The Vancouver Canucks’ game against the Arizona Coyotes, the only team below them in the standings, crawled for three hours – extended by a myriad of whistles, reviews and a serious injury to visiting winger Brad Richardson.
Proof that no matter how bad things look, there’s always someone worse off, the Canucks survived a two-goal deficit and rallied to beat the Coyotes 3-2 on Ben Hutton’s overtime penalty shot.
Hutton, badly struggling to meet unreasonable expectations in his second NHL season, earned his penalty shot by winning a skating contest up ice before he was hooked by Coyote Dylan Strome wholesale jerseys on a breakaway. On his free pass from centre ice, Hutton deftly beat Louis Domingue with a backhand deke through cheap jerseys the Arizona goalie’s pads.
It’s questionable how much the dodgy win will do for the Canucks, who are 3-2 in their last five games to nudge their record to 7-10-1, but maybe it will be cathartic for Hutton.
After his remarkable rookie season, when he unexpectedly made the Canucks as a 22-year-old out of college hockey and impressed everyone with his skating and poise with the puck, Hutton has looked lost in recent games, overhandling the puck and overcomplicating the game as he tried too hard to help his sinking team.
But even before his winning goal, he was a little better on Thursday, logging 21:02 of ice time, registering four shots and getting through the game without being on the ice for a goal against. The Canucks had a 21-14 advantage over the Coyotes in even-strength shot attempts when Hutton was on the ice.
His partner, newcomer Erik Gudbranson, was also noticeably better, recording four hits and playing with more physical presence.
The victory, two days after a dispiriting wholesale NFL jerseys 7-2 home loss to the New York Rangers, keeps the Canucks afloat and meant the first question in Willie Desjardins’ post-game press conference was not about the beleaguered coach’s job security.
But the long night was far from convincing for the Canucks, who face a far more meaningful measuring stick Saturday when their four-game homestand ends against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Win that one, and the Canucks are 3-1 as they hit the road next week for winnable games in Phoenix, Dallas and Denver.
By then, the Canucks might actually have some traction. At least they didn’t slide to the bottom of the standings on Thursday.
If the cheap NFL jerseys election of Donald Trump as the American president — seriously, it happened, look it up — didn’t end the world as we know it, then surely the Canucks losing to the Arizona Coyotes would have.
But after falling behind 2-0 to the only team worse than them, the Canucks turned back the doomsday clock by scoring twice in 2 ? minutes late in the second period.
Defenceman Alex Edler, who managed to skate through 16 games and a share of every power play without generating an assist, was in on both Vancouver goals, although Daniel Sedin did the heaviest lifting.
Edler and Danny connected earlier in the period when the blue-liner drilled the forward in the ribs with a point shot. Their combination at 17:58 was far happier, as Edler froze Domingue before sliding a pass to Sedin to one-time from the hashmarks for a rare power-play goal Cincinnati Bengals jerseys that made it 2-2.
Daniel started the comeback by passing into the slot to Brandon Sutter, who whipped a wrist shot under the bar on Domingue’s stick side to give the Canucks some life.
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He was a little better on Thursday
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