In Vancouver, the Canucks extended their current point streak to nine on Saturday in a7-4 w over the visiting San Jose Sharks.
Andrei Kuzmenko hit for a double for the Canucks in the win.
Thatcher Demko made 21 saves in the win.
“It’s nice perspective in the sense we enter every day saying, ‘how can we get better, what can we fix, what can we do?'” Vancouver defenseman Ian Cole said. “I think having that micro-view is good on a day to day. You hit little breaks in time like this at Christmas and you can step back and see the bigger picture.”
Vancouver improved to a gaudy 23-9-3.
“It’s nice,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “You get to go home for three days and the NHL takes a break and guys can enjoy their families. We definitely need a break. The guys need to get away from the rink for three days, be with their families, and enjoy it. And they should. We’ll worry about it when we get back, the task at hand. Obviously the second half is coming here.”
Kuzmenko scored his double in the opening stanza to give the Canucks a 2-0 lead.
He scored at 1:34 and 6:51 for the 2-0 advantage, Kuzmenko had been a healthy scratch in the prior two games.
“For me, it’s a very important moment for the team to win,” Kuzmenko said. “I didn’t play for two games but it’s not a problem. I trust the coaching staff.”
The Sharks dropped to 9-22-3.
“There’s a lot of things to like about our game,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “This group never quits. They’re resilient. We’re mentally tough. But too often the goals come too easy for our opponent and it’s an area we really have to get better at. We were soft around our net too often, our puck management wasn’t great, too many blind hope plays, and it cost us.”
San Jose replied in the first period with a pair of goals to tie the game, 2-2 after 20 minutes.
Mikael Granlund trimmed the deficit to 2-1 at 13:32 off a deflection.
Tomas Hertl make it 2-2 at 16:22.
In the middle frame, the Canucks replied back with a pair of goals to take a 4-2 lead.
Vancouver’s Nils Aman scored at 6:03 to give the them a 3-2 advantage.
Cole’ pushed the lead to 4-2 at 8:36 of the second.
San Jose tried to rally back with a goal from Fabian Zetterlund at 11:08 to make it 4-3.
The Canucks had another response with a marker from Dakota Joshua with 47 seconds left in the middle frame for a 5-3 lead headed to the third.
The Sharks stayed with it, trimming the deficit to 5-4, at 13:16 of the period on a satrike by Jacob MacDonald to make it 5-4.
Vancouver was relentless in its push back with Pius Suter scoring off another deflection at 15:43 to give the Canucks a 6-4 advantage.
Quinn Hughes hit for an empty-goal with 13 seconds left for the 7-4 final.
“We like the direction that we’re heading and it’s going to be nice to get a few days off here to reset,” Joshua said. “We know that once it gets going again on Thursday that we have to stay on this roll and keep it going the rest of the year.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 19 saves in the loss.
“You just do the best you can and try to get big and take away the angle and if they beat you with a tip… I’m not a superhero, you don’t have superhero reflexes… you just try to get big and take away the angle and if they beat you with a good tip there’s not really much you can do,” Blackwood said.
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