The Vancouver Canucks, the Kraken’s closest neighbors in the NHL, came out of the NHL All-Star break with a 3-2 victory on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night. Not an easy task.
Personally, it was All-Star goalie Thatcher Demko’s 9th consecutive victory, tying a franchise record. He’s 15-1-1 in his last 17 starts. Another NHL All-Star, J.T. Miller, scored the game winner in the third period. Two more All-Stars, Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser, both had two assists, while yet another All-Star, Elias Pettersson, picked up a point.
You get the picture.
Brand new Canucks center Elias Lindholm, in his first game with his new club, scored two power play goals in the game with tip-ins.
Everything’s working.
My summary: The Canucks are always, or at least almost always, in the right spot. They’re disciplined to systems.
With the victory Vancouver moved to 73 points on the season, the most in the NHL. In two nights they’ll play the team with the 2nd most as we speak, the Boston Bruins. Should be a dandy.
Meanwhile, the Kraken now sit 21 points behind the 1st-place club in the Pacific Division. Daunting but not a concern. Seattle catching Vancouver in the standings has been a concern for a couple of months. The Kraken will worry about their own task; getting into a wild card spot.
Kraken History
The Kraken are 3-6-and-1 all-time against the Canucks and it took the franchise a bit of time before they were able to beat their Northern rivals.
Vancouver dominated Seattle during the latter’s inaugural campaign and the first half of the season that followed. The Kraken finally beat the Canucks, and did so in convincing fashion 6-1, on January 25th, 2023. Seattle would beat Vancouver again in their next outing 5-2 on April 4th.
Goalie Martin Jones picked up both of those victories for Seattle. Although he’s pictured next to Demko for this article, Philipp Grubauer didn’t beat the Canucks as a Kraken netminder until November 18th of this season, winning at Rogers Arena 4-3.
Six nights later, Joey Daccord played between the pipes for a 5-1 loss at home to Vancouver.
The two clubs wrap up the season series on February 22nd at Climate Pledge Arena. The two will be playing for two very different benchmarks.
Yes! The Canucks need to get the President’s Trophy and the curse that goes with it. Hockey hoodoo is powerful stuff.