MONTREAL — The Vancouver Canucks were 6-3-4 before hitting the road on November 7. They’ve since lost five of six games.
In Montreal, the Canucks had everything going their way to avoid sinking further in the standings. Adam Cracknell scored 1:26 into the game, Jarred McCann got a power play goal with 2:06 left in the first period, and Canadiens goaltender Mike Condon allowed a backbreaking goal to Daniel Sedin 3:17 into the second period.
Just like that it was 3-0. And just like that, the Canucks stopped playing.
The comeback started with a shorthanded goal for Lars Eller at 8:40 of the second period. It ended with a David Desharnais finishing 3-on-1 in overtime.
The devil’s in the details — so let’s examine them.
P.K. Subban backs up his prophecy
After the Canadiens lost 6-1 to the Avalanche on Saturday, P.K. Subban admitted he played poorly. A day later he promised he’d correct course against Vancouver.
“I was a little bit better,” said Subban after the game. “Today was a step in the right direction, but I still feel I can probably be a little bit better than that.”
Subban was being humble.
He played 29:07 against the Canucks, set up the game-winning goal, had four shots on net, five hits, and finished the night at plus-2.
Tomas Fleischmann comes up clutch
Fleischmann’s salary: $750,000.
Fleischmann’s production through 19 games: five goals, eight assists, plus-7, average time on ice 14:55.
Try to find better value in the NHL.
Here’s the kicker: two of his five goals were game winners, and he scored the game-tying goal against Vancouver before assisting on Desharnais’ winner.
Eller’s goal turned the tide
Before the game, Canadiens coach Michel Therrien was outspoken about what he wanted to see from his line of Eller, Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Semin.
“They gotta play more inside the dots,” said Therrien. “I think that line is a little bit too much on the outside. It’s tough to score goals in the NHL when you’re too much on the outside. We wish that they contribute offensively a little bit more—they know. Hopefully, it’s going to be tonight.”
It didn’t start well for them.
Semin was relegated to less than three minutes in the first period because the Canadiens took three penalties, and Therrien wasn’t willing to use him on the power play.
Galchenyuk came close with a couple of early shots, but Vancouver goaltender Jacob Markstrom was up to the task.
“It was a tough start for us, but I thought that the goal of Lars Eller gave us a lot of life,” said Therrien after the game.
Eller took a pass in the neutral zone, charged into Vancouver’s end and waited until he was between the dots to riffle one past Markstrom on the short side.
He said that? Really?
Vancouver’s Daniel Sedin had this to say about a game his team lost by allowing four unanswered goals:
“We had a gameplan, we stuck with it for 60 minutes, and this was by far our best road game of the year.”
The Canucks are 5-3-3 on the road this season. Granted, it’s been a tough trip, but how could this have possibly been their best road performance?
They were outshot 36-26 and out-chanced 16-4 in the final two periods of the game according to our friends at Sportlogiq.com.
Habs finally come through in overtime
The Canadiens had lost both previous games that had made it to overtime; one of them during three-on-three play, the other in a shootout.
Condon has been in for all three of the games, and here’s how he saw the game-winning play develop:
“I think it was [Chris] Higgins; he tried to go glove and he missed… I think I just blacked out after that. I was very happy [Desharnais’ shot] went in.”
Condon saw it right. It was Higgins who committed a cardinal sin during three-on-three. The play turned quickly towards Vancouver’s end.
“In that moment you have an opportunity, it takes one shot; one bounce to win it, and you want to be on the right side of it,” said Subban. “I like three-on-three when we win.”
No team has experienced losing it more than the Canucks have this season. They now have six overtime losses.
