Canucks notch rare win after ‘stressful’ trade-deadline week

CHICAGO – The roiling, dark skies above Chicago flashed with lightning Friday evening. Incredibly, it was sunny around the Vancouver Canucks.

Blue-sky days have been rarer than wins for the Canucks this season. But the merciful passing of Friday’s National Hockey League trade deadline allowed the rain to pause above the Canucks, who took advantage of the break in the weather to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 in the first game of the rest of their season.

After the strain of this dismal season for the Canucks and the stifling stress of deadline week, when virtually all of their experienced players were mentioned in trade conjecture, and three – Tyler Myers, Conor Garland and David Kampf – were dealt elsewhere for draft picks, there was an obvious lightness around the team.

Judging by the boisterous cheers rolling into the hallway outside their dressing room at the United Center after the game, there was some honest-to-goodness joy, too.

“You could feel before the game that guys were just kind of, you know, excited to play and I think looking forward to the rest of the way here, just knowing this is the group we’re going with,” veteran winger Drew O’Connor said. “It felt good, kind of a weight off our shoulders.

“It was a stressful week. It’s kind of the first time I’ve been a part of it where you didn’t really know who was going to go and who was going to stay, and it was difficult. I think it was difficult on all of us leading up to this week. We lost some guys that have been here a long time and meant a lot to the organization, so that’s difficult. At same time, I think it’s a bit of a relief now that we know what our group is. We’ve got to move forward and try to build something. It was really nice to get the win tonight.”

The Canucks will meet their newest player, waiver pickup Curtis Douglas, Saturday in Winnipeg before Vancouver plays for the second time in less than 24 hours. Maybe the rain will be back, but not the storm.

They have some emotional clarity and some freedom now to just go play the final quarter of their season, even if it starts with them hopelessly last in the NHL standings.

Dangled as trade rentals since November, free-agent-eligible Canucks Teddy Blueger and Evander Kane were not jettisoned on Friday. General manager Patrik Allvin said he received no offers for them. He did, however, wrangle sixth-round picks from the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins for Kampf and minor-leaguer Lukas Reichel, respectively.

“Yeah, a little bit,” Blueger smiled about three hours after taking the opening faceoff. “Nothing has changed with me wanting to be here and be a part of this group. I haven’t been here that long, but I feel like we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs with guys like Fil (Chytil) and Demmer (Thatcher Demko) and Brock (Boeser). You feel like you get close with guys when you go through stuff, both the ups and the downs. And as a person, I value loyalty, so that is something that definitely plays a role with me.”

Allvin has left open the possibility of the Canucks circling back on Blueger and seeing what it might cost to bring him back next season. Kane is gone – but not yet. Management’s plan is to have him finish the season in the NHL with the Canucks before the 34-year-old embarks on free agency.

Other veterans whose names had been cast on social media like breadcrumbs to pigeons this week, like Boeser, O’Connor, Jake DeBrusk, and Elias Pettersson, survived the deadline.

“Every time that deadline is done . . . there’s definitely a sense of relief,” DeBrusk said. “You know where you are; you don’t have to question anything. Obviously, there were some guys that didn’t know . . . and we lost some troops as well. So it’s a tough day.

“I don’t know if I agree with playing on the trade deadline day itself. Guys didn’t nap today (waiting for the deadline to pass). They (the Blackhawks) lost their captain, Nick Foligno. You’re looking at everything going on and, you know, obviously other guys in different positions are probably doing the same thing. (But) we have a job to do, and that’s what it is.”

The Canucks did the job Friday better than the Blackhawks, who traded their captain to the Minnesota Wild so the Foligno brothers, Marcus and Nick, can try and win a Stanley Cup together.

Boeser scored twice for the Canucks, capping the team’s third win in 24 games with an empty-netter. Fittingly, O’Connor, DeBrusk and Blueger all scored. Max Sasson also scored into an empty net while goalie Nikita Tolopilo, who stopped 20 of 23 shots, made his best saves at pivotal moments.

“Yeah, it’s so hard,” Boeser said of losing Myers and Garland this week. “Some of my closest friends over the years. It sucks. We kind of knew it was coming (but) we didn’t know who was going to go. We’ve got to make sure we’re looking forward now and really start to build this thing up.

“It’s nice to get (the deadline) past and now we can just focus on some better hockey.”

Mired in a poor season personally, like so many Canucks, Boeser suddenly has six goals in his last 11 games and is up to 15 goals for the season – two behind team leader, Kiefer Sherwood, who was traded to the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 19.

“I’ll catch him,” Boeser smiled.

He said it was “crazy” how few Canucks remain from the team that went two rounds deep in the Stanley Cup Playoffs less than two years ago.

“Someone posted the lineup of our playoff series against Edmonton, and how much has changed in just two years,” Blueger said. “Such a short period of time. Obviously, that’s not ideal, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”

The transaction Friday that will have the most immediate impact on the Canucks was the waiver claim of Douglas from the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is a six-foot-nine forward who has 92 penalty minutes (and two assists) in 29 games this season.

“With our young guys in the lineup … I want the players to feel safe,” Allvin explained. “I don’t want them to get beaten up. And we’ve been looking for a player like this with more size, physicality. So when he was available here … we felt that would be a good fit for us.”