By all rights, this should have been Nikita Tolopilo’s first career shutout.
The Vancouver Canucks’ rookie goaltender was fantastic on Thursday at Rogers Arena, stopping every shot he faced from the visiting Anaheim Ducks.
The Canucks needed every single save, as they managed to score just one goal on Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal before adding an empty-netter for a 2-0 win — just their second win in their last 16 games and just their sixth home win of the season.
It was a shutout win, but Tolopilo won’t get credit for the shutout.
While Tolopilo stopped every shot he faced, he didn’t face every Ducks shot. He missed just over two minutes of the game at the start of the second period after he was pulled from the ice by the NHL’s concussion spotter.
Kevin Lankinen stepped into the net to start the second and stopped the only shot he faced, contributing one save to the shutout effort. Then Tolopilo returned after clearing concussion protocol and maintained the clean sheet.
The NHL does not give out fractions of shutouts, so if a second goaltender takes the ice for any length of time in a shutout, neither goaltender gets credit. The shutout just gets added to the team’s total.
So, despite making 32 saves on 32 shots in a 2-0 win, Tolopilo won’t add a shutout to his stat line for the season.
It’s a shame, but I’m not going to complain too much about the NHL taking minor steps towards taking concussions more seriously.
In any case, it’s not like it really matters. If Tolopilo was on an entry-level contract and therefore eligible for performance bonuses, it might have mattered, as there is a bonus for posting a higher-than-average number of shutouts. But Tolopilo is already on his second contract, so that doesn’t apply.
Tolopilo, his teammates, and Canucks fans all know what happened on Thursday night. I certainly saw a Tolopilo shutout when I watched this game.
Brock Boeser is still out of the lineup thanks to Bryan Rust’s elbow, Zeev Buium is out because a puck broke his face, and Marco Rossi is out until who-knows-when with who-knows-what. Now, Nils Höglander is out with a lower-body injury. He’s only out day-to-day, but we’ll see how many days-to-days it ends up being.
It’s understandable that the concussion spotter pulled Tolopilo, as Ryan Poehling pretty thoroughly ran him over late in the first period, planting a shoulder right into his noggin, leaving Tolopilo splayed out like Maggie Simpson in a snowsuit. Sometimes it’s tough to assess whether or not something is goaltender interference, but there was little doubt on this one.
The Canucks were hopeful that Tolopilo could get his concussion testing done entirely in the intermission and be back on the ice by puck drop, but there simply wasn’t enough time.
“With his tests, he had to take all his gear off, for some reason, compared to an actual player,” said Adam Foote, accidentally suggesting that goaltenders are not really hockey players. “That’s why it took so long. When they do that test, it’s usually about a 15-minute test, but he had to take his gear off. We were trying to stall it, but we didn’t have the time.”
Jonathan Lekkerimäki has already earned some respect despite this being just the 34th game of his NHL career. On the Canucks’ power play, Ducks’ penalty killer Jacob Trouba cheated heavily towards Lekkerimäki to take away the threat of his shot, which is a tremendous compliment. Clearly, opponents have heard about how he’s scored 10 goals in 16 AHL games this season.
The Canucks probably should have had a couple more power plays. The most egregious missed call was when Jeffrey Viel tripped Aatu Räty twice over. He hacked Räty’s right leg with his stick, then took out his left leg with his skate. It was such a big trip that The Price Is Right offered it in a Showcase Showdown.
On another occasion, Beckett Sennecke accidentally-on-purpose laid a shoulder into Lekkermäki’s head, which both the referees and the concussion spotter seemed to miss. Thankfully, Lekkerimäki seemed to be okay.
This was a rough game for Tom Willander. Apart from one nice rush, he got absolutely buried by the Ducks. Shots on goal were 12-to-1 for the Ducks when Willander was on the ice at 5-on-5. In a game where the Canucks showed a lot more discipline defensively, his struggles to stay tight to his man and battle in front of the net were noticeable. That’s definitely an area where the rookie needs to do some work.
The lone goal of the game came off the stick of Drew “DOC” O’Connor. Jake DeBrusk tried to get the puck in deep, but Trouba knocked the puck down. DeBreusk took it right back, however, as Räty took Trouba into the boards. DeBrusk cut to the inside before sending a no-look pass across to O’Connor, who could have taken a moment to settle the puck, but instead one-timed it, sending a fluttering shot past Lukas Dostal’s ear.
“Just a good play by Jake,” said O’Connor. “Just wanted to get it off quick. Those ones, sometimes when the goalie’s sliding over, it’s just better to get it off as quick as you can.”
DeBrusk was a little less positive about his contribution to the goal, noting that he completely botched a previous 2-on-1 with O’Connor when he tried to toe-drag the defenceman. “I couldn’t stickhandle today,” he said. “I fanned on the puck. I was trying to chip it in. I screwed up on the first one, so I knew the second one I was going to get, it was going over no matter what the puck was doing.”
Honestly, the celebration might have been better than the goal. O’Connor was clearly pumped up, and that rubbed off on everyone, as he, DeBrusk, and Räty acted like bobbleheads in an earthquake.
There was a lot to like about Elias Pettersson (D)’s game in this one, particularly his take-no-crappedness around the Canucks’ net. The 6’3” defenceman is at his best when he plays with a chip or two on his shoulder, preferably metaphorical ones, as it’s hard to skate around with chips balanced on your shoulders.
“You’ve got to give our D coach credit,” said Foote. “We were hard on [Pettersson], waiting for that moment to really pump his tires. It’s a game within the game. The last few [games], we were like, ‘You’ve got a lot. You’re good. You know what to do. You’re fine.’
”I give our D coach a lot of credit, because that was his best game of the year. I felt like he was not just getting the puck and moving it quick; if he had time and space, he’d take four or five extra strides, and let his forwards get in their lanes and get going. He made good decisions. And he’s strong, he’s physical. I think this game will help him grow a lot.”
A ten-ply slashing penalty on Conor Garland gave the Ducks an opportunity to tie the game at 6-on-4 in the final minute. Instead, Teddy Blueger iced the game because he didn’t have to worry about icing the puck.
Cutter Gauthier threw a hopeful pass towards the crease, but it was blocked by Filip Hronek. The puck bounced to Blueger, who didn’t hesitate to send the puck the length of the ice into the empty net. He then fist-pumped like it had been a year since he last scored, even though he has 4 goals in 7 games this season.
Teddy Blueger’s career high in goals is 9. He’s currently on pace for 21 goals this season despite missing 46 games.
Shout out to the Canucks fans (probably The Larscheiders) who started a “We want the Cup!” chant. Y’all are deranged in the best way possible.
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