VANCOUVER — Quinn Hughes looked like Quinn Hughes, and Elias Pettersson looked like Elias Pettersson again. Even goalie Arturs Silovs looked vaguely familiar on Saturday.
The only traction that matters right now for the Vancouver Canucks are points in the National Hockey League standings. But halfway through a weekend they desperately need to sweep to accelerate their playoff drive, the team is showing signs of getting its groove back.
Getting Hughes back from injury and Pettersson back from the deepest slump of his career helps everyone’s groove.
Each scored on Saturday as the Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-2, taking care of business at Rogers Arena ahead of Sunday’s wild-card showdown against Utah Hockey Club.
Despite three different injuries, Hughes has played at a Norris Trophy-caliber level again this season. But the last 10 days represent Pettersson’s first multi-game spell since last fall when he has looked like something close to a $93-million player capable of driving his team.
After scoring four times in three months, the centre has four goals in his last five games. And after going 2 ½ months without a multi-point game, Pettersson followed his two-point (plus shootout goal) performance in Wednesday’s 4-3 win in Calgary with another pair of points against the Blackhawks.
“Yeah, can you believe it?” Pettersson joked with reporters. “No, it feels great, obviously. It feels good. I'm happy.”
“Even just looking at him,” defenceman Tyler Myers said, “you can tell he's, you know, he's playing a lot more free right now. Unbelievable shot tonight on his goal. Nobody knew it was in, it was so good. But the more Petey can go out there and not overthink. . . I'm the same way, a lot of guys are, if you start overthinking it's hard to play mind free.
“He's more vocal in the room. You know, he's stepping up for us the last couple weeks. We just want to keep it going.”
It took video review for officials to determine that Pettersson’s wrist shot from the slot, after a toe-drag around Chicago defenceman Artyom Levshunov, went post and in at 4:01 of the third period before rebounding off the back bar inside the net.
The Canucks were scoring on the play, no matter what, as Pettersson’s linemate and friend, Nils Hoglander, shot past goalie Arvid Soderblom six seconds later. Each guy needed the goal, but it felt like further fuel for Pettersson.
“He's just one part of our team but, obviously, he's a huge part,” Canucks winger Conor Garland said. “But we need everybody playing well and everybody buying in. This is playoff hockey for us the rest of the way, and we're going to need guys all up and down the lineup contributing.”
This is what the Canucks generated Saturday as the team surpassed three goals in regulation time for the first time in 17 games.
It seemed their initial offensive strategy was to freeze Soderblom by not taking any shots on the Chicago goalie. Then, diabolically, they tried to get inside his head by scoring on two of their four first-period shots, 35 seconds apart late in a frame that seemed to be played on running time.
Hughes took advantage of Filip Hronek’s bullet pass across the offensive zone to skate away from Blackhawk Tyler Bertuzzi and load up a wrist shot that zipped past Soderblom’s glove to open scoring at 17:46, before Myers hit the same spot on a four-on-three rush the next shift.
Garland scored a beautiful goal in the second period from a deft give-and-go with Pius Suter that stranded Chicago defenceman Alec Martinez, then returned the favour in the third by slinging a pass back against the traffic flow for Suter to score from the slot.
And Kiefer Sherwood brilliantly passed blindly across the goalmouth to set up Nils Aman’s first goal of the season halfway through the final period as three of four Vancouver forward lines generated goals.
The only unit that didn’t score took a serious hit, literally, with five minutes remaining when second-line centre Filip Chytil was stapled in the numbers by former Canuck Jason Dickinson. Chytil, who arrived six weeks ago from the New York Rangers with a worrisome history of concussions, hit his head against the glass, briefly lay on the ice, then wobbled as he got up and went straight to the dressing room.
Incredibly, referee Kendrick Nicholson had a direct view of what looked like a major boarding penalty and called nothing. The Canucks had no immediate response on the ice to Dickinson, who did not play another shift.
“It looked from behind, like he kind of got his head wedged against the boards there,” Canucks centre Teddy Blueger said. “But I mean, it seems completely unnecessary. There's five minutes left and to kind of follow through on that?”
“We just don't love the hit,” Garland said. “It's 6-2 and the game's pretty much over with. I understand Dickey's got a job to do and be physical and do that kind of stuff. I just don't love it, especially (against) one of our top guys and with where we are in the standings.”
It sure didn’t look like Chytil will be playing Sunday’s home game against Utah, which is four points behind the Canucks in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Vancouver is two points clear of Calgary and the St. Louis Blues.
Starter Kevin Lankinen will be back in goal for the Canucks on Sunday after Silovs, last year’s playoff hero who quickly played his way back to the American Hockey League this season, won an NHL start for the first time since beating the Blackhawks on Nov. 16.
Silovs looked jittery early on Saturday, and allowed goals from distance by defencemen Wyatt Kaiser and Alex Vlasic. But he made a couple of strong saves before the Canucks pulled away. Shots were just 19-15 for Chicago in the game.
“It's, like, ups and downs,” Silovs said of his season. “There's always a lot to learn from. And I think for me, it's, you know, maybe not the best experience. But it's experience, and I think I can grow from that.”
To a large degree, the Canucks organization can say the same thing about this season.
“Anytime throughout the course of this year where we've been, like, 'OK, we've won a couple in a row, it's coming,' we haven't responded well,” Blueger said. “So it's very much just one game at a time. It was a good win tonight. I thought our second period was pretty bad and we let them into the game (but we played) a much better third. I think we turn the page for tomorrow.”
And with the hope that Hughes and Pettersson and others will feature positively in Sunday’s chapter.
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