Canucks smother Golden Knights with complete performance in Vegas

If Patrik Allvin is basing his trade deadline decisions on tonight’s performance, he might just stand pat.

The Vancouver Canucks put forth one of their most complete performances of the season on Thursday night. They dominated the Vegas Golden Knights early, and smothered them defensively throughout in a commanding 3-1 win.

Quinn Hughes, Phil Di Giuseppe and Conor Garland scored for the Canucks.

After losing six of seven heading into this road trip, the Canucks are now on a three game win streak after defeating the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings on the road prior to tonight.

“Obviously a big accomplishment only giving up three goals on this trip,” Hughes told Sportsnet’s Kate Pettersen postgame.

“It’s consistency and finding our game every night. That’s all it is.”

Rick Tocchet was equally impressed about both tonight’s victory, and the road trip as a whole.

“It’s Canucks hockey,” Tocchet said, “We got back to our game on this road trip.”

This was the Canucks last road game of the month, as they begin a season-long nine-game homestand on Saturday night against the Winnipeg Jets.

Slumping Canucks showed up

J.T. Miller admitted as much after the win against the Kings, but goals have been harder to come by for the Canucks of late.

At Christmas, the Canucks led the league averaging 3.86 goals per game. Since Christmas, they’re basically league average, ranking 15th in the NHL with 3.15 goals per game.

Although they only scored three tonight, two players busted long goal droughts.

Quinn Hughes, who was on pace for over 25 goals at one point, hadn’t scored in 17 games prior to this contest. His last goal came before the All-Star break on January 22nd against the Chicago Blackhawks.

He opened the scoring in this one with his 13th of the season, flashing that beautiful wrister which fans have become accustomed to seeing this season.

Captain Hughes how are ya? 👋 pic.twitter.com/67bIoxyuVI

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 8, 2024

Less than a minute later, Phil Di Giuseppe registered his first point in 26 games, scoring a fluky goal on Golden Knights’ netminder Adin Hill.

Phil Di Giuseppe doubles the lead! 🐋 pic.twitter.com/7GWwwpohjM

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 8, 2024

There were a couple other slumping Canucks who, although they didn’t score, looked good on Thursday night.

After the Golden Knights made it 2-1, Elias Lindholm made a great play to keep the puck in at the blueline. He fired a shot on net and his linemate Conor Garland buried the rebound for his 13th goal of the season.

Hands from Lindholm, hustle from Garland on that one 👊 pic.twitter.com/65DxWV3Lbm

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 8, 2024

That was Lindholm’s first point in eight games. He now has four goals and three assists in 16 games with the Canucks.

Finally, the most snake-bitten Canuck, Ilya Mikheyev, continues to look like he’s getting back on track. He didn’t score tonight despite having a glorious chance to score in the second period.

His line with Miller and Brock Boeser led all Canucks lines in shot attempts, while lined up in a matchup role against the trio of Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault and Ivan Barbashev.

“I thought he played hard,” Tocchet said to reporters. “He was hard on pucks, using his speed. He didn’t score that one but he’s gotta keep digging away.”

Canucks climb standings while Vegas sinks

Maybe the Stanley Cup hangover came a little late, but the Golden Knights are in the midst of their worst losing streak in franchise history.

The defending champs are 2-8-1 in their last 11 games. Surely no one outside of Vegas feels bad for them.

Vancouver, on the other hand, now has a four point stranglehold on top spot in the Western Conference after tonight’s victory. Their also tied for second in the entire league with the Boston Bruins, and are one point back of the Florida Panthers for top spot in the NHL.

NHL.com

While the Canucks lead the West, the Golden Knights have slipped down to the eighth and final seed. That means if the playoffs were to start today, the Canucks would begin their playoff push against the defending Stanley Cup champions.