Nuggets’ Jamal Murray swishes half-court heave at halftime buzzer in Game 3 vs. Timberwolves
Denver’s Jamal Murray scooped up Minnesota’s errant inbounds pass near the sideline, rebalanced his body after carefully keeping his feet in and launched a 55-foot shot at the end of the first half.
VANCOUVER – Before the second round of National Hockey League playoffs began, Vancouver Canucks defenceman Nikita Zadorov said that a seven-game series is simpler to navigate than any seven-game stretch during the regular season.
“It’s easier than playing regular season,” he told Sportsnet. “Regular season you switch opponents all the time, and every team has a different forecheck, different neutral zone, different players. In a seven-game series, you’re pretty much playing the same hockey, just repeating. So you build confidence (because) it helps players understand what you’ve got to do.”
Zadorov said this, of course, before Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — the best player on the planet and his trusty, megastar sidekick — double-handedly destroyed the Canucks in Game 2 during the Edmonton Oilers’ 4-3 overtime win in Vancouver on Friday night.
How much confidence have the Canucks left for the remaining 3-5 games of this Stanley Cup quarter-final after McDri generated all four goals for the Oilers and, as linemates, out-chanced Vancouver 18-1 when they were on the ice at five-on-five?
Sure, the Canucks understand what’s ahead of them. That doesn’t make it any more appealing.
“I felt like it was more us, too,” Zadorov said Saturday before the Canucks travelled to Edmonton for Game 3 on Sunday with the Canadian championship tied 1-1. “I feel like we did a better job on (McDavid) in Game 1. We stayed above (the puck), we checked him, we made him play defence.
“I mean, at the end of the day, we’ve got to focus on our hockey, how we play, how we want to dictate the play, how we want to stay aggressive on the ice and not focus on how we’re going to stop him. If we’re going to be just thinking every time we go on the ice, how are we going to play against him, nothing good will happen.”
Nothing good did happen for the Canucks after Zadorov’s geometry-bending goal from a sharp angle put Vancouver ahead 3-2 with 1:43 remaining in the second period of Game 2. The Oilers outshot the Canucks 15-2 in the third period, tied it on McDavid’s breakaway and won it when Evan Bouchard’s pass toward the Vancouver goal was misplayed into his own net by defenceman Ian Cole.
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The familiarity of McDavid, already a three-time Hart Trophy winner who is determined to become a first-time Stanley Cup champion, isn’t going to make whatever remains in this captivating series easier for the Canucks.
But Zadorov is correct that a seven-game series removes a lot of mystery, and allows knowing teams to adjust on the fly.
After collapsing in Game 1 to lose 5-4, the Oilers adjusted on Friday by pooling McDavid and Draisaitl on one line with 54-goal scorer Zach Hyman. Now the Canucks, under coach Rick Tocchet and his Hall-of-Fame staff, will adjust for Edmonton.
Zadorov even said so, although he didn’t whip out the whiteboard and draw up for the reporters the tactical changes planned for Game 3.
Certainly, matching power against power, putting leading scorer J.T. Miller and leading goal-scorer Brock Boeser against the McDavid line didn’t work for Tocchet and the Canucks on Friday.
Former Selke Trophy runnerup Elias Lindholm, acquired by the Canucks from the Calgary Flames for moments like this, might be a better matchup for Vancouver — even if it just frees Miller’s line to create offence against lesser players.
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But Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch will dictate the matchups for Games 3 and 4, at least for faceoffs.
All the discussion about tactics and matchups, however, overshadow a more essential issue for the Canucks: if they play with the defensive passivity and panic with the puck like they did for the final 25 minutes on Friday, Tocchet could put Patrice Bergeron and Bob Gainey against McDavid and Draisaitl and it wouldn’t matter.
“Obviously, we have to adjust with our D-zone coverage,” Tocchet said Saturday. “And it’s not so much we adjust on positions or system, it’s a little bit more tenacity. I mean, we respect this (Oilers) team — they’re great players — but I think we’re respecting them too much. We were coming off our checks. We were stick-checking too much last night. And that was kind of the disappointing thing for me: we lose in overtime, it’s 1-1 in the series, we’re second round… we need some players, they’ve got to dig in for us. You have to dig in if you want to win.”
With this in mind, Tocchet said he is considering lineup changes for Game 3. He was especially unhappy with Nils Hoglander — “We need more from Hoggy. We’ve got to figure a few things out here” — and named 13th forward Nils Aman and minor-league call-up Linus Karlsson as possible options.
Although he defended Cole’s play – “He’s a warrior and, you know, he always bounces back” – Tocchet also said seventh defenceman Noah Juulsen is a lineup option. Veteran defenceman Tyler Myers, who sat out one game with an injury in the first round and laboured at times on Friday, may be unable to play.
But, again, who is in the Vancouver lineup is far less important than the drive and confidence the Canucks need to display as a team. The meek may inherit the Earth, but they’ve never won a Stanley Cup.
Zadorov, for one, can’t wait to play Game 3.
“It’s fun,” he said of playing in Edmonton. “They have good fans, diehard fans. I mean, it’s pretty much nothing else to do in that city except watch hockey.
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“I mean, it’s awesome. At least, that’s what I’m playing for, you know? Like, competition on the highest level you can possibly find in hockey, mainstage Canada, Sportsnet and all that. I feel like you get the energy all the time and you’re just feeding from the energy and you’re trying to bring your best every night.”
Even far from their best in the third period on Friday, Game 2 was right there for the Canucks. They led with 15 minutes remaining, were one shot or lucky bounce away in overtime from taking a 2-0 series lead against the prohibitively-favoured Oilers.
“We’re here, we’re so close that, you know, you can’t give in,” Tocchet said. “I thought in the third period, we just backed off, completely backed off. Uncharacteristic of some players. That’s the disappointing (thing) for me is that when you’re that close, you have to find it inside you. There’s more in there. And we’ve got to find it.”
TOCCHET TALK
After measuring his words Friday night when asked about the officiating, Tocchet said he will speak before Sunday’s game with series supervisor Brad Watson. Game 2 referees Eric Furlatt and Kelly Sutherland missed what should have been a double-minor to McDavid for cutting Quinn Hughes with a high stick, and also allowed Oiler winger Evander Kane to execute dangerous slew-foot takedowns on Hughes and Zadorov.
“I’m not going to nitpick with the hooking and holding stuff,” Tocchet said. “I don’t care about that. But obviously, the slew-foots and the (high) stick. … I mean, there’s four or five stuff that you’d like to see (called). But, like I said, I’m not going to complain about the refs. I don’t know what they’re seeing; if they don’t see it, they don’t see it. What am I going to do, argue with the guy? (But) there was two slew-foots on Kane, and those can’t be missed.”
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