Canucks Skate: Holtby 500th, Suspensions, Crazy Boston

The Vancouver Canucks battle the Ottawa Senators this afternoon at 4:30 pm pacific time. The BC boys will try to make it two wins in a row, coming off the 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night. The victory snapped the Canucks four game losing streak and improved their record to 7-14-2. Vancouver’s 16 points in the standings puts them last in the NHL’s Pacific Division, one point behind the expansion Seattle Kraken.

Meanwhile, the Senators have struggled in a similar fashion, checking in with a record of 4-14-and-1 for just nine points. That’s dead last in the NHL. Before we ponder the match-up, let’s go for a skate …

The Star of Stars

The game was pretty much in hand, but not entirely, when former Vancouver Canucks, current Dallas Stars goalie Braden Holtby turned in a save sequence for the ages in the 3rd period of Tuesday night’s 4-1 home victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Canucks fans will likely remember Thatcher Demko’s shorthanded save flurry against the New York Rangers earlier this season at home. Holtby’s was just as wildly dramatic, but slightly different in the types of saves. It kept the Stars two-goal cushion intact late in the game, one in which they’d add an empty netter on a Roope Hintz hat trick.

The save sequence put the cherry on top of what was a memorable night for Holtby already; a victory in his 500th career NHL game. It was also Stars Head Coach Rick Bowness’s 2,500th NHL game as an assistant or head coach, the most in the history of the league.

Last season, his only one as a Vancouver Canucks netminder, Holtby went 7-11-0-and-3 backing up Demko. He back-stopped the Washington Capitals to a Stanley Cup in 2018.

Have a Seat

It was a textbook slew foot. A penalty wasn’t called on the ice because the referees didn’t spot it, but the National Hockey League did. Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand, no stranger to the NHL Department of Player Safety, earned a three-game suspension on Monday for slew-footing Vancouver Canucks defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson on Sunday night in Boston.

A much more well publicized recent infraction involved Los Angeles Kings forward Brendan Lemieux biting Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk during a wrestling match in the left wing corner on Saturday night in LA. Lemieux was found guilty and handed a five-game suspension after apparently trying to use the excuse that Tkachuk had punched him in the teeth.

No suspension, but there was a fine Tuesday for Carolina Hurricanes Head Coach Rod Brind’amour to the tune of $25-thousand for going ballistic about a call or calls he didn’t like in the Canes game against the Washington Capitals on Sunday.

More from the Beaners

With Marchand out of the line-up, the Bruins lost at home to the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Tuesday night, giving the wearers of the “Winged Wheel” their 3,000th victory in franchise history, the fourth Original Six franchise to reach the mark. The Montreal Canadiens have the most wins, followed by the Boston Bruins and then the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are 16 wins ahead of Detroit.

Also missing from the Boston line-up, Bruins forward Anton Blidh with an upper body injury, believed to be his collar-bone, suffered on a hit along the corner boards Sunday, ironically, by Ekman-Larsson. There was a two-minute boarding penalty called against OEL on the play.

Also missing the Detroit game for the Bruins, Head Coach Bruce Cassidy, who tested positive for Covid-19 earlier on Tuesday.

Not finished: Bruins forward Jake Debrusk, son of former NHL’er and current Hockey Night in Canada and Edmonton Oilers commentator Louie Debrusk, officially asked for a trade out of Boston. The report was confirmed by the team’s General Manager Don Sweeney. According to Boston Hockey Now, the fans are now booing him and team president Cam Neely is ripping him.

Debrusk was a healthy scratch for the Vancouver Canucks game and has seen his production steadily decline over his five seasons with the Bruins. He was the club’s 1st round, 14th overall draft pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.

Enjoy the Hockey Action !!