Canucks crank up offence with ‘full team effort’
With the Canucks’ typically strong, sound defensive game failing them, they cranked the volume on their offence to feed their desperate National Hockey League playoff drive.
ELMONT, N.Y. — True power is controlling the music. Vancouver Canucks resident DJ Conor Garland’s choice for the victory song Wednesday night was as obvious as it was appropriate: “New York, New York.”
We’re not sure Frank Sinatra has ever been played that loudly by people born around the time he died, but had Old Blue Eyes been in the Canucks lineup against the New York Islanders, he’d have probably scored, too.
With the Canucks’ typically strong, sound defensive game failing them, they cranked the volume on their offence to feed their desperate National Hockey League playoff drive. Smart.
But what made less sense is the scorers in Vancouver’s 5-2 win included checking centre Teddy Blueger, minor-league call-up Aatu Raty and defensive defenceman Derek Forbort, whose bold rush forward broke a 2-2 tie with 23 seconds left in the second period as the Canucks scored four times in the final 26 minutes to take the game away from the Islanders.
Forbort, who ended an 82-game scoring drought on March 9, suddenly has two goals in 10 games.
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“When I was going through the line after scoring,” Forbort said of the post-goal receiving line at the Canucks bench, “everybody was saying sh–. But it was all funny.
“We know we kind of have a little bit of a depleted lineup as far as offence goes, so I think the D knows we’ve kind of got to try to be a little more aggressive and help out when we can.”
After somehow losing Saturday to the New York Rangers despite outshooting them 39-12, the Canucks swept their final two games in the New York area. They rallied to beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 in a shootout on Monday.
They made a brand new start of it. And they did so without top centre Elias Pettersson and his winger, Nils Hoglander, who were sent home with injuries after the Rangers game, joining concussed second-line centre Filip Chytil in Vancouver.
“You know, we’re down some key guys,” Blueger said. “Cheats, Petey, Hogs, all of those guys can produce offence for us. So for sure, you need everyone in different ways. It doesn’t mean we need goals from Raty or Forbort every night, but for sure it helps.
“It’s just finding ways. We made some nice plays offensively. It’s nice to get some goals because it’s tough relying on just one or two every night.”
One or two wasn’t going to be enough the way the Canucks were surrendering outnumbered rushes in the first two periods. The Islanders had five two-on-ones, and Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko stopped four of them.
Blueger’s goal at 1:05 in the third period, after Garland stole the puck from Islanders defenceman Adam Pelech, gave the Canucks some breathing room and chased New York starter Ilya Sorokin.
Vancouver had two big penalty kills before Sherwood, who now constitutes a sniper by Canucks standards, scored his second of the game into an empty net with 1:52 remaining. The bargain free agent has a career-high 17 goals and 32 points in his first season with the Canucks.
“It was a full team effort tonight and we needed that,” Canucks captain Quinn Hughes said. “And I’m happy for those guys (who scored).
“Obviously, we could definitely play better. But in saying that, you know, every game’s been a must-win for us and it’s been an emotionally taxing — I would say year — but definitely in the last couple weeks. And for us to sneak one out when we didn’t play our best is a really good sign.”
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The Canucks snuck out with their fifth win in eight games (5-2-1) because Demko, whose six-week injury layoff ended in New Jersey, made a handful of five-star saves. The best two were possibly against former teammate Bo Horvat on outnumbered rushes early in the first period.
“The scary part is he’s just getting started, right?” Sherwood said of Demko’s return. “Both Demmer and Lanks (Kevin Lankinen) have been insane for us. They give us a chance every night and that’s all you can ask for. They keep us afloat and allow us enough time for us to pot one or two, and then we can get things going.”
Nothing was going on in the scoreless first period. Everything seemed to be happening in the second.
Sherwood and Raty, with his third goal of the season, scored on deflections (on purposeful shots from Hughes and Marcus Pettersson) to sandwich two goals the Islanders produced 3 ½ minutes apart to take a 2-1 lead.
Hughes’ uncharacteristic turnover on the power play — and the defenceman’s failure to defend the ensuing two-on-one rush — allowed Casey Cizikas to score shorthanded at 5:35. Only the crossbar prevented Tyler Myers’ turnover on the next shift from giving the Islanders two shorthanded goals on one penalty.
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But New York took the lead at 9:00 as the teams skated four-on-four. With the Canucks caught on a long shift and the Islanders fresh, Tony DeAngelo had time and space to collect a rebound and sling it behind Demko.
But Raty made it 2-2 at 13:59 before Forbort looked like Larry Robinson on a dash up the middle of the ice in the final minute, taking Jake DeBrusk’s pass in stride and beating Sorokin from the slot with a quick release.
“Is that what I did?” Forbort said. “I was kind of able to get some speed. . . and then when I saw it go wide to Jake, I thought, ‘Screw it, I’ll be the middle-lane drive here.’ Jake made a great little play and I just kind of fired it.”
And then it was time for chirping.
“No, no,” Hughes insisted. “We need more (goals) like that.”
The Canucks’ six-game survival tour continues Friday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets.
