Canucks Takeways: Demko continues to shine behind stout defensive structure

The Vancouver Canucks have a goaltender. His name is Thatcher Demko, and he’s pretty good.

We’re re-introducing you to the lanky San Diegan because it has been easy during Vancouver’s historic road trip to forget about Demko, given the explosion of Canuck offence and the team’s general dominance in front of him.

But opponents who survive the Lotto Line, the Canucks’ tenacious and productive depth forwards, the elite defence pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, then get through the giant, experienced defencemen playing behind it, still have to beat Demko.

And on Saturday, the Buffalo Sabres couldn’t.

Demko made 26 saves for his NHL co-leading fourth shutout of the season, as the Canucks beat the Sabres 1-0 on a fourth-line goal by Sam Lafferty.

After losing 2-1 in St. Louis nine days ago to open their seven-game road odyssey, the Canucks have won five straight games. In the trip finale on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver has the chance to win six games on one road trip for the first time in franchise history.

First, however, the Canucks must get to Ohio. A snowstorm cancelled the team’s post-game charter out of Buffalo, and they will try to make it to Columbus on Sunday.

The Canucks have won five games on one trip four previous times, but not since 2011 – three months before Vancouver went to the Stanley Cup final – when they swept a five-game western trip.

The style of Saturday’s feisty, low-scoring win was dramatically different than the previous four, and especially the Canucks’ three-game rampage through Metro New York that ended with Tuesday’s 5-2 handling of the Islanders.

The manifestation of those Canuck efforts was an overpowering offence keyed by the seemingly unstoppable Lotto Line of J.T. Miller between Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. But when the Sabres shut out the Canucks’ stars, Vancouver still won due to Demko and the stout defensive structure engineered by coach Rick Tocchet.

Demko made a few five-star saves, including a back-door stop on Casey Mittelstadt on a second-period power play, and another against the same player on a point-blank chance early in the third. But the goalie was never under siege, faced few second-chance shots and saw nearly everything coming at him.

The Canucks' “process” is boring when Tocchet talks about it almost daily. But it sure is effective when needed.

NO LAUGHS FOR LAFFERTY

Lafferty, the pre-season giveaway from the Toronto Maple Leafs, would have enjoyed his 10^th goal of the season more were he not whacked in the face by Sabre Jordan Greenway after scoring at 2:05 of the middle period. Greenway brought his hands high into Lafferty’s face a second after he scored, cutting the Canuck without penalty. Lafferty could be seen on TV turning to the referee and inquiring: ‘WTF was that?”

It was a good question, and a worthy goal. In a hard-hitting game that got testy in the middle period, it was fitting that Vancouver’s energetic fourth line scored the only goal.

After some good work behind the Buffalo net by Nils Hoglander, Nikita Zadorov’s quick shot from the side boards hit Lafferty in front. With body position on Sabres defenceman Connor Clifton, the Canuck turned, located the puck and swept it around goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

A goal 83 seconds earlier by Boeser, who beat Luukkonen with a wrist shot inside the far post, was overturned on a coach’s challenge because Miller’s skates had crossed the blue line just before the puck on Pettersson’s stick. Boeser also had a goal overturned in last Saturday’s 6-4 win against the New Jersey Devils.

In Game 43, Lafferty became the eighth Canuck this season to reach double figures in goals, a measure of scoring depth that leads the NHL.

The Lafferty-Hoglander-Nils Aman fourth-line had a 4-1 shots advantage at five-on-five and generated an expected-goals percentage of 94.5.

ALL THE STUFF AT 4:02

The early minutes of the middle period were pivotal to the game’s outcome. There were the two Canuck goals, the successful Sabres’ appeal on one of them, and at 4:02 one of the game’s biggest plays when Miller hit Buffalo star Rasmus Dahlin behind the Sabres’ net.

Miller’s shoulder contacted Dahlin’s head as the Canuck leaned into him along the boards to separate the defenceman from the puck. As Dahlin fell to the ice holding his face, Miller was challenged by second-year pro Owen Power. Miller dropped his gloves but did not throw punches with Power, who was merely trying to stick up for his teammate, in a vulnerable position.

The officials huddled before referees Peter MacDougall and Jordan Samuels-Thomas reviewed the hit for a possible major penalty and game misconduct. Their final ruling of offsetting penalties to Miller (for elbowing) and Powers (for roughing) was a break for the Canucks, who at minimum seemed likely to have to kill an extra minor.

We’ll never know if the decision was influenced by the earlier decision not to penalize Greenway for striking Lafferty in the face.

By then, the Sabres had already lost defenceman Mattias Samuelsson, who took an inadvertent elbow from Hronek and left the game 13 seconds into the middle period. When Dahlin went to the dressing room to be evaluated, the Sabres were down to four defencemen. They played five minutes with just three blue liners when Erik Johnson challenged and fought Miller at 10:29. But Dahlin returned and Buffalo finished the game with five defencemen.

HUGHES TARGETTED

The injuries to Buffalo defencemen put a target on Hughes, who had to deal with several Sabres taking runs at him over the final two periods. But the biggest hit the Norris Trophy candidate has absorbed on the road trip was from Sidney Crosby during Thursday’s combative win in Pittsburgh.

Crosby, like everyone, understands how good Hughes is, and how vital to the Canucks. As games get more intense, physical attention is something Hughes will have to deal with regularly. He handled it fine on Saturday, posting expected goals of 59.2 per cent at five-on-five, and launching seven shots during 21:32 of ice time.

QUOTEBOOK

Sam Lafferty: “I think it shows we can win games in different ways, which is really important here down the stretch. Games are going to get harder and harder. Some games might be high-scoring, but some games are going to be like this. So it's good to know we can play any style.”