VANCOUVER — Forget the French hens. On the third day of Christmas, the Vancouver Canucks got their third straight win.
They beat the San Jose Sharks 6-2 on Tuesday to climb back to where they had planned to be on Oct. 13: one game over .500. From this modest perch, they can see a National Hockey League playoff spot five points ahead of them, which is still a daunting distance in the standings.
But for a team that started the season with seven straight losses, being 16-15-3 isn’t as bad as it looks. And the franchise, of course, has been in much worse positions at Christmastime.
Canuck winger Lane Pederson has never been in a better spot for the holidays.
After 227 games in the minors over five-plus seasons, the undrafted 25-year-old from Saskatoon is spending the holidays on a line with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko. So, really, whatever he got for Christmas was going to pale in comparison to the opportunity he has earned with the Canucks.
On Tuesday, Pederson deftly deflected Luke Schenn’s point shot on net, then forced James Reimer to make a rebound save before Pettersson shoved the puck under the San Jose goalie to make it 2-0 in the first period in what turned out to be a rare, wire-to-wire win for Vancouver.
A throw-in in the October trade that brought defenceman Ethan Bear to the Canucks from the Carolina Hurricanes, Pederson was recalled from the American Hockey League 10 days ago — and after scoring 17 goals in 18 games — when Pettersson was unable to play due to illness. He stuck in the lineup when the Canucks star returned last week, earning a promotion to the top six.
He has three points in three games playing with Pettersson and Kuzmenko after amassing just five points in 46 NHL games scattered over three seasons and three teams.
“It’s a huge opportunity and I’m super thankful and just want to keep it going,” Pederson said Tuesday. “It’s obviously a really good opportunity to play with them. It’s so fun. It’s obviously a dream come true to play in the NHL, and then when you get to play with two extremely talented players like that, it just sweetens the whole deal.
“I think it definitely helps with the way I play the game. Obviously, they’re both really smart players and I’m able to kind of just read and react off what they’re doing and try to get them the puck and get open.”
The play he made Tuesday to help generate Pettersson’s goal is something Pederson and Schenn might have planned over turkey on the 25th. Pederson is engaged to Madison Schenn, Luke’s sister. When the pre-Christmas snowstorm on the West Coast scuttled the couple’s plans to fly home for the holidays, Lane and Madison spent Christmas at the Schenn house.
“It was a world-class spread both nights,” Pederson said. “They’re amazing people. His parents are in town, his wife’s parents were in town, so lots of family and it was great.”
Tuesday’s game was a continuation of the festive vibes. Off since an impressive 5-2 road win against the Edmonton Oilers last Thursday, the Canucks scored early and often against the Sharks and, for a change, won easily without the drama of blown leads or a deficit conquered.
They yielded just 26 shots and outscored the Sharks in every period. Bo Horvat — who else? — scored another couple of goals and had his second straight four-point night, while linemate Ilya Mikheyev had one goal and three assists and was plus-five.
Even Quinn Hughes scored for Vancouver, sniping a short-side, top-shelf goal in the third period after circling the San Jose zone twice. One of the best passers on Earth, Hughes hadn’t scored since last season.
In 30 games, Hughes now has one goal and 28 assists.
“Bo came up to me and (asked) if I wanted the puck,” Hughes told reporters. “It’s kind of funny, but it’s not funny. That shouldn’t happen for me but at the same time, sometimes you go through a stretch like that. I felt like I was hitting lots of posts and just not getting the result. I’ve been happy with my game last 10, 15, 20 games so I’ve just got to keep that going, and if the results come, great.”
Results, however, aren’t a bonus for the Canucks. Their October false start have made them pretty much a nightly necessity. The team is now 12-6 since ending a three-game losing streak with a Nov. 15 win in Buffalo that may have saved coach Bruce Boudreau’s job.
“It’s probably been the hardest season for a lot of guys in this room, mentally, starting 0-7 when we thought we’re going to start really, really well,” Hughes said. “At least for me, it’s been tough. And to get above .500 now and three in a row, I think it means a lot to everyone in here and we’ve just got to keep it going because we know that it can change quickly. But I think that the way we’re playing right now, we can keep stringing together (wins).”
The Canucks finish 2022 with a trip to Winnipeg and Calgary, starting Thursday against the Jets. This is the third time since Buffalo that Vancouver has won three straight, but the team hasn’t yet counted to four.
“We do little spurts and take a step back, little spurts and take a step back,” goalie Spencer Martin said. “So it’s been very difficult mentally. We haven’t had a game where it’s just, like, free hockey.”
And they still aren’t likely to get one of those for a while.
