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Canucks Post Game: Markstrom tells media to ‘let it go’, defence gets offensive, Vrbata quick on draw

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Points to ponder as the Canucks found a way to win a game they had no business losing, Jacob Markstrom found a way to keep the media from mentioning that sour Sharks outing and the defence became the offence in a 3-1 victory Sunday over the Coyotes:

Canucks Coyotes Hockey

1. “LET IT GO, LET IT GO, LET IT GO”: Jacob Markstrom wasn’t humming that catchy tune from the Disney animation hit ‘Frozen’, but he was getting a little frosty at repeated references to allowing three goals on four shots March 3 against San Jose and getting the mercy hook. On Sunday, he showed the media little mercy because he had the effort in a 24-save performance that was good for his confidence.

“It’s mostly you (media) guys who can’t let it go,” said Markstrom. “You guys keep talking about it and I barely remember who we played against, it was such a long time ago. For me, the next day was a new day and it’s hockey. It’s going to happen to everybody and you’re going to have highs and lows. And that was a low, but it was so long ago that I think you guys can let it go, too.”

Markstrom was only beaten on a highlight-reel, end-to-end rush by countryman Oliver Ekman-Larsson in which he made the original save, stopped the defenceman’s first rebound attempt and was then beaten up top after a second rebound.

“We played world juniors together one year and were roommates in a couple of camps,” Markstrom said when asked if he had a book on Ekman-Larsson. “Everything is tough at this level. If you leave rebounds, you’re going to get punished and I would obviously like to have that one back. I’ve been working on down-low plays and just trying to keep the depth in the net and at the same time, trying to be aggressive when I need to be aggressive. It’s mostly around the net stuff and I felt comfortable today.”

Which is good. The Canucks have another back-to-back set at the end of the month. Willie Desjardins will have more confidence to play Markstrom and the restricted free agent won’t hurt his value with more efforts like he had Sunday. He didn’t see a shot until 3:51 of the first period when forced to make a tough pad save off a 24-foot Martin Erat wrister from the slot and the Canucks had a 13-3 shot advantage when Yannick Weber opened scoring. Pretty tough for any goalie to get into a rhythm.

“You just have to try to follow the puck when it’s on the other side and really focus,” said Markstrom. “It would be nice to get eight or 10 shots in the stomach and warm-up shots. You don’t get that here. After the first goal, I felt like I had to fight for everything and in the second, I felt better. The team played an ureal game and there’s a reason I didn’t get a lot of shots because the guys blocked a lot of shots (20).”

Vancouver Canucks v Arizona Coyotes

2. DEFENCE GETS MORE OFFENSIVE: First it was Yannick Weber jumping up into the play and as the trailer, he took a neat Daniel Sedin drop pass and opened scoring for his career-high seventh goal of the season. Then Alex Edler hammered a power-play point shot that clanged off the post, struck Mike Smith and trickled over the goalline for the game-winner. And on a night when the Canucks hit four posts and couldn’t pull the trigger on countless chances in a 44-shot attack, getting production from the back end was unexpected and rewarding.

“This was a big road trip for us and points are huge at this time of season,” said Edler. “We talked about getting lots of pucks on the net and making sure we had someone driving the net or making a screens and getting ready for a rebound. This is how we want to win games, playing hard for 60 minutes. That team plays very tight in the neutral zone and their end so against a team like this you have to have patience and trust in your game.”

Weber saw first unit power-play time, too, because of a heavy and accurate shot. But his timing to join the rush was perfect and so was his shot.

“We kind of caught them off guard and I was able to join the 4-on-3 and able to put it in,” said Weber. “As defencemen, if we have the chance to join the rush we will and Luca (Sbisa) and Kevin (Bieksa) had chances, too. I think it worked well with me on the power play and it gives us different looks and different options.”

3. VRBATA QUICK ON KEY DRAW: Radim Vrbata beat Kyle Chipchura on the draw to set up the winning goal, after Henrik Sedin was waved out of the circle. It was symbolic because the former Coyote knew how well Mike Smith can play and how tough it can be to beat a team with nothing to lose and everything to gain by being a spoiler and clogging up the neutral zone and collapsing down low.

“We had to be patient and stick with it,” said Vrbata. “We had lots of chances and it opened up in the third and it was a little bit dangerous. But we found a way. Everybody was talking about yesterday (Saturday) but this game was just as big. You have to give them (Coyotes) credit. They’re not giving games away and when Smith plays like that, they’re tough to beat because they’re well coached and well structured. If they had scored first in the third, it would have been tough to get the two points.”

bkuzma@theprovince.com
twitter.com/benkuzma



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