with. The Canucks need a lot more if it.
They could use more of the perfect penalty killing they had against the Senators, more of the positional discipline and composure they displayed, too. Hey, if Pettersson and the first line can start dominating at even-strength the way they did last season, everything will be fine.
“Everyone just needs to simplify,” Sutter said. “I know it sounds a little bit cliche. But when you do the right things system-wise and play the right way as a team, that’s when your highly-skilled guys kind of find their game and take over. That’s where they create their offence.”
The Senators are the only team in the Canadian division universally regarded as worse than the Canucks, and this was only one win. The Canucks are still 3-5-0. But players seeking confidence have something to build on. It’s a start.
The Canucks and Senators play again Wednesday and Thursday at Rogers Arena.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNwb3J0c25ldC5jYS9uaGwvYXJ0aWNsZS9jYW51Y2tzLXF1aWV0LWxlYWRlci1zdXR0ZXItbWFrZXMtcHJlc2VuY2Uta25vd24tc3RlYWR5aW5nLXBlcmZvcm1hbmNlL9IBa2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNwb3J0c25ldC5jYS9uaGwvY2FudWNrcy1xdWlldC1sZWFkZXItc3V0dGVyLW1ha2VzLXByZXNlbmNlLWtub3duLXN0ZWFkeWluZy1wZXJmb3JtYW5jZS9zbi1hbXAv?oc=5
2021-01-26 06:56:00Z
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