He says they’ll enjoy the win tonight but will be back at it tomorrow. The message from the leadership group is to continue to take one game at a time because there’s still plenty of season left.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet shared that he's liked the team’s penalty kill from preseason and he was pleased with their defensive structure against Dallas.
“That’s kind of in our identity, kind of squeezing, try not to give a lot. When they did, Demmer was there,” Tocchet said, adding “When you play a team like that – high quality – you’ve got to buckle down, and we did.”
The Canucks game plan against Dallas included making sure they were ready to defend against the Stars’ ability to tip the puck in anywhere around the crease.
“I thought our team did a really nice job and Demmer had to make some big saves, but when you have a high-end tip team like them, obviously [Joe] Pavelski is one of the best in the business, but that’s Pete DeBoer. He’s really good at teaching that shot off...you gotta get under their sticks, you can’t just stand beside a guy,” Tocchet said.
Game Recap
It was a battle to start the game, the Canucks taking eight shots in the first, compared to Dallas’ 13 attempts. It was a scoreless period for both teams.
The Canucks spent much of the second period on the attack in the Stars’ end of the ice, out-shooting Dallas 14-5.
Pius Suter scored the first goal after pushing the puck up to Dakota Joshua who took a shot that was deflected, and Suter picked it up in the slot and snapped it home.
Elias Pettersson scored backdoor off a no-look diagonal cross-ice pass from Filip Hronek, putting the Canucks up 2-0.
Canucks had six minutes of penalty kill time in between the first and second periods, stopping all three of the Stars’ attempts.
Late in the second, Ian Cole landed a hit on Matt Duchene, knocking him to the ground, while fans at Rogers Arena erupted in cheers. Dallas’ Mason Marchment and Cole immediately dropped the gloves; Tocchet saying Cole’s toughness helped keep the momentum in favour of the Canucks.
“That was a big lift for our team. Colers, I’ve seen him do it before many times, hell of a hit, and fights for our team. The whole bench was up after that and we started to play even better,” Tocchet said.
Ian Cole felt the Canucks played great defence as a unit and there’a a lot of good to take from this game and stay focused on what's ahead of them.
“We think we’re a really good team in here and that’s what matters. When you play good teams, you need to elevate, play better, you need to stick to your game longer, and we did that tonight,” Cole said.
Up next for the Canucks is another game at Rogers Arena against the Edmonton Oilers. Vancouver is 2-0 against Edmonton thus far and the teams match up Monday, November 6th at 7 p.m.
