TAKEAWAYS
1) It seems this year more than others, no lead is safe in the National Hockey League. And the Vancouver Canucks seem to have become the poster children for this. Down in games, they have rallied for wins earlier in the season. Up in games, recently, and they have made life difficult on themselves as they did again Saturday against Buffalo. The Canucks squandered leads of 2-0, 3-2 and then held a 5-3 edge with under 10 minutes to play -- only to need overtime to finally put the Sabres away with a 6-5 victory. JT Miller's power play goal at 3:21 of overtime was the winner and also the club's 100th goal of the season in its 30th game. The Canucks continue to score at an outrageous rate and on Saturday were able to outscore their defensive issues. But far too often recently the team has surrendered far too many goals: 5 vs Colorado, 6 in Dallas, 8 in Pittsburgh and 5 against Buffalo. Those examples are from the last 10 games. The Canucks have made terrific strides in the offensive side of their game and, scoring five or more for the fourth time in five games, show no signs of slowing down. But they could make life so much easier on themselves if they could find a way to lock down leads and tighten up their overall team defense.
2) The Canucks have scored 24 goals in their past five games. Thirteen different players have found the back of the net in that time. On Saturday, the Canucks got a pair of goals from Josh Leivo and two more from Antoine Roussel who has provided a scoring surge in addition to his usual spark in his two games back after knee surgery. The team also got the first goal of the season from Tyler Myers who showed great awareness to recognize the amount of open ice ahead of him as he jumped up into the rush and finished off a pretty short-handed two-on-one with JT Miller. And, of course, Miller popped the water bottle off the net behind Carter Hutton putting all he had into a one-timer from the right face-off circle to win it in overtime. Going back to the club's 8-6 loss in Pittsburgh, the offense has come alive. And it hasn't been the usual suspects leading the charge. In the past five games, Tanner Pearson and JT Miller are tied for the team lead with 3+4=7 apiece. After two assists Saturday, Jake Virtanen has 1+5=6 while Quinn Hughes has 0+6=6. Josh Leivo leads the team in goals over the past five games with four to go along with a helper. With five points, he's tied with Adam Gaudette 2+3=5, Brock Boeser 1+4=5 and Bo Horvat 0+5=5. That's eight players before we get to team leader Elias Pettersson who had an assist on one of Leivo's goals Saturday and has certainly contributed with 2+2=4 over that five game span. But it shows that the team isn't relying on just one player or even a small group of scorers. Over the past five games, Leivo leads with 4 goals, Pearson, Miller and Roussel with 3 each, Pettersson and Gaudette have each scored twice, with singles from Boeser, Virtanen, Myers, MacEwen, Eriksson, Graovac and Fantenberg. That quite a cast of characters.
3) Bo Horvat had no idea he was the player referee Ghislain Hebert was on the headset to the league office about. With 3:38 remaining in a one-goal game, the Canucks captain was preparing to take a defensive zone face-off to the left of Thatcher Demko when the horn sounded prompting one of the on-ice officials to take a call from the league. A concussion spotter wanted Horvat removed from the game after absorbing a shoulder to head check from Buffalo defenseman Brandon Montour a few minutes earlier. Under the league's concussion protocol, Horvat was forced to leave the game and be checked over in a quiet room under the stands at Rogers Arena. While under observation, Horvat was unable to help the Canucks protect their lead. He was also unavailable to participate in overtime although he did join his team for its on ice celebration after Miller scored. Later Horvat informed the media that he had been cleared and was on his way back to the bench when the winning goal was scored. Horvat said he understands the role of the concussion spotter and the fact that the league is trying to put player safety first, but he didn't understand why the call wasn't made earlier. He claimed he felt s fine and, in fact, had returned to the game for shifts after the Montour hit without any issues. Still, Horvat had to follow the necessary steps mandated by the league before gaining clearance to return to the game. The best news to come out of all of this is that Horvat is fine, his team won and he'll be ready for Tuesday's game against Toronto.
4) The Canucks line-up Saturday included the return of depth forwards Jay Beagle and Micheal Ferland who had both missed lengthy stretches with injury. Beagle had a tough second period during which he was on the ice for all three Sabres goals and took a tripping penalty that put the Canucks down a man while the game was tied 2-2. On the afternoon, Beagle logged 14:06 and was on for four of the five Sabres goals (three of them at even strength). It's impossible to pin the goals against on Beagle by himself, but as a player who prides himself for making an impact on the defensive side of the puck, he will need to get better. Perhaps some of the struggles can be attributed to chasing the game after weeks off, but as a player who relishes the shutdown role he so often plays, Beagle needs to get back to game speed in a hurry. Ferland, on the other hand, was the low-ice time man for the Canucks and the only player on the team under 10 minutes Saturday -- skating 8:50 almost exclusively at evens. He was on for a pair of Sabres goals against. The promising sign for Ferland was that, after 17 games out with a concussion suffered on October 30th in Los Angeles, the feisty winger led the Canucks with six hits in the hockey game. Neither Beagle nor Ferland was at their best Saturday, but both likely knocked some rust off with the hope that they'll be better on Tuesday when they get their next shot at game action.
5) After wins over Ottawa and Buffalo, the Canucks have now won three of their last four games. They reached the 30-game mark with a record of 15-11-4 good for 34 points. That puts them on a 93-point pace over the course of an 82-game season. So through 30 games, the Canucks have done what they set out to do on many fronts. They have increased their overall offense and improved their power play. They have stayed with the pack in a playoff race that seems to get tighter by the day. They have put themselves on a trajectory that would represent significant improvement over last season's 81 point total. And with two more home games before they hit the road again, they have a chance to string three (and possibly four) wins together for the first time since the first two weeks of the season. If the Canucks are going to be a playoff team this season, they have to make home ice matter. After Saturday's win, they are now 7-3-3 at Rogers Arena this season. If they can take care of Toronto on Tuesday and Carolina on Thursday, they'll be 9-3-3 on home ice this season. It would be hard to argue with that kind of record through the team's first 15 home games of the season.
