Nothing quite like bleak Edmonton in the winter, hyped-up fans and disturbed Oilers to test the Canucks’ mettle to match Saturday’s victory
Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers
When/where: Thursday, 6 p.m., Rogers Place
TV: SN Pacific. Radio: Sportsnet 650
The mighty-mite winger will garner considerable consideration as the Canucks’ unsung hero at the end of this trying and tumultuous season. Garland will also get extra attention Thursday at Rogers Place.
By trying to pin superstar Connor McDavid to the ice in the dying seconds of a 3-2 victory over the Oilers on Saturday, he hoped the pair would get minors to keep the Oilers captain from tying the tussle. What Garland got from McDavid was a punch to the head and a vicious cross-check to the side of his face.
McDavid received a three-game suspension and Edmonton erupted. What the hell was Garland doing? There must be retribution. And why did the NHL put the game’s most exciting player on the sidelines for that long?
“Certainly think three games is a little too much, but I guess we don’t overly care about having our best players in the league in the game,” said Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl.
“I don’t care,” shrugged Garland. “I was just trying to win a hockey game. I didn’t hurt him or slew foot him. I guess they’re upset about the hold. I didn’t try to injure him. Whatever comes with that, comes with that.”
Canuck Kiefer Sherwood smiled at it all because he knows the game within the game will likely be on display Thursday.
“We’re all waiting for that puck drop — it should be fun,” said Sherwood. “There’s a little extra hate and passion that goes into those games and that’s why they spark up more.”
With everything that has gone wrong for the Canucks, a diminutive disturber initiating and irritating is a rallying point. If the Canucks are supposedly soft, Garland challenges the notion by doing the tough stuff.
“Everyone feeds off of that,” added Sherwood, who leads the league with 270 hits, and is chasing Robert Svehla’s league record of 386 in 2001-02. “You’ve got to be hard to play against. We can’t just bow down and let the best player to arguably ever play the game just go about his business.
“It’s for them (the Oilers) to be pissed. It means we’re doing our job. It’s the last minute, we’re up by a goal, and he (Garland) is being a beast and a rat. We need more of that, that hard-to-play-against aspect to our game.”
“When there’s 10 seconds left, sometimes you’re supposed to start grabbing and holding people,” he said. “Nothing wrong with that strategy, and Garland also got punched in the head. It’s tit-for-tat.
“Everybody is blowing this out of proportion. Move on.”
The fear: Another game slips away. “I don’t know if it’s being defeated, but we’re up 2-1 (Tuesday) and you should feel confident to want that puck. You should know off the faceoff where you have to go, but for whatever reason, guys just kind of stand around, almost like it’s too big for them.”
The top guns: The Canucks continue to get production from Hughes. He has 14 points (5-9) in his last 10 games, leads all blueliners in even strength points (31) and power play points (20). He was one point behind Cale Makar, who led defencemen in scoring with 52 points, heading into play Wednesday.
The projected lineup:
DeBrusk-Pettersson-Boeser
Suter-Miller-Garland
Heinen-Blueger-Sherwood
Hoglander-Sasson-Di Giuseppe
Hughes-Friedman
Soucy-Hronek
Forbort-Desharnais
Lankinen
The prediction: The Canucks are 2-5-2 in their last nine games, but find a way to stop the bleeding with 4-3 victory.