If, for example, Arizona was called a disgrace to the NHL in recent months, then San Jose, which is tragic this year, took on this role. It lost its 10th in a row on Friday night. In addition, Vancouver put the Sharks to shame with ten goals.
It was the eighth time the Canucks had scored ten goals in one game, with the last time that happened 31 years ago. As the club’s official website notes, at that time there were only three players in the current squad.
The triumph was helped by an almost perfect power play, Vancouver took advantage of four out of five opportunities, which only confirmed that they are among the best in the league in this discipline. “The power play set the tone,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “We scored four power play goals. I think that really dictated the game for us. We moved well.”
And the Canucks were still hungry, too, which made Tocchet very happy. “You’re up by five goals and you still want the guys to play hard. It’s nice to see some of the players who didn’t score have now stepped up and fueled with confidence. I like to see this,” smiled Tocchet.
Who shined? JT Miller, Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson all scored three points. By the way, for the latter, it was the seventh game in the season when he scored two or more points. Since the beginning of the millennium, only Connor McDavid and Mario Lemieux (both eight games) have accomplished this more times in the first ten games of the season.
However, defender Quinn Hughes did the most. He scored a goal and passed on four. “All four lines are working hard, and that’s how we roll other teams that make it hard to defend us,” said Hughes, Vancouver’s captain of the entire team.
The home team had the opposite mood. Quite understandably. The tenth loss in a row, tragic performances and the dislike of everyone around. How can this turn out?
“Mentally we were bad, it was felt on the bench as well,” coach David Quinn admitted. “It threw us off balance, we didn’t recover from it. I’m hugely disappointed.”
“I’ve never been in that situation, I don’t think any of us, to be honest,” San Jose forward Nico Sturm shook his head. “I guess the only good thing is that this is rock bottom, it can’t get any worse. So that’s probably the only positive in this situation.”
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