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TAKEAWAYS

 

1) Despite tying a season low for shots in a period (3 in the third), and setting new lows for shots in a game (14) and shot attempts (33), the Vancouver Canucks best players rose to the challenge and led the Canucks to a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday night. The team's top three goal scorers -- Elias Pettersson, JT Miller and Brock Boeser -- all found the back of the net helping the Canucks string back to back wins together for the second time in 13 games. With their season teetering on the brink after three straight losses to San Jose, Vegas and Montreal, the Canucks have rebounded with a pair of victories against two strong hockey clubs. The Golden Knights came to town riding a three-game win streak while the Penguins had won four in a row and seven of their last eight. Give the Canucks credit, the homestand before Christmas could have gone one of two ways after opening with a disappointing 3-1 loss to Montreal on Tuesday night. They have now set themselves up for a Merry Christmas and their first three game win streak since mid-October if they can find a way to take care of Edmonton on Monday night in the final game before the holiday break.

 

2) Look, I'll be the first to admit I had some questions about Elias Pettersson's production 10 days ago. In five games from November 30th to December 10th, the second year Swede had just 1+1=2 and didn't look like the player that took the league by storm last season. Now a five-game stretch in the middle of the season (and at the tail end of a season-high six game road trip) was hardly reason for alarm. But Pettersson, himself, has raised the bar so high in his brief time that he just looked underwhelming there for a short stretch. But with his team struggling and needing its best player to elevate his game, Pettersson has done just that here in the last while. He scored the only goal in a 1-0 overtime win against Carolina, he scored twice and was the best skater on the ice against Vegas on Thursday and with his team wilting in the second period on Saturday and Pittsburgh looking for the equalizer late in the second period, Pettersson was there once again for the Canucks shaking off a check and roofing a puck past Matt Murray to extend the team's lead to 3-1 just 44 seconds after the Penguins had hit the scoreboard. Pettersson has returned to form with five goals in his last six games and several of them coming in key situations. In other words, he's doing exactly what the best players in the game do -- elevating his performance when his team needs it most.

 

3) It's hard to know exactly what Brandon Tanev was thinking hooking and holding Quinn Hughes in the neutral zone with his team already down a man in a scoreless first period. Tanev's questionable decision making left no choice for the on-ice officials. He was fingered for holding with teammate Dominik Simon already serving a double high-sticking minor for carving up Adam Gaudette. The penalties put the Penguins in a huge hole and the Canucks power play -- as it has done so many nights already this season -- made an opponent pay. After a JT Miller goal was overturned on a coach's challenge for offside, the Canucks regrouped and turned up the heat. First it was Jake Virtanen ripping a one-time bomb past Matt Murray from the left face-off circle. A minute and 50 seconds later, JT Miller redirected an Oscar Fantenberg point shot past Murray.  It marked the third straight game the Canucks have opened the scoring and the seventh time in 37 games the power play has produced multiple goals. As a team, the Canucks are up to 36 goals with the man-advantage on the season and it's fair to wonder where the power play will ultimately top out. Even if they struggled and scored 24 goals in their final 45 games, they'd still finish with 60 PPG on the season. At the rate they are scoring -- with both units producing -- taking a run at 70 power play goals this season doesn't seem like an unreasonable target.

 

4) Jacob Markstrom backed up a strong showing against Vegas with another on Saturday night. After facing no shots in a bizarre first period in which the Canucks had the only five shots, Markstrom found himself in a shooting gallery in the second. After falling behind 2-0, Pittsburgh pressed in the second and had an 8-1 shot advantage midway through the middle period. They extended that to 15-2 when the Penguins earned their first power play of the night and finally put a puck past the Canuck netminder. The final shots for the period wound up 19-6 and on the night they were 29-14. And Markstrom stood tall when the Canucks needed him as the Penguins started to take control of the game territorially. Starting for the seventh straight game with Thatcher Demko still recovering from a concussion, Markstrom has played himself into a rhythm. While his record is just 3-4 in those seven straight starts, he has provided the kind of goaltending needed for the Canucks to earn better results. Aside from an off night in Vegas, Markstrom has stepped up for the Canucks here recently facing 43 shots in a shutout win against Carolina, 39 shots in Vegas, 43 against Vegas on Thursday and 29 on Saturday against Pittsburgh. The Canucks will need Markstrom to be at his best again on Monday when he'll surely get the call once against with Edmonton in town.

 

5) Loui Eriksson is not the long-term answer for who is best suited to fill the sizeable gap created with the news that Josh Leivo will miss the next two to three months with a fractured knee cap. Eriksson drew back into the line-up Saturday and played in Leivo's spot on right wing with Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson. It was the first Eriksson sighting since December 3rd against Ottawa. He had sat out the previous seven games before Saturday. His 9:16 of ice time included just three third period shifts and none over the final 12:12. On the night, Eriksson was used in a penalty killing capacity at times and one of those third period shifts was while Oscar Fantenberg was in the box for hooking. Eriksson had his only two shot attempts of the night blocked so he did not register a shot on goal. His most-noticeable contribution on the night came on a desperation backcheck while Evgeni Malkin moved in on right win midway through the second period and tried to slip a cross ice pass to a hard charging Jake Guentzel. Eriksson managed to get a stick on Guentzel who still got a shot away but was thwarted by the right pad of Jacob Markstrom. It won't be a surprise if Eriksson manages to stay in the line-up on Monday. He was inserted onto the Horvat-Pearson line in Edmonton on November 30th to create a shutdown line to counter Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Not only did that line accomplish its shutdown role that night keeping Draisaitl off the scoresheet, but Eriksson scored his one -- and only -- goal (and point) of the season so far. So look for Eriksson to get another shot on Monday. But after the holiday break, the Canucks have to find a way to try to replicate the production and effort that Leivo had given them until he was hurt on Thursday against Vegas.