JEFF PATERSON'S FIVE TAKEAWAYS
1) While January was a month of sluggish starts for the Vancouver Canucks, February got off to a roaring start. Jake Virtanen opened the scoring -- and set the tone for the night -- converting a nifty centering feed from Antoine Roussel just 100 seconds after the opening face-off at Pepsi Center on Saturday. After 10 days off, it was exactly what the Canucks were looking for. And the start was made that much better when Brock Boeser snapped home his 50th career NHL goal five minutes later to give the Canucks a 2-0 cushion. It was the first time the team had enjoyed a 2-0 lead since a December 27th win in Edmonton. The start on Saturday was a huge part of one of the most complete performances of the season for Travis Green's team. The win moving the Canucks past the Avalanche and above the playoff bar in the Western Conference for the night. Five different goal scorers found the back of the net including three -- Virtanen, Tyler Motte and Nikolay Goldobin -- who hadn't scored in weeks. Virtanen and Goldobin had each gone 13 games while Motte had gone 11 without scoring. The Canucks also cashed in on the power play for just the second time in the past nine outings when Goldobin rounded out the scoring with six minutes to play in the third period.
2) Saturday was a night of strong responses for the Canucks. They clearly passed their first test by finding their legs early in the game after the All-Star break and the off week that followed. They extended their early lead which is something that has been difficult for this team to do on so many nights this season. Saturday the Canucks grabbed just their eighth 2-0 lead of the season and when Antoine Roussel added to the scoring 7:30 into the second period, the Canucks had just their fifth 3-0 lead of the season and their first since December 20th against St. Louis. One of the key stretches in the game was at 2-0 when the Canucks held the fifth ranked Avalanche power play at bay and moments after Roussel scored to put Vancouver up by three. Had the Avs scored there they would have been on the board, had momentum and got their crowd into the game. Instead, the Canucks penalty kill was air tight and set the stage for the team to generate offense of its own. Also when the Avalanche did score its only goal of the game to cut the lead to 3-1, the Canucks responded four minutes later and regained the three goal lead. It seemed the Canucks had an answer for just about everything Colorado threw at them on the night.
3) The Canucks did a terrific job of keeping the Avalanche scoring leaders in check on the night. Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog had combined for 199 points on the season entering the game. They'll have to wait to reach the 200 point mark as all three were kept off the scoresheet. That is a victory in itself and something that hasn't happened often this season. MacKinnon had four shots and nine attempts and was noticeable for much of the night. Rantanen had three shots while Landeskog had two. All three played over 21:40 on the night, but couldn't solve Jacob Markstrom who turned in another stellar performance in the Canuck net. The trio started the night apart, but did see a handful of even-strength shifts together and they were re-united on three Colorado power plays. They are terrific players all having remarkable seasons, but that's three games now without a goal for any of the three and you wonder how far those three can carry this Colorado hockey club that is now 3-11-2 in the past 16 games and 5-14-3 in its past 22 games.
4) Elias Pettersson played just 13:46 on Saturday. And that's not a bad thing. There will be nights ahead -- likely on this road trip -- when the Canucks will need their best player to lead the way, but Saturday wasn't one of them. With back to backs on the horizon in Philadelphia on Monday and Washington on Tuesday, having a fresh Pettersson should be a benefit to the Canucks. They had the luxury of leading nearly wire to wire on Saturday and could afford to measure his minutes. Also, the Canucks tried to use their other centres in match-up roles which cut into Pettersson's ice time. There have been a handful of nights this season when the rookie's ice time can be called into question. This wasn't one of them. The final 30 games will be a grind for a first year player with the stakes rising for the Canucks with each victory. Any time they can spare Pettersson a few shifts and still win handily, it's likely to the benefit of both the player and the team. On the night, Pettersson played just 11:15 at even-strength had only one shot on goal. But he did beat JT Compher cleanly on an offensive zone face-off that led to the primary assist on Boeser's game winning goal. So even in limited minutes, Pettersson was still able to leave his stamp on the hockey game.
5) The Canucks needed the win in Denver with Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Edmonton and Arizona all picking up at least a point in the standings on Saturday night. Vancouver vaults into the second wild card with 54 points two back of the Wild and two ahead of the Avalanche with five other teams within three of Colorado. The Canucks are far from a perfect hockey club, but when completely healthy as they are right now they look as stable as any of the teams behind them. That doesn't guarantee they will remain above the playoff bar in the short or long term, but with the goaltending they're getting from Jacob Markstrom, they appear to have more consistent netminding than most of their pursuers. And that can go a long way to help them in this race. They have three tough challenges ahead on this road trip with Philadelphia on a seven-game win streak, followed by a date with the defending Stanley Cup champions and then a match-up with Chicago and, right now, Patrick Kane is playing -- and producing -- as well as anyone in the NHL. But when the Canucks come off this road trip, they will be finished with all Eastern time zone games and will have 16 of their final 27 games on home ice. February is a difficult month, but it got off to a terrific start on Saturday. We'll see if the Canucks can keep the ball rolling against the Flyers on Monday.
