VANCOUVER — There probably won't be a “good time” to play the Colorado Avalanche this National Hockey League season. Perhaps during the Olympic break.
“Avalanche” from the very beginning of the season was rapidly sliding down, suppressing opponents and losing only once in the main match. The Stanley Cup contenders were mostly healthy, had scored nine of their last 10 points heading into Vancouver, were fresh off a 9-1 upset of the two-time Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers, and Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon was poised to seize the NHL scoring lead.
Into this force of nature came the Canucks, with a quarter of their roster still injured and star goaltender Thatcher Demko unavailable for something apparently more than just maintenance, but not outright injury.
Even healthy Canucks are not the Avalanche.
With backup Kevin Lankinen in goal for the second time in 24 hours, the Canucks looked as helpless as the Oilers did the night before when the Avalanche scored twice in the first eight minutes on Sunday.
But then the 8-8-0 Canucks played one of their most impressive games this season – or at least since their season took a turn three weeks ago when centers Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger were injured in the same game – and outplayed the Avalanche for most of the next 32 minutes.
Just after the midway point of the second period, Vancouver shot up 25-11 and the Canucks rallied three times before falling 5-4 on a weak goal by Gavin Brindley at 1:08 of overtime when Lankinen grabbed a rebound and then opened himself up when he swung at the puck and missed.
Jake DeBruskpower play redirection with Brock BoserA pass with 3:01 left in regulation gave the Canucks a point against the best team in hockey.
The point they took from Colorado on a night when MacKinnon had five points to edge out Connor Bedard in the scoring race gave Vancouver three of four on a tough and desperate weekend.
Now it's hard to understand how much this actually means, but we're talking about degrees of goodness here.
The Canucks continue to score shorthanded goals and continue to give up too many goals overall. But coming off Saturday's 4-3 home win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, their offense is starting to pick up and their five-on-five play is definitely getting cleaner.
We still won't know anything about the Canucks until they bring back a couple more bodies, and when the Winnipeg Jets visit Vancouver on Tuesday, we'll see proof that Demko is healthy enough to play.
But in games like Saturday's, the Canucks definitely have some substance.
“I mean, I feel like losing always feels like losing,” forward Drew O'Connor said. “But it's a big thing. We took three out of four at the weekend so we have to look at the positives somehow. Obviously we want to win every game. But we fought back after going down a couple early and got a late one to tie it up. And I think that's very important. It's a huge moment and every point counts.”
At 8-8-1, the Canucks are still just .500, but are now just one unadjusted point away from a playoff spot.
“So irritated after the game that we’re angry we didn’t win,” veteran defenseman. Marcus Pettersson said. “We're all competitors and we want to win every game. But, yeah, we can take some positives. We can take some things that we can improve on.
“It's two games in a row, and it's a pretty good effort. And I would say it's a lot more connected. I thought we had a lot of jumps today. We tried to put pressure on these guys. You know, they're a good team and it would have been easy to relax and try to take (the pressure), but I thought we were on our toes.”
O'Connor deflected a rolling puck over the left shoulder of Colorado goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to tie the game 3-3 while shorthanded at 7:26 of the third period before Vancouver fell behind for the third time at 9:47 when the Avalanche's power play made it 2-for-3 on a perfect rebound from Artturi Lehkonen after Lankinen made a big save. from a one-time goal by Martin Necas.
But the amazingly stupid penalty by Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog against the Vancouver captain Quinn Hughes in the neutral zone allowed the Canucks to tie the game 4–4 on DeBrusk's third goal in four games.
Their own power play ended 1-for-5, but also led to a Linus Karlsson goal in the first period that gave the Canucks a boost.
“You know, they have a really good team there, obviously for a reason,” DeBrusk said. “They come at you in waves and go back and forth all the time. I think it was good on our part to get a point, but that's not what we want. We need both.”
To do that with any regularity, the Canucks will have to improve on their 31st record.st.Penalty kills, which were the team's strength last season, have already been highlighted by two power play goals per game six times.
“Today may have been a little step back,” O'Connor said of the penalty shootout, “but it's a good unit. We're trying to get better at it. We've got to be better at it to win games.”
