So far, the 2014-15 Vancouver Canucks are quite the indictment of John Tortorella as a head coach.
NHL scores 2014: Canucks shut down Blackhawks, Rangers rout Canadiens
The Canucks and Rangers managed to silence hot teams on Sunday.
Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
Or, if you prefer, a validation that Willie Desjardins was the right choice to replace him. Or that last season was an anomaly and not anyone’s fault at all.
Okay, we're not exactly sure what's making the difference this season for Vancouver. But there is unquestionably a difference. The Canucks' strong season rolled along on Sunday with a 4-1 win over a surging Chicago Blackhawks team.
All the required elements were there in the victory. Ryan Miller shut down everything thrown at the net. Desjardins got everything out of all of his lines, especially the fourth liners. And Vancouver's special teams outperformed some of the best special teams in the league.
That combination was rare last season in Vancouver, but it’s becoming a more common occurrence this season. No one really knows where the winds of change are coming from, but Canucks fans are sure to love it all the same.
See? Shootouts can be fun.
All the NHL Scores
Vancouver Canucks 4, Chicago Blackhawks 1
Three things we learned
1. Let’s start with the NHL active record nobody knew about. Jay Bouwmeester missed the Blues game on Sunday, marking the end of a 737 consecutive-games-played streak dating back to March of 2004. Bouwmeester hadn’t missed a game in TEN YEARS. That is the very definition of consistency from a rather unsuspecting player. That must be a requirement for the Iron Man in the NHL, since Anaheim’s Andrew Cogliano is now the NHL’s Iron Man leader.
2. If not for Dustin Tokarski, the Canadiens could've been blown out of Madison Square Garden by an even worse margin. On a night when five different Rangers scored and the Canadiens failed to put up much of a fight against Henrik Lundqvist, Montreal's netminder happened to be their best player.
3. Bo Horvat probably belongs in the NHL already. The young rookie carved out an important niche for himself on Sunday for the Canucks, leading all players in the faceoff dot. Sure, it's not the glitziest skill. But faceoffs are notoriously difficult for young players to handle (even budding star Tyler Seguin struggles with them in Dallas), so Horvat might have just kept himself in the NHL for good. Of course, he also set up a pair of goals.
Impact Moment
If Mike Smith didn’t fall on his butt the Coyotes might have been in a tie game in the third period instead of fighting against a 2-1 deficit. Whoops.
Stat of the Night
Via @EliasSports: Jay Bouwmeester's 737 consecutive games played was longest active "Ironman" streak in 4 major professional sports leagues.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 23, 2014 Post to Post
- The Rangers' blueline is getting healthy and it's paying off big time.
- Ryan Reaves has more goals than Evander Kane. That's not a good sign for Kane.
- Finally, Carl Hagelin needs to be nicer to himself.
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