Jared McCann may have lit up the OHL last season, but few people expected him to come into training camp and force the Canucks to put him in the opening night lineup. McCann surprised everyone except, perhaps, himself with his solid performance in the pre-season and he hasn’t looked out of place in the regular season.
Except last night, of course, when he was out of one place -- the lineup -- and in another place -- the press box. He looked a little out of place there, I thought.
A couple games back, the Canucks’ second 2014 first-rounder scored his first big league goal, but it was a ninth-rounder who deserves a lot of the credit. Let’s break it down, shall we?
Let’s start with this screenshot just to establish the scene and see where everybody is.
The Flames have their top defensive pairing of Dougie Hamilton and Mark Giordano on the ice along with the youthful line of 19-year-old 18-year-old Sam Bennett, 21-year-old Boring Sean Monahan, and baby-faced but secret 30-year-old Mason Raymond.
All but Hamilton are along the right boards, with all three forwards closing down on Brandon Prust, who has the puck. This, of course, makes perfect sense: when Prust is on the ice, you have to shut him down. Otherwise he’ll light so many lamps that Sean Monahan will say, “Wow, that’s quite a few lamps.”
But let’s back up a moment: how did we get here? How do I work this? Where is that large automobile?
Moments earlier, Jannik Hansen misses a puck behind the net, and Mark Giordano skates to cut him off and get to the puck first. Hansen executes a perfect stick lift to prevent Giordano from getting to the puck, then pivots to Giordano’s right shoulder, riding him into the boards and separating him from the puck.
It’s a beautiful hit and it’s the last time Giordano will be at all involved in the play.
Meanwhile, Monahan goes to check Hansen, but has to take a circuitous route with the referee trying to get out of the way. This gives Hansen time to poke the puck up the boards to Prust.
That takes us to the first screen shot up above. The Flames could be in worse shape: they’re closing down on Prust, hoping to either tie up the puck on the boards or chip it out of the zone. There’s just one thing they haven’t taken into account: Prust is secretly a pretty decent passer.
Prust swings the puck off the boards to Hansen, who has moved into open ice with no apparent interest from his check, Monahan. If Monahan sticks with Hansen coming off the boards, this goal likely doesn't happen. With Bennett chasing and Yannick Weber making a beeline from the bench to the net, the Canucks suddenly have a 3-on-1.
The Flames still aren’t in terrible shape. Hamilton is in good position to take away McCann as a passing option and Giordano still has time to get back in the play and prevent a clean shot from Hansen.
All that Hamilton has to do is stay put. The worst thing he could do is try to check Hansen, leaving McCann all alone in the slot, but there’s no way he would do that, right?
Hahahaha, oh man.
Because Hansen has far softer hands than he ever gets credit for, he easily avoids Hamilton’s stick check and threads a pass through Hamilton’s skates, setting McCann up with so much space that even Hitler would have been, like, “Yeah, that’s probably enough space.”
Seriously, look at all that space. Giordano is busting his behind trying to get there in time to affect McCann’s shot, but he doesn’t have a hope in hell.
Meanwhile, Jonas Hiller is coming across his net and doesn’t get a chance to come out and challenge the shooter. Besides, he has to worry a little bit about Weber going to the net. I mean, not a lot, because there’s no way that McCann isn’t going to shoot this puck, but it has to be somewhere in the back of his mind. Seriously, though, Weber does all the right things and ends up having no impact whatsoever on the goal.
So, because of a couple great plays by ninth-round pick Jannik Hansen and a terrible defensive play by first-rounder Dougie Hamilton, McCann has enough time to really load up and do this to his stick:
Jonas Hiller didn’t have a chance.
