Of all the Canucky things that have happened to the Vancouver Canucks this season, one of the Canuckiest is that Elias Pettersson was injured Monday after ending a six-game offensive famine by scoring twice in a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks.
Typical.
Pettersson’s pair of goals equalled his output from the previous 16 games and came after a week in which the noise around the National Hockey League team became deafening enough to burst through the soundproofing of the Canuck dressing room.
After scoring goals 44 seconds apart late in the second period when the Canucks took command, Pettersson was unable to finish the game. Superstar captain Quinn Hughes, who sustained a knock in Saturday’s overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators and was a questionable starter, managed not only to play but contributed another two assists in 25:11 of ice time. Of course, he did.
But after all the drama and challenges — real and imagined — surrounding the Canucks through 34 games, all the injuries and absences of key players, the team made it to the Christmas Break at 17-10-7. It’s too bad their holiday lasts only three days before the Canucks practise ahead of Saturday’s home game against the Seattle Kraken.
“We have three days off, and everyone can kind of calm down and come back hungry,” defenceman Vincent Desharnais said. “Whatever the media are saying, we just kind of ignore it. We just stick together and I think that’s the best way to build confidence and build our team. You know, we’re not even halfway through the season yet. We want to win, we want to play for each other. It was great to see some guys doing great things tonight. It was good to get everyone involved.”
Vancouver got goals from three of their four forward lines, and all six defencemen logged at least 16 minutes. Goalie Thatcher Demko made 27 saves and looked sharp, even if his linescore was darkened by a meaningless six-on-five goal by San Jose’s Luke Kunin with six seconds remaining.
Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers and winger Danton Heinen literally fought for their team.
“Yeah, it was nice,” centre J.T. Miller said after logging 21:01, his highest ice time since the emotional leader returned from a personal leave of absence for mental-health reasons. “This time of year, it’s a big game for us going into the holidays. You don’t want to have that taste. . . of not bringing your best game today. It was nice to have everybody contribute. That team (San Jose) is playing really well, and I think we showed up to play tonight.”
As they reset, the Canucks are on pace for 99 points — 10 fewer than last year. But the adversity they’ve faced through 34 games is at least quadruple what they encountered all of last season.
“It’s just so different from last year,” Miller said. “But I think this is good for the group (to go through). Last year, we talked about going game by game, whether we were winning or losing, and that definitely still goes now. Things happen. You go with the flow.”
It feels like the current has been flowing against them since the season began.
“Guys have handled the adversity well,” Myers said. “You know, a lot has happened in these first 34 games. Guys going down, guys in and out of the lineup. When you look at the big picture, I think the room has done a great job of handling it. We just want to keep pushing every day to keep getting better. I always say it, but it’s true. We’re just focused on the next game, looking at things, looking at ways to get better within our system. It’s the same process.”
Pettersson played only one test shift in the third period before leaving the game.
“He got banged up,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “We’ve got the break. I don’t think it’s too bad, so we’ll see how it is.”
Pettersson also did damage to the Sharks late in the second period, when Vancouver scored three times in 70 seconds to build a 4-1 lead.
The game came to life a few minutes earlier. With the score tied 1-1 halfway though the middle frame — and the Canucks stuck on 10 shots — Shark Ty Dellandrea hit unsuspecting Teddy Blueger with a shoulder to the head away from the puck in the Vancouver zone.
Heinen, who hadn’t had a fight during 7½ NHL seasons, immediately challenged Dellandrea.
Besides his fighting major, Dellandrea escaped with only an interference minor for clobbering Blueger, but it offset the instigator penalty Heinen absorbed in addition to a late uppercut.
The sequence charged up the crowd, which cheered loudly for Heinen as he went to the penalty box for the longest sentence of his career.
At 16:42, Canuck Kiefer Sherwood snatched the go-ahead goal out of nothing, getting a half step on the Sharks defence and zipping a wrist shot from the right-wing circle into the top, short-side corner on San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov.
Pettersson then brought the crowd to peak volume one shift later when the beleaguered centre pounced on a huge Askarov rebound and scored his first goal (and first point) in seven games to make it 3-1 at 17:08.
Normally stoic, Pettersson allowed himself a quick fist pump before getting mobbed by teammates.
And when San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky’s unsuccessful goalie-interference challenge was followed by a hooking penalty to Shark Mario Ferraro, Pettersson scored again at five-on-three by hitting his spot with a glove-side wrist shot at 17:52.
And just like that, Pettersson’s slump was over, or at least interrupted, the Canucks had a three-goal lead and everyone was happy.
Teammates were elated for Pettersson.
“He’s too good; he’s going to break out at some point,” Hughes said. “And I’m glad that he was able to do that tonight. Hopefully for him, he can enjoy the next couple days, like all of us, and regroup and get ready to go.”
“Two great shots,” Tocchet said. “Things like that loosen people up. Hopefully, that’ll kickstart (more goals) and he’ll enjoy himself. I liked the celebration after. It was nice to see a guy like him score like that and get excited. I think the fans like to see that, too.”
Brock Boeser scored from Hughes’ pass in the first period, tying the game at 14:10 after William Eklund made it 1-0 for San Jose during a two-man advantage at 11:36. In his first NHL game in his hometown, North Vancouver’s Macklin Celebrini had a pair of assists for the Sharks, giving the 18-year-old 25 points in 25 games as a rookie.
“I think that the break’s coming at a fortunate time,” Hughes said, referring to his health and Pettersson’s. “We’ve got three days here just to recover and regroup, and we’ll see what’s going on after that.”
Tocchet said: “I told the guys after the game, ‘You know, the waves aren’t 12 feet (high).’ They’re only three or four or five feet, they’re not 12 feet. Just relax, don’t listen to the outside noise, and control what you control. . . in the dressing room.”