Rangers 5, Canucks 1
J.T. Miller didn’t have Quinn Hughes around Vancouver anymore to bump into, but the former Canucks center did sufficient damage with two assists on Friday night in the New York Rangers 5-1 victory over the Canucks.
Ironically, the Rogers Arena crowd booed every time Miller touched the puck — maybe they forgot that in the last decade-plus, they’ve never had it so good. That was before an alienated Miller led a small group, including Vancouver’s head coach Rick Tocchet and Hughes the captain, through an emergency exit out of town.
Meanwhile, the heartwarming story of the Blueshirts win came from local boy Glenn Gawdin, who scored his first two NHL goals. Wearing number 15 and playing in just his 15th game in the big show, spread out over seven years, the 29-year-old from Richmond scored twice 3:10 apart in the 2nd period. That was sandwiched around Rangers leading goal scorer Alexis Lafreniere’s 10th of the season.
Let’s face it, the game was already over, but Gawdin’s second tally sealed the deal at 16:10 of the middle frame. It was five unanswered for the visitors after Elias Pettersson opened the scoring for the Canucks at 12:13 of the first period.
Vancouver fell to 3-17-and-1 on the season. That’s seven points in the standings, four behind the next worst team, the Chicago Blackhawks.
NOTE — Gawdin played five seasons in the Western Hockey League for the Swift Current Broncos, where he led the team in scoring with 125 points and to a WHL championship in 2018.
Earlier Canucks:
— Canucks PR Horseshit Continues
