The Vancouver Canucks’ win in South Florida one year ago ignited their season.
Beating the Florida Panthers 5-3 in Game 5 launched the Canucks on a nine-game unbeaten streak that moved them towards the top of the National Hockey League and set the trajectory for their 50-win regular season.
They will hope that Thursday’s gutsy 3-2 overtime win against the undermanned Stanley Cup champions does the same. In Game 4, the Canucks got their first win of this season when J.T. Miller took advantage of the Panthers in overtime and snapped a shot from his off-wing into the top corner at 2:09 to get Vancouver back to .500 at 1-1-2.
But even before Miller’s powerful rush, it was the best performance by the Canucks so far. With the game tied 2-2, their best period was the third, when Brock Boeser was stopped three times on good scoring chances by Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who also stuffed Miller and Nils Aman on point-blank chances. Vancouver winger Nils Hoglander also hit a post.
The Canucks outhit the Panthers 41-35 and had an 11-8 advantage on high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Vancouver never trailed, taking a 1-0 lead on Teddy Blueger’s first-period wraparound and going ahead 2-1 on Quinn Hughes’ first goal of the season, at 6:30 of the second period. Missing stars Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, the Panthers tied the game 2-2 on Anton Lundell’s power-play goal with one minute remaining in the middle frame.
Canuck goalie Kevin Lankinen stopped 26 of 28 shots, boosting his save percentage through two starts to .932.
“We’ve got some work to do, but thought there was some good stuff in there,” Canuck coach Rick Tocchet told reporters in Florida. “There were times. . . we had good possession time, had some (scoring) chances. That’s a championship team there, and they’re missing some key guys. Winning one in overtime was nice.
“We’ve still got to clean some things up. When the other team makes a push, I think we’ve got to play a little more simpler. But for the most part, you know, a hell of a goal for Millsy in overtime, so it’s a big win for us.”
The Canucks also had four points through their first four games last year. They were 2-2 before beating the Panthers.
“Just being able to find a way (to win), I think that’s kind of what we’ve been missing to start the year,” Blueger said. “Obviously, a couple close games early on. You know, the margin of victory is very, very small, the difference between winning and losing. So I think it’s good for our team, good for character and morale, to just kind of find a way to get it done.”
OUT-SMARTING IN OT
As Florida coach Paul Maurice rolled out three forwards and no defencemen for each overtime shift, the Canucks took advantage of the unconventional deployment when Hughes skated the puck into the Florida zone, forcing the Panthers to retreat, then turned back and hit a trailing Miller at speed.
Standing still, Panther centre Lundell had no chance to stop Miller at the blue line, and before Florida winger Sam Reinhart could get across the ice to cut off the Canuck, Miller zipped the puck past Bobrovsky.
“We always talk about, you know, Quinn trying to go up ice as far as he can to soften their gap,” Miller told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy in a walk-off interview. “And I caught a forward there flat-footed. It doesn’t always work. . . but it’s nice to get this win for the guys today.
“Obviously, when you get to overtime, anything can happen. But I think it takes a little weight off the shoulders (and let’s us) maybe relax and let’s us play a little bit moving forward.”
Miller’s overtime game-winner was his 10th for the Canucks, moving him ahead of Brendan Morrison for second-place all-time in franchise history. Only Daniel Sedin (16) has scored more regular-season OT goals for Vancouver.
Halfway through their road trip, the Canucks visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday and the Chicago Blackhawks Tuesday.
CRASH KIEFER
Winger Kiefer Sherwood got the puck to the net before Blueger’s wraparound goal, but the new Canuck’s value to his team and impact on the game were better reflected by his hits total: the winger registered 10 in 12:57 of ice time. Sherwood constantly menaced Panther defencemen.
With 23 hits through his first four games with Vancouver, Sherwood is second in the NHL behind only Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich, who has logged two more games but left Thursday’s contest in the first period due to an injury. With Barkov and Tkachuk injured and ill, respectively, Florida started the game with only 11 forwards and played shorthanded up front.
Panther forwards Lundell (22:42), Reinhart (22:13), Carter Verhaeghe (22:14) and Evan Rodriguez (20:44) all logged in excess of 20 minutes of ice time.
MIGHTY QUINN
It was one of those games for Quinn Hughes that we are so accustomed to seeing, by the end of the regular season, we’ll hardly remember it. For most defencemen on planet Earth, it would be the game of their lives.
Besides assisting on Miller’s game-winner and scoring his first goal of the season on a second-period rocket, after Aman and Danton Heinen combined to win a faceoff and then screen Bobrovsky, Hughes set a career high with nine shots on target.
Shots were 20-9 for the Canucks with Hughes on the ice at even strength, and the Canuck captain posted a team-best expected goals-for of 65 per cent. Hughes tilted the ice towards the Florida end and played like a Norris Trophy winner.
LINEUP CHANGES
Aman returned to the Canuck lineup for Aatu Raty and was robbed by Bobrovsky halfway through the third period when Hughes set him up for a goalmouth redirect. That was the only change up front for Tocchet as Daniel Sprong was a healthy scratch a second straight game.
But the bigger lineup change for Vancouver was on defence, where minor-league callup Erik Brannstrom made his Canucks debut after the team announced that Derek Forbort had taken a leave of absence for personal reasons.
A takeback in the pre-season contract dump of Tucker Poolman to the Colorado Avalanche, Brannstrom gave the Canucks 12 competent minutes on the third pairing alongside Vincent Desharnais, who replaced Noah Juulsen after sitting out the last two games. Shots were 6-5 for the Panthers when Brannstrom was on the ice and, although under pressure at times, the Canucks’ third pairing was not on for Florida’s goals.
A mobile, puck-mover, Brannstrom played 266 games for the Ottawa Senators over parts of the last five seasons before the Avalanche signed him to a one-year, $900,000 contract in free agency this summer.
The 25-year-old appears to have replaced Mark Friedman as Vancouver’s eighth defenceman.
