Brock Boeser strikes for his 23rd goal of the season to move back into the NHL goal lead
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The idea seemed simple enough Sunday.
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Don’t load up your players with information and meetings before the second half of back-to-back games — especially in another afternoon outing with no customary pre-game skate or sufficient preparation.
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Let them play and see what happens. Well, it wasn’t always pretty.
It took the sluggish Vancouver Canucks a period to find their legs after giving up the first 10 shots. However, they eventually found their game to rally and then hang on for a 4-3 victory over the cellar-dwelling, injury plagued and inexperienced Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center.
On a day when North Vancouver rookie phenom Connor Bedard displayed ample skill, shooting and smarts to establish himself as the Calder Trophy favourite — two assists, five shots, seven attempts — it was a second-period explosion by the Canucks that proved pivotal and critical.
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They struck for three goals, including pair in a 39-second span, to improve to 1-0-1 on a four-game road trip that continues Tuesday in Nashville. However, the Canucks had to gut it out in the end after Cole Guttman scored on the power play to pull the Blackhawks to within a goal early in the third period.
“It just came down to will and effort,” said Boeser, who struck for his 23rd goal of the season in the second-period barrage to move back into a tie for the NHL scoring lead. “We didn’t like our effort in the first period and we had a good response.
“We knew it was going to be hard to close it out. They made a push and we hung in there well. I’m just proud of the way we responded. We found a way and that’s all that matters.”
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Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet wanted his club to hold on to pucks and win battles early. That didn’t happen.
“In the first period, we were obviously sleepy and the second was a big response,” said Tocchet. “Getting three points out of these two games on a back-to-back, I’m happy about that, but we’ve got to clean up our game. Our third line dragged us into the fight.”
Here’s what we learned as Elias Pettersson, Dakota Joshua, Boeser and Ilya Mikheyev scored for the Canucks, while Nick Foligno had a pair of the Blackhawks:
Third line shines, Boeser’s shot fine
Tocchet tweaked his lineup Sunday.
He promoted the smart and shifty Pius Suter to align with Mikheyev and Pettersson, while Sam Lafferty was dropped to the fourth line with Nils Aman and Andrei Kuzmenko.
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What he didn’t have to do was mess with what has been his best line on many nights — a third-line deployment of Teddy Blueger between Conor Garland and Joshua — to dictate forechecking pace and a dominating offensive-zone presence.
It was Garland who did the work on Joshua’s goal to draw the Canucks even at 2-2. He got on top of a bouncing puck inside the Blackhawks blue-line and then spun with a slap-pass that a positioned Joshua was able to deflect with a deft touch.
“On a back-to-back, you try to find your legs and it was good to be tied 1-1 after the first period — especially when you don’t feel at your best,” said Garland. “We got rolling. Our line just sticks to the system and we trust it and it’s going to work.
“We’re a good defensive line that can chip in from time to time. We just hung on and had a lot of chances. A couple of more could have gone in.”
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The second-period effort sparked the Canucks.
Boeser took a Miller feed on the next shift and raced down the left side before ripping a wrist shot past goalie Petr Mrazek on the far glove side. Mikheyev then got in the slot to set a screen and pivoted to deflect a Tyler Myers point shot.
Boeser also had a rebound chance at the side of the net in the third period, but his effort went just high. He then had another chance and finished with four shots and six attempts.
Bedard’s skill, shot, smarts legit
They came to see the future because too much of the present is hard to watch.
At the United Center, where faithful followers find it hard to hype the Blackhawks, they’re embracing everything that will eventually be possible with Bedard, who has 26 points (12-14) through 30 games.
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He didn’t take long Sunday to show off an array of speed and artistry with three shots and five attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
His early quick read and pass nearly set up Tyler Johnson for a goal on Thatcher Demko’s doorstep. He then found a piece of the post, and with his high hand position and rapid release, also put one off Demko’s mask. He was also able to nearly pick the high short side through a tiny opening.
Bedard then showed another dimension of his multi-faceted game by setting up Foligno in opening minute of the second period. Instead of just letting a shot fly, Bedard purposely put a shot off Demko’s pads and Foligno was there to deposit the rebound for a tap-in and 2-1 lead.
Foligno also opened scoring on a bad sequence.
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Filip Hronek was stripped of the puck by Foligno behind the net and then got position on Quinn Hughes to redirect a Joey Anderson feed.
Power play finally finds range
The beat-up Blackhawks are using four rookie defencemen. That’s a huge problem.
And so was nearly losing a veteran blueliner in the first period Sunday when Connor Murphy took a J.T. Miller power play howitzer off his knee and had to be helped to the locker room but returned for the second period.
That only made it tougher to defend a Canucks power play that has so much potential, but was sputtering with a 3-for-27 funk in nine games — including going 0-for-5 on Saturday in a 2-1 shootout loss in Minnesota — before finally striking.
The Canucks went without a shot on their first man-advantage Sunday in the opening period and then had a 5-on-3 advantage for 51 seconds. They couldn’t finish, even though they had two players at the net, before Pettersson took a cross-ice Miller feed and went glove.
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2023-12-18 00:17:06Z
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