Overmatched Canucks stifled by Golden Knights: 'They play a heavy game'
VANCOUVER — If John Tortorella’s team was always this good in Vancouver, he’d still be coaching the Canucks.
The Vegas Golden Knights improved to 4-0 since Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy as their coach, dominating the Canucks in a 2-1 win Tuesday that was a blowout everywhere but on the scoreboard.
It was a happier experience — and much better team — for Tortorella than his forgettable one-and-done season as the Canucks coach in 2013-14.
The win moved Vegas into a tie with the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division, one point ahead of the Anaheim Ducks, with four games to go.
The Golden Knights have everything to play for and the Canucks, who’ve padlocked themselves into last place in the National Hockey League, have nothing to play for as a team.
And that’s how the game looked.
Thirty-six points behind the Knights in the National Hockey League standings, the overmatched Canucks tried to compete. But only Vancouver goalie Nikita Tolopilo kept his team in it as large swaths of the game were played in the Canucks’ end.
“They’re just a big, heavy team,” Canucks coach Adam Foote said admiringly. “That’s what we ran into: a big, heavy playoff team.”
The Knights outshot the Canucks 7-0 through 13 minutes, 17-4 in the first half, and 28-11 for the game. Halfway through the third period, it looked like Vancouver could match the franchise’s all-time futility mark for fewest shots: eight in a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils 30 years ago.
Jacques Lemaire’s Devils neutral-zone trapped the Canucks into a coma that night, but Tortorella’s Knights crushed them with pressure.
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