VANCOUVER – Their showdown Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights isn’t really like a Game 7 for the Vancouver Canucks. It’s only Game 7 if they lose.
If the Canucks win, then their next game, Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes, simply gets upgraded as another must-win. And so it will be for up to the nine games Vancouver has left. The Canucks probably have to win each one to get the next game to mean something.
Alex Chiasson’s entire season has been like a series of these quasi-Game 7s. The 31-year-old fourth-liner, who earned his one-year contract with the Canucks on a professional tryout, has had to do enough each game he plays to earn another.
Six times he didn’t do enough for the coach, first Travis Green and since Dec. 5 Bruce Boudreau, and Chiasson came out of the lineup. It’s a difficult way – a severe test of mental strength – to stay in the National Hockey League.
And yet here we are, nearly halfway through April, and both the Canucks and Chiasson are still chasing.
But lately, the player has been helping from far higher up the lineup.
With injuries last week to Brock Boeser and Tanner Pearson, following an earlier injury to Nils Hoglander, Chiasson is getting a chance to play in the top six. The former Stanley Cup winner from the Washington Capitals has responded with three goals and six points in three games, all of them wins.
In Saturday’s 4-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks, Chiasson scored the winning goal while logging 17:51 of ice time and registering seven shots on net, both season-highs.
“I'm getting an awesome opportunity right now to showcase what I can do,” Chiasson told Sportsnet after Monday’s practice at Rogers Arena. “Obviously, when the stuff on the ice feels good, I think it takes a little bit of the edge off physically and mentally, right? It's easier to prepare.
“As you get older, it gets harder (sitting out) because, you know, you've been through so much. But I always kind of find myself having to prove myself, which I'm okay with. But that doesn't mean that it's any easier.”
A stretch of four straight healthy scratches for Chiasson ended on Feb. 27, and the right winger from Montreal hasn’t been out of Boudreau’s lineup in 20 games since then. But he has played as little as 7:57 and had gone 11 games without a point before scoring against the St. Louis Blues two weeks ago.
The Canucks are Chiasson’s sixth team, and the third one he has made on a PTO.
“It's difficult; I'm not going to lie,” Chiasson said. “I think perhaps as I've gotten older, I've found that physically, it's been a little bit harder. And then that kind of snowballs and adds up to the whole thing potentially being demanding, right? But then you get on the stretch where, for instance, you score a big goal in Toronto (a game winner on Hockey Night in Canada on March 5). And that makes you realize, at least for me, what this game has given me.
“I've moved around quite a bit. I've been on a championship team. I've played with some of the best players that potentially will ever play this game. I've made some great friendships and now kind of find myself here in this group feeling really comfortable. We've got an awesome group of guys. I think all of that has kind of made it so worth it.”
Chiasson practised Monday on a line with J.T. Miller and rookie Vasily Podkolzin. A lot of the Canucks, defenceman Luke Schenn said recently, are just learning what is required to play playoff-style hockey night after night. Like Schenn, Chiasson already knows.
“When you're on a Stanley Cup champion. . . you know what it takes to win,” Boudreau said. “And he's gotten his opportunity. He's not 21. He's seen it, and he's going: 'Hey, this is my chance.' And he's taking full advantage of it.
“You appreciate a veteran guy that's big and strong and he's getting some success now. I mean, there was four or five games in a row I sat him out, and he never sulked, he never complained. He just knew when he got his opportunity, he was going to make the best of it, and he has.”
Miller described Chiasson as “old school,” and it was clearly a compliment.
“We joke with him all the time about how old school he is,” Miller said. “He just knows where to be, plays his game, doesn't complain. And he's got enough skill to put it in the net. Super strong on the puck. There's a lot to like about the guy's game. Whether he produces or not, it's nice to have that scoring, but he plays the same way every game.”
For the season, Chiasson has averaged 11:02 of ice time and produced 10 goals and 18 points in 60 games. Regular power-play time has helped, but his production is identical to Hoglander’s. Chiasson has scored five fewer goals than Conor Garland.
“Riley and I have been together for a while now and we've been through a lot -- the moves and living out of storage,” Chiasson said, referring to his partner, Riley Barnes. “And we've got a 90-pound black lab. It's been a lot. But I remember at the start, my first year I lived with Stephane Robidas in Dallas. Robie was towards the end of his career and he would always tell me, 'this goes by so fast.' You're young, you're naive, but it does go by so fast. It's crazy. We're almost towards the end of the year here and then it's 10 years (in the NHL). You don't want to let it slip away.
“I've always wanted to give all I've got to the game. I still get, you know, the butterflies and all that, which I love because that means that it's still in me. I'm still excited about going out -- the games, the fans, the physicality and the battles and all that. It all adds up to being so worth it in the end, regardless of the tryouts and healthy scratches and what-not. I still know that it's in me, and I'm happy about that.”
There will be more butterflies on Tuesday.
With nine games to go, the Canucks are six points out of a playoff spot, and the Golden Knights are the next team ahead of them.
“At the end of the day, I just hope this group, we make something special happen here towards the end,” Chiasson said. “We've kind of been up and down, but we've found a way to win big games at key moments. Obviously, tomorrow night, we all know what's at stake.”
Chiasson knows better than most.
