It was a swing game, a significant one. And it swung away from the Vancouver Canucks, as too many games have over the past week.
Aside from a pair of early Arizona Coyotes power-play opportunities in which the Canucks struggled to contain their opponent, Vancouver played superb hockey for almost 50 minutes.
Down early on a strange bouncer that deflected off Carl Soderberg and shot up, the puck spinning and arcing, a zany parabola, before landing on Thatcher Demkos head and into the net, Vancouver found their footing and controlled 35 minutes of the game ably. They built a territorial advantage, generated chances in bunches and tested Darcy Kuemper repeatedly.
Until the Canucks took the lead on a Tanner Pearson goal in the third period, Vancouver looked the better team. And then it rather quickly fell apart.
The club just seemed to stop playing. They managed only six even-strength shot attempts in the entire third period.
Of course, as...
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The Armies: A high-leverage loss, radio wars and the Jake Virtanen thing - The Athletic
