Canucks 4, Sharks 1: Hitting the break in first place

There’s little doubt now, the Vancouver Canucks are going in a direction that’s much different from the San Jose Sharks.

Saturday’s 4-1 Canucks win at Rogers Arena was confirmation of that: the Canucks have their eyes on the playoffs, while the Sharks have their eyes on just getting the season over with.

The Canucks continue to put away teams they should beat — a trend they began from the first month of the season — and in doing so, they’re keeping themselves on course for the post-season.

Their opponents proved to be nurse sharks: the couch potatoes of the ocean. You must beat teams like that.

And with the mediocrity that’s all around them in the Pacific Division, a division title suddenly doesn’t seem out of the question: with 33 games left to play, this team finds itself rightly in first place in the division.

“That was a big one,” Tanner Pearson said about the win. “Especially with what happened today with other teams.”

It was the eighth win in a row at home for the Canucks, who are now 16-5-3 at Rogers Arena.

“Keeping it here strong at home but we’ve got to become a better road team from here on out,” Pearson added.

Now, there are four teams just a point back, so this race is 100 per cent wide open, but that’s a fine way to go into the All-Star break.

The Canucks’ goals were a goal-mouth scramble finish by Loui Eriksson, a power-play marker for Pearson, a seeing-eye point-shot for Quinn Hughes and a perfect two-on-one finish by J.T. Miller, while the Sharks’ goal came off the stick of Barclay Goodrow.

Here’s what we learned…

Lucky to be good

The play of Eriksson since he returned to the lineup Dec. 19 is nothing short of remarkable.

The Bo Horvat line is outscoring every other Canucks line.

And it’s not just about their empty-net prowess. It’s in all aspects of the game.

So it was surely with some satisfaction to Eriksson and his mates — Horvat described his winger as “underrated” following Saturday’s morning skate — that the $6-million man potted the game’s first goal.

Eriksson now has four goals since joining Horvat and Pearson, but this was the first goal he scored with his stick that wasn’t into an empty net.

The veteran winger smiled when he was asked about his goal post-game.

“We had some good chances before,” he said. “I was just trying to be in front there and was able to lift Karlsson’s stick there and get the shot through and it was nice to see it go in.”

Eriksson’s role on the line isn’t as a shooter, though you would like to see more than 18 shots on net through the 13 games he’s now skated alongside the Canucks’ captain.

But then again, he’s doing so many little things well, that’s a minor critique.

“It’s been fun now playing with Bo and Pearse for awhile here and we just have to keep doing the job and doing the right thing and it should be good,” he said.

Re-charged

The Canucks’ power play had been in a moribund state after Christmas, scoring just three times in the first seven games following. But they’ve now tallied three times in four games.

Both units have been creating chances, but the second unit hadn’t scored since Dec. 29 in Calgary, when both Tyler Myers and Jake Virtanen scored.

Pearson’s goal broke the drought, as he tipped a shot-pass from the side boards by Jake Virtanen, a sequence that looked very much like a diagrammed set-play off the rush, thought it apparently wasn’t.

“Me and Tuna (Virtanen) had talked about me being more backdoor, if he was going down but you know I had lots of speed going there and he saw me streaking. I tipped it in.”

Virtanen showed deft hands again on the Miller goal, floating a perfect saucer pass over a diving Brent Burns and across to Miller.

A good solid hit used to be just that

Alex Edler threw a very solid hit midway threw the first period on Kevin Labanc. It was vintage.

In the old days, it usually meant Labanc would look for a chance to throw a hit later on in return.

But, as so many modern hockey players seem to do, Labanc didn’t like the good, clean hit so much and had other plans. He chased after Edler, planting a solid cross-check into Edler’s back as they moved through the neutral zone toward the Canucks’ end of the ice.

That effort drew the attention of the officials. When the whistle was blown for the penalty, a now-standard swarm ensued at centre ice. Labanc popped a punch in Brandon Sutter’s chin.

Sutter could have shirked and maybe Labanc would have been whistled for another two minutes, but the lanky forward looped the long way around the crowd of Canucks and Sharks and got back at Labanc, giving him a facewash and earning a two minute minor of his own.

In all, Labanc sat for four minutes and the Canucks had a power play but didn’t score.

“We started chirping each other and then he gave me a smack. I’m still not sure why I got the penalty but that’s all right,” Sutter said with a laugh.

In a first period that was lacking for action — shots were 9-3 for the Canucks — it truly was a highlight.

Second Sutter spark

Late in the game, Sutter again found himself in the middle of a fracas, as he and Joe Thornton looked set to fight. But teammates intervened and no one properly squared off — there were just a lot of gloves flying and players grabbing each other.

“We were all ready for anything there, it was just one of those fun times but there was definitely some emotions there, everyone wants a little bit piece of a guy when something like that happens but that’s hockey, that’s fun so we’ll move on,” Sutter said.

It’s not often Sutter gets caught up in the middle of two melees like he did tonight; he grinned when that was pointed out to him.

“I guess I just missed playing,” he said with a laugh.

Dreary Sharks

The problem with the Sharks was never the coach.

In two viewings by this reporter this season, the problem is much more obvious: the Sharks are old and they can’t score anymore.

In early November, the Canucks won 5-2 in San Jose and the Sharks never looked in it. Many observers, including the travelling Vancouver media contingent, figured Peter DeBoer would be out in short order as head coach.

It took another month, but he was let go, replaced by Bob Boughner, the former coach of the Florida Panthers who had been hired last summer to serve as one of DeBoer’s assistants.

In the month since he took over, Boughner has his team playing a much tighter defensive system, but that means his squad has further sacrificed their meagre offensive talents.

This is a team that’s a long way from the heights they reached just last season, losing to the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference final.

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