ELMONT, N.Y. — The only thing halfway about the Vancouver Canucks is their schedule.
The National Hockey League team is completely switched on and running full throttle. Full of speed, conviction and confidence, they roared through the New York area with the ferocity of the windstorm that grounded the Canucks’ post-game charter Tuesday night.
The gale had far more success than did the New York Islanders, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils, who were swept by Vancouver in three games over four days as the Canucks completed the New York triple crown for the first time in franchise history.
Playing their second game in just over 24 hours, the Canucks overmatched the Islanders on Tuesday, winning 5-2 at UBS Arena to reach the mid-point of their regular-season schedule at 27-11-3 — a clear measure of success that would have seemed unfathomable a couple of months ago.
Twenty-five of the wins have been in regulation time. The Canucks are 24-0-0 when leading after two periods and since they re-ignited a month ago after a brief spell of middling play, the team is 11-2-2. Vancouver is second in the NHL in points, third in winning percentage.
They’ve been getting contributions from nearly everyone in their lineup. So many players are playing well that on Tuesday, coach Rick Tocchet rested veteran defenceman Ian Cole on the second of back-to-back games so that Noah Juulsen could get a turn back on the blue line.
Another veteran, Nikita Zadorov, sat out Saturday’s 6-4 win in New Jersey as Carson Soucy returned from injury, although both Zadorov and Tocchet said the defenceman was dealing with a minor injury issue that cost him only the one game.
“Since I’ve got here, I always preach the team,” Tocchet told reporters. “It’s no different like, as a coach when there’s an empty net, there’s eight guys looking (at me) because they want to get on. I get it. Some people want to get on and we can talk about it later. But in the moment, be happy for your teammate. I think that’s the key of a good team guy, is being in the moment happy for a guy. And then you have a tough conversation with the coach later. But that’s for a different time. That’s what this team is really good at — staying in the moment. And that’s what being a team guy is.”
Almost certainly, Cole will be back in the lineup on Thursday when the Canucks visit the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of Vancouver’s season-long, seven-game excursion.
“You know, the world I live in right now is we’ve got some healthy D, so we’ve got some decisions to make,” Tocchet said. “The guy that’s coming in is a very capable, capable defenceman. We get to rest a guy like Ian Cole, who’s played really well for us, and we’re looking a little long term with him. He’s a team guy. And that’s what I love about (him); he understood it. He doesn’t have to like it, but he understood it.
“At the end of the day, he understands and he’s a team guy. He’s in there fist-pumping (teammates). That’s why we acquired a guy like Ian Cole.”
Juulsen, who elevated his play and solidified his place on the roster during the eight weeks that Soucy was injured, said everyone on defence has each other’s back.
“As a group, the guys have been great,” he said. “Even if you’re going into and out of the lineup a little bit, guys are supportive. You know, ‘Come back in and just do your thing.’ Nobody looks at anybody differently in here.”
“For any player, when you feel like you have your teammates behind you, even if a guy is going through rough times, somebody’s there for him,” defenceman Tyler Myers said. “It’s a good feeling to have within a team. The room is in such a good place right now. Obviously, it’s a lot more fun winning than losing. We just have to make sure we keep it going. It’s not going to get any easier. I think that’s the biggest thing we have to realize.”
It felt appropriate on a night when Tocchet’s decision to rest Cole shined a light on the Canucks’ defence, that the win over the Islanders was driven from the blue line.
Each member of the Quinn Hughes–Filip Hronek defence pairing scored in the first period, capping a New York weekend in which they were every bit as impressive for the Canucks as the seemingly unstoppable Lotto Line.
Reunited forwards J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser generated another goal on Tuesday — Pettersson-to-Miller-to-Pettersson for a tap-in after Hronek caused a turnover — bringing the Lotto Line’s total to nine goals in three games.
Hughes and Hronek dominated at five-on-five. Each registered one goal and five points during the three games in the New York area. Hughes was plus-seven and Hronek plus-10. In three games.
Hronek made it 1-0 against the Islanders at 16:25 of the first period, picking the far side on goalie Ilya Sorokin 15 seconds after a Vancouver power-play ended. Except the advantage didn’t really end because Hronek’s one-timer blast a few ticks earlier toppled Islander penalty-killer Casey Cizikas, who was unable to get up from the ice and help his team defend.
Cizikas attempted two short shifts early in the second period, then left the game.
Just 2:17 after Hronek scored, Hughes made it 2-0 with a goal few others could score.
The Canucks captain collected a loose puck deep in the Islanders zone, circled back towards the right-wing sideboards, spotted Islanders Alexander Romanov and Jean-Gabriel Pageau standing passively, then darted between them and beat Sorokin from the hash marks for his 11th goal of the season.
And when the outplayed Islanders, down 3-0 after Pettersson’s 20th goal of the season, tried to make it a game when Brock Nelson scored on a power-play goal at 11:11 of the middle period, it was defenceman Myers who restored the three-goal cushion, skating into an expanse the size of Saskatchewan on right wing and over-powering Sorokin at 17:24 with a slapshot on yet another out-numbered rush for the Canucks.
“Obviously, the Myers goal was awesome and Huggy’s goal was incredible,” Tocchet said. “I mean, you just go down the list. When you get that second wave (on attack), that rush, that’s what really helps. We forechecked the puck good and I thought that was probably one of our better games at breaking the puck out, and that’s why our D got some of those chances.”
“I think the way things are going right now shows that everybody’s buying in and it’s a really good feeling in the room right now,” Myers said. “The last three games, our consistency within our details are maybe one of the best stretches we’ve had all year. We just have to realize why we’re having success: everybody’s buying in to doing the little things, and it’s working for us.”
