Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I still can’t believe the Nuggets fired Michael Malone so close to the playoffs.
In today’s SI:AM:
⛳ Lee Elder’s important anniversary
🏈 Why Shedeur’s stock isn’t “falling”
A comeback for the ages
With one week left in the NHL regular season, the Vancouver Canucks are clinging desperately to slim playoff hopes—and they kept those hopes alive on Tuesday with a historic comeback victory.
Vancouver trailed 3–0 to the Dallas Stars after two periods on Tuesday but got back into the game with a pair of power-play goals early in the third. The Stars answered, though, and scored two goals in quick succession (including an empty-netter) to take a 5–2 lead with just over two minutes to play. The Canucks were toast, right?
Not so fast. The Canucks went on to score a stunning three goals in the final minute to tie the game and then win it in overtime. No team in NHL history had ever overcome a three-goal deficit in the final minute of regulation.
The comeback was so improbable that the Canucks didn’t even bother to pull the goalie after Dallas’s empty-net goal stretched the deficit to three. But Aatu Räty started the comeback with an accurate shot off a nice pass from Marcus Pettersson. Stars veteran Jamie Benn reacted to the goal by smashing his stick against the goal post in frustration. He had no idea how much more frustrating things were about to get for Dallas.
Vancouver did pull the goalie after Pettersson’s goal, and Pius Suter found the back of the net twice in a span of 23 seconds to tie the game at 5–5. His first came off a perfect feed from Connor Garland and the second came after Filip Hronek threw a semi-blind pass to the front of the net that happened to find Suter.
“That was something,” Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko said. “I mean, I think it’s important to not pack it in. We all know what position we’re in and going into the third down 3–0, it’d be very easy for our group to just kind of pack it in, get a practice in tomorrow and kind of move along. But, I mean, we’re pro athletes. We all want to compete, no matter the situation.”
Vancouver would have been eliminated from playoff contention with a loss, and while the miraculous comeback staved off elimination, the Canucks’ chances of playing postseason hockey are still exceptionally remote. They need to win all of their four remaining games and have the Minnesota Wild lose the four games they have left. Minnesota faces the league-worst San Jose Sharks at home on Wednesday, so the Canucks could be eliminated before long. But their unprecedented rally on Tuesday at least kept hope alive for another day.
It’s been a disappointing season for the Canucks, who had been the NHL’s most pleasant surprise last season when they finished with the best record in the Pacific Division to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2020. But it’s been a different story this year, in large part because the team was forced into trading its best player. In late January, Vancouver traded forward J.T. Miller, the team’s leading scorer last season, to the New York Rangers. After the deal, Canucks president Jim Rutherford confirmed widespread reports of a rift between Miller and Elias Pettersson, the team’s other star forward. Rutherford acknowledged that the situation was bad enough that either Miller or Pettersson had to be traded, and the team kept the 26-year-old Pettersson over the 32-year-old Miller.
The spat between Miller and Pettersson knocked the Canucks off their promising trajectory. Rather than building on last year’s strong showing and making another run at the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, they’re all but assured to miss the playoffs for the eighth time in the last 10 years. Even if they end up being eliminated later this week, Tuesday’s dramatic win at least gave them something positive to take away from a difficult season.
“You can talk a lot about culture and resilience, but there's a lot of lessons to be had there,” Vancouver winger Kiefer Sherwood said. “Until that final whistle blows, like, you never say never. Yeah, it’s a crazy win. But it’s also, I think, a huge life lesson, too, that hopefully guys can continue to build on.”
The best of Sports Illustrated
• Today’s Digital Cover is by Farrell Evans, on the 50th anniversary of Lee Elder breaking the color barrier at the Masters and Augusta National’s history as a plantation.
• As this week’s Masters gets underway on Thursday, professional golf is still hopelessly divided between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Michael Rosenberg wants somebody to step up and finally solve the crisis.
• Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion at Augusta, but he’s had a difficult start to 2025. Bob Harig was on hand as Scheffler spoke with the media Tuesday about his preparation for the tournament and his recovery from a freak hand injury.
• Conor Orr makes the case that we shouldn’t view Shedeur Sanders’s draft stock as “falling.” This is just what happens every draft season.
• Chris Mannix was in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder re-asserted themselves as a potential juggernaut with a convincing win over the Lakers.
• Matt Verderame spoke with several people around the NFL who aren’t sure giving Brock Purdy a big contract extension this offseason is the right move.
• The Canucks weren’t the only team to pull off a miracle comeback on Tuesday. The Bucks came back from down 24 points in the fourth quarter to beat the Timberwolves.
• The Cavaliers have officially clinched home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.
• Former MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel was one of at least 58 people who died when a nightclub roof collapsed in the Dominican Republic.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. A hilarious miscommunication between Phillies outfielders Edmundo Sosa and Johan Rojas.
4. Kyle Schwarber’s outrageous 462-foot home run. It was the second longest home run of this season.
3. The Yeshiva University baseball team’s celebration after snapping its 100-game losing streak. Yeshiva and Lehman College, two Division III schools in New York City, both entered yesterday’s doubleheader with incredibly long losing streaks. Lehman had lost 42 in a row before winning the first game, before Yeshiva won the nightcap to break its own streak.
2. The Bucks’ 34–3 run to stun the Timberwolves.
1. Declan Rice’s two free-kick goals for Arsenal in a Champions League win over Real Madrid.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Canucks Keep Season Alive With Historic Comeback.
