VANCOUVER – What is art? Well, that’s a question. Saturday’s game between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks probably did not qualify as art.
But at least we did recognize Arty, after the Canucks’ unlikely hero from last spring’s playoffs finally looked like “that guy” again. Starting for just the fourth time this season and dragging a ghastly .808 save percentage into the contest, Arturs Silovs stopped 28 of 29 shots as the Canucks beat the Blackhawks 4-1 at Rogers Arena.
Literally and figuratively, Silovs was the best part of the workmanlike win as Vancouver ground out just its third victory in nine home games by outplaying the Blackhawks over the last two periods and inflating the final margin with a pair of empty-net goals.
With overworked No. 1 goalie Kevin Lankinen resting for Sunday’s game against the Nashville Predators, Silovs started for the first time since a 6-0 disaster against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 30 and was able to replace some negative memories with positive ones.
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The 23-year-old looked nervous early on and was beaten just 6:50 into the game on a rebound by former Canuck Ilya Mikheyev — after current Canuck defenceman Noah Juulsen did the hokey-pokey and turned himself around without taking either the loose puck or the Blackhawk scorer.
But Silovs settled himself and stopped the final 26 shots he faced. He looked more confident by the save.
“I felt great, had a lot of confidence,” Silovs told reporters. “Guys are doing a lot of jobs (in front of me), Like, good (penalty) kill. That gives you a huge boost, especially at the end of the first period. It’s crucial. And then we started to play really well in the second and took over.”
After Vancouver escaped Chicago’s only power play unscathed, the Canuck power play tied it 1-1 at 4:56 of the second period when Elias Pettersson’s sharp-angle redirect from J.T. Miller glanced off goalie Arvid Soderblom and banked in off Blackhawk defenceman Connor Murphy.
Depth defenceman Erik Brannstrom scored the winner for the Canucks at 4:25 of the third period by blasting a one-timer from a sideboards rebound through both Murphy and Soderblom.
“Kevin’s been playing so good. . . it’s not Arty’s fault he hasn’t been playing,” Canuck centre Aaty Raty, a minor-league teammate of Silovs the last two seasons, said of the goalie’s first NHL victory since May. “But I loved seeing Arty do well today. He came up huge.
“I think, like anyone who’s younger, you don’t want to stick out for anything else other than just being positive, just doing everything right. If you’re young and you’re showing bad emotions or bad body language, that kind of stands out the wrong way. And I think Arty’s done a great job with that. The goalies do a lot of extra work, too, so I know he’s been working really hard. I’m out there shooting at him 30 minutes early (before every practice), and I probably haven’t scored one shot.”
Silovs’ best saves were against the run of play in the second period, when he stopped a net-front redirect by Ryan Donato on a four-on-three rush, shortly before stuffing Nick Foligno on a quick breakaway after a turnover by Conor Garland.
In the third period, Silovs made strong saves on Jason Dickinson and Teuvo Teravainen.
“Yeah, he needed that,” Canuck winger Kiefer Sherwood said. “And we tried to really dig in once we got that lead. He works his tail off in practice. Obviously, he’s younger, but he’s finding his way. And he showed what he can do last year in the playoffs. Things take time, but we’re really pumped for him, and he can continue to build.”
It’s uncertain how much time, short-term, Silovs has left to build his game at the NHL level. Injured starter Thatcher Demko appears to be inching closer towards returning from the popliteus muscle injury in his knee that gave Silovs the chance to start in the playoffs.
And Lankinen, arguably the Canucks’ most valuable player through 16 games, won’t be the goalie sent to the American Hockey League to make room for Demko.
But Silovs’ performance Saturday was excellent for him and the team. Even if Demko remains out a while longer — seven months and counting — coach Rick Tocchet probably won’t wait seven games before entrusting Silovs with another start.
“I thought he was solid,” Tocchet said. “I think he can string some good days together. He looked good. Especially, in the third period, he looked big in the net. He made a couple of saves where he looked big.”
After losing four of their last five home games — three of them dismal — nothing looked bigger for the Canucks at the end than their two points. The lack of style points didn’t matter.
“We’re family,” Sherwood said. “It takes time to build things and get everyone going in the right direction. So we’ll just keep going day by day and put our nose down and work.”
Playing his first NHL game in his hometown, Blackhawk Connor Bedard was inconspicuous until he entirely whiffed on an attempted shoot-in from centre ice with two minutes remaining, gifting an empty-netter to Miller. Teddy Blueger added another from Garland’s unselfish pass.
Now nine games without a goal, Bedard registered just one shot on net in 16:48 of ice time. He was 0-8 on faceoffs.
“Even though we went down there 1-0, it was still a better start,” Raty said. “Going into third (period in a) tied game and we come up with the win. And being up by one goal late, and handling that six-on-five (pressure), I think those are all good things for the team.”
