The Vancouver Canucks celebrated their annual Pride Night with a 4-0 win over the Florida Panthers.
Brock Boeser played in his 500th NHL game and said it was a special night. Boeser got to ring in his 500th game with his longtime linemate J.T. Miller and also scored his eighth goal of the season.
"I’m very grateful,” Boeser said. “It's a great league to play in and to do it in one city, it means a lot to me, I love this place.”
Head Coach Rick Tocchet feels the team is going in the right direction to building that team identity.
“I thought everybody contributed, [it was a] good team identity win. A lot of good efforts for a lot of different guys, lot of different lines. I thought the D were scrappy, and obviously Lanks had a great game,” Tocchet said.
The Canucks got out to a strong start, the fourth line of Max Sasson, Teddy Blueger and Danton Heinen scored two early goals. Sasson and Blueger assisted on both early goals and Sasson says his linemates have helped him feel more comfortable with every game.
“I knew that I had those plays in me. I've made, actually, I think, a couple of those. Definitely seeing the pucks go in the net gives you a lot of confidence and it's great to be able to help the team and we'll build on that,” Sasson said.
Tocchet liked how his team matched up against the defending Stanley Cup champions. He praised the fourth line for helping take some of the pressure off and for having more flexibility in his lineups with Miller back.
“They played really well. There was some speed. I thought Danton was really good tonight, probably one of his best games this year. Sass did a hell of a job holding pucks, I thought he was good. That line was good, it really, really helps,” Tocchet said. “Obviously, getting Millsy back, kind of slots[down] everybody and everybody got pretty well the same amount of ice time, which is nice.”
Kevin Lankinen got the shutout, stopping all 27 shots he faced, for his third shutout of the season – tying him for the league-lead. Lankinen gave a nod to the way the team played in front of him and having Miller back in the lineup as key pieces to the win.
“It's a team effort,” Lankinen said. “I keep coming back just the way we defended, and even in the third period guys we're on the bench making sure that we give them nothing, we wanted to shut them down. Just that kind of chemistry and team building is huge, and I think that will bring some momentum moving forward.”
Lankinen made impressive saves from puck drop until the final horn, including a three-save sequence midway through the third period.
