The old cliché “one step forward, two steps back” actually feels meaningful when there are only three paces until the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Edmonton Oilers are filling your rearview mirror.
The Vancouver Canucks were unable to use arguably the biggest win of their season as a springboard Wednesday against the Arizona/Salt Lake City Coyotes, the National Hockey League’s problem child who won 4-3 in overtime at Rogers Arena on their way to another full summer of golf and, possibly, forced relocation.
The Canucks did manage to rally from two goals down in the third period to salvage a point, which is important because it means they’ll still lead the Pacific Division on Sunday morning no matter what happens Saturday night in Edmonton.
Even without Connor McDavid, the Oilers thrashed the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1 in Edmonton on Wednesday, which leaves them four points behind the Canucks with two games in-hand. The Coyotes visit Edmonton on Friday before the Canucks play there Saturday night in what could be the game-of-the-season for the teams.
But even if Edmonton wins Friday and Saturday, the Canucks will still be ahead of the Oilers on tie-breakers, albeit at the mercy of their rival’s extra game during the final week of the regular season.
The merits of winning the division, however, will be largely irrelevant if the Canucks open the playoffs with the same misalignment and unevenness with which they have wobbled through the last month of the season, including on Wednesday.
For two periods against the Coyotes, 32 points adrift of Vancouver in the standings, the Canucks failed to play with the speed, physical urgency and net-front determination they displayed Monday in beating the Golden Knights 4-3.
Then, down by two goals in the third period, the Canucks were great. Goals in the last nine minutes of regulation time by Conor Garland and Elias Pettersson earned Vancouver an overtime point and the certainty of staying ahead of Edmonton at least until everyone’s final games are played next week.
But after Filip Hronek was stuffed by Coyote goalie Connor Ingram on a shorthanded penalty shot in overtime, the Canucks still lost when Logan Cooley got in front of Teddy Blueger to convert Dylan Guenther’s goalmouth feed at 3:51, six seconds after Brock Boeser’s tripping penalty had expired.
“I liked how we battled back,” Canuck defenceman Tyler Myers said. “We have a different look as a team when we put it in our heads that we’re going to turn it on. But we have to find a way to come out with that mentality to start the game. I don’t think we were bad (through two periods) but we’re a different team when we decide we’re going to play at our best. We showed it in the third, but it was just a little too late. We have to keep pushing. Some good things, but some things to clean up tonight. It’s going to be a fun one next game.”
“The way we played today wasn’t playoff hockey and wasn’t good enough,” veteran centre Elias Lindholm said after returning to the Vancouver lineup following a seven-game absence due to a wrist injury. “And, obviously, we have three more games here to put ourselves in a good spot and feel good about our game and get some confidence. Obviously, we’re going to play good teams, so it’s going to be a big stretch here for us.”
Unable the last 23 games to find and maintain the elite level at which the Canucks played through the first two-thirds of the season, it’s questionable whether they can locate it in their final three games games. They play the Oilers on Saturday, the Calgary Flames next Tuesday and Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
Edmonton gets the Coyotes, Canucks and San Jose Sharks before closing on Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche.
“I think we’ll be ready to ramp it up once it starts,” Canuck Carson Soucy said optimistically. “We’re obviously looking to be at our best, but I think once the intensity of playoffs (arrive), that’s good for our team and we’ll match it.”
After generating just two shots in the first period, the Coyotes managed to generate two goals in the second.
A little more than three minutes after Canuck defenceman Nikita Zadorov hit the post on a rush and Myers was stopped from the slot, the Coyotes opened scoring at 6:46 of the middle period.
Guenther’s centring pass bounced straight to teammate Josh Brown, whose quick shot from the right-wing circle beat screened Canuck goalie Arturs Silovs inside the top corner at the near post.
The goal seemed to energize the Coyotes, who were hammered 5-0 in Seattle the night before. Arizona started to play more in the Vancouver end, and the Canucks struggled to generate anything offensively.
Nils Hoglander couldn’t get his shot through on a four-on-two rush, and a late Canuck power play was torturous to watch — unless you were Coyote penalty-killers. Standing still, J.T. Miller forced three passes and one of them led to a shorthanded breakaway for Guenther, who was stopped by Silovs.
But at 18:32, the Canucks got a bounce and a tying goal. After Miller won an offensive-zone faceoff from Jack McBain, then beat the Coyote centre to the front of the net, Myers’ point shot hit the traffic and fell perfectly for Miller, who swept it into the open net for his 36th goal and 101st point of the season.
Just as it looked like the Canucks would escape a flat middle period still tied, the Coyotes got a seeing-eye goal out of nowhere at 19:28. Minor-league callup Vladislav Kolyachonok scored his first of the season when his wrist shot from distance travelled past three Canucks, two Coyotes, Silovs, the Zamboni and Finn The Mascot before plunking the inside of the post to make it 2-1 heading into the third period.
Arizona scored again at 1:55 of the third when Canuck captain Quinn Hughes, who has made few big mistakes during his Norris Trophy-calibre season, had the puck pilfered by Cooley, who set up Guenther point-blank.
But then the Canucks’ pushed, right? Yes — straight to the penalty box. Hoglander, Zadorov and Myers took consecutive minors starting at 4:08, and it was only after surviving these disadvantages that Vancouver squeezed the Coyotes and played its best hockey.
Garland scored his fourth goal in four games from a quick centring pass from Hoglander, and Pettersson made it 3-3 on a power play with 3:42 remaining by rattling a shot through Ingram’s pads while Miller stood over the goalie.
Hughes assisted on all three Vancouver goals, giving the Canuck captain 91 points and a plus-40 rating for the season.
“Just too many missed shots,” coach Rick Tocchet lamented of the 29 pucks the Canucks sent off-target. “I didn’t think we went to the net the first two periods. The third period we had urgency. You’ve just got to be ready to go.”
That last part could be the Canucks’ pre-playoff mantra.