NEW YORK – If the Vancouver Canucks were as merciless as the hockey gods seem to be, they would have beaten the New York Rangers on Saturday by five goals.
But the most unyielding thing about the Canucks this season has been the constant torrent of adversity, albeit some of it self-inflicted, that has flowed into them like the Fraser River flows into Hells Gate in the B.C. interior.
On Saturday, desperate to maintain a decent chance of still making the National Hockey League playoffs, the Canucks outshot the Rangers 39-12, including 20-3 in the game’s first half. High-danger scoring chances were 16-3 for Vancouver.
But the Rangers, who were barely there at Madison Square Garden even when it was 1-1 while the shots were 21-4, scored three times on five shots in the third period and sealed a logic-defying 5-3 win when ex-Canuck J.T. Miller scored into an empty net with 17 seconds remaining.
The Canucks continued to push relentlessly with just 10 forwards after top centre Elias Pettersson and linemate Nils Hoglander were unable to play the final period due to injuries.
By the end, it wasn’t the Canucks’ failure to put more pucks past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin that cost them as much as their inability to defend a couple of New York forays late in the game when the hockey gods were already convulsing with laughter.
“That’s just how hockey is sometimes: it’s cruel,” Canuck winger Jake DeBrusk said. “But in saying that. . . I think we can’t let a team hang around. That’s the biggest thing. Anytime that you’re outplaying any team like that. . . if we make it a 2-0 game, I think it’s a different game. You can’t let teams hang around (because) even if they’re not at their best, you know, sometimes they get some bounces or things go wrong. But that’s hockey.”
“Yeah, I mean, it’s one of those freaky games that we deserved to win and we didn’t,” Canuck goalie Kevin Lankinen said after surrendering four goals in 11 shots. “Sometimes hockey is like that. Unfortunately, you don’t always get what you deserve. But you’ve just got to keep building.”
The player who least got what he deserved on Saturday was Canuck defenceman Quinn Hughes, who has been playing hurt since December and was still easily the best skater on the ice in New York. He may have been the best skater in the NHL on Saturday.
The Canucks captain skated laps around the Rangers, put nine shots on net, set up a goal and could have scored three or four, and nearly broke the ankles of Matt Rempe, the New York enforcer who inexplicably kept showing up on the ice against Hughes.
Hughes posted expected goals-for of 86 per cent and clocked an unofficial top speed of 24.56 m.p.h. that would be the fastest in the NHL this season.
But with the game being settled during a wild third period, K’Andre Miller, torched by Hughes on a couple of rushes, broke a 2-2 tie with 7:20 remaining when his centring pass bounced off the Canuck’s toe and past Lankinen for Vancouver’s third own-goal in two games.
“The one off the skate’s really, really lucky,” Hughes said. “He just chucks one in front. (But) I mean, I’ve done that plenty of times. Good play. Throw it to the net (and) you don’t know what’s going to happen.
“I thought we kind of shot ourselves in the foot at the end, which is too bad because we probably played one of our better games that we’ve played all year. We’ve got guys stepping up, we’ve got guys playing with heart, so can’t really complain too much about any of that. But it’s hockey.”
It’s also the Canucks this season.
After Brock Boeser scored another clutch goal for Vancouver to tie it 3-3 at 15:10, the Canucks surrendered the winning goal 37 seconds later to Jonny Brodzinski. The Ranger got goal-side body position on Kiefer Sherwood, who had fallen in the neutral zone, and scored from Alexis Lafreniere’s pass into the high slot on a three-on-five New York rush.
Brodzinski had given New York a 2-1 lead at 1:39 of the third period from J.T. Miller’s netfront pass after Canuck Dakota Joshua lost three-on-three coverage.
“Yeah, that was my guy,” Joshua said. “I just left him. That was a big mistake and it cost us in the end.”
Canuck Drew O’Connor made it 2-2 at 11:22 of the final frame, scoring on his own rebound after a nice setup by former Ranger Victor Mancini, before K’Andre Miller banked his pass in off Hughes 78 seconds later.
“Obviously, the couple of rush goals, we don’t like,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Got to protect the guts of the ice. A couple of mistakes from a couple of guys. But like I said, you know, we played a good game. When you lose your top centreman (Pettersson) and Hoggy, and then, you know, a couple of guys are banged up, I thought we hung in there pretty good. I’m proud of the team.
“We deserve a lot better.”
Tocchet guessed that neither Pettersson nor Hoglander will be available to play Monday’s game in New Jersey against the Devils. Pettersson appeared to aggravate an existing hand/arm/upper-body injury during a second-period faceoff, but there was no immediate evidence about what happened to Hoglander.
Vancouver is already indefinitely without second-line centre Filip Chytil (concussion), and Tocchet said the team will likely recall at least one centre from the American Hockey League.
Asked if he has ever experienced, as a player or coach, the volume of challenges the Canucks have faced this season, Tocchet said: “I looked at Footy (assistant coach Adam Foote) when Petey couldn’t go. . . like is anything else going to happen? It’s a test for all of us. You know, it’s adversity and you’ve got to learn from this stuff. It makes you better in the long run. Whether it’s bad luck or whatever, it’s something that you can learn from.”
The Canucks should all have graduate degrees in adversity by the end of this season, which got a little closer on Saturday.
