Sometimes you just need a fresh start, an opportunity to shake off the dust and try something new. With this philosophy in mind, Vancouver hit the ice Friday, determined to gut out a different result than their humiliating loss against Ottawa on Tuesday.
And did they ever! To really mix things up and keep us on our toes, Troy Stecher played a solid and composed game in which he highlighted his speed and smarts. Another refreshing difference was the lack of power plays, with only one minor penalty for each team. And, a completely new twist, Vancouver scored zero goals. So yep, completely different than Tuesday night.
I watched a horde of angry, pitchfork-wielding fans comment on the live feed while I watched this game.
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Connor McDavid. The guy sucked the air out of Rogers Arena after he blew past Ben Hutton to pot the game-winning goal. I mean that quite literally: he physically pulled the oxygen out of the building. I’m assuming it was due to some sort of aerodynamic phenomenon resulting from him skating at approximately the speed of sound. To borrow from the inimitable Daniel Wagner, it was #McDiculous.
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McDavid looked to be nicely contained in the first period, and I admit I was skeptical. I mean, what can he do that Brendan Gaunce can’t? Then he turned on the jets in the second half of the game. Hutton, who is a pretty mobile defenseman, spent most of his ice time chasing McDavid as he drove into the offensive zone.
I mean, Connor McDavid is so fast that when he skates he can see his own jersey number. He’s so fast that Todd McLellan had to install a spoiler on his forehead to avoid him taking flight. He’s so fast he assisted on his own goal. Your turn. -
Despite the depressing boxscore, the Canucks played noticeably better than their previous showing against the Senators. All of the top three lines seemed to click at various times, and each had top notch scoring opportunities. There were some nice passing plays, and Vancouver’s defence did an admirable job shutting down an Edmonton forward core with more firepower than a Trump rally tailgate party.
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Is shutting down Edmonton really that hard? You just have to neutralize dangerous, NHL-leading scorer McDavid, then nullify dangerous scoring centre Leon Draisaitl, then counter dangerous scoring centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. And then it’s just a matter of keeping an eye on dangerous scoring wingers Jordan Eberle, Milan Lucic and Jesse Puljujarvi. Easy. Just shut it down!
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The GranBranHan line had some nice moments, looking sharp and fast most of the night. Brandon Sutter was fed in front of the net by Markus Granlund late in the first period. Halfway through the second, Ben Hutton broke in wide and sent a beautiful feed to Granlund, but like a teenager smoking catnip, he just couldn’t get high enough and Cam Talbot denied him.
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The duo of Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi had impressive moments too. Bo looked dynamic all night. Late in the third period he intercepted an errant pass by Jesse Puljujarvi and sent Brendan Gaunce in on a partial breakaway. Baertschi had some good looks but couldn’t seem to catch a break. He missed on a wide open net late in the third period, after Horvat found him through traffic. On a rush with Jake Virtanen, he was finally able to put something in the net: his body.
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The top line had some exciting shifts. In the first period, Henrik Sedin fed a pinching Philip Larsen who tried to go five hole on Cam Talbot. There were also encouraging signs of chemistry between the Sedins and Loui “Luscious Locks" Eriksson, such as when he had a nice, no-look shot partway through the second period.
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Troy Stecher looked poised and steady in his second career NHL game, paired once again with Alex Edler. His speed came in very handy, as Stedchler was deployed all night against McDavid and friends. There’s a legitimate chance that Canucks brass will send him back to Utica once Chris Tanev is ready to resume play, but Stecher is making that decision awfully tough, and it’s clear that Willie Desjardins likes what he sees. As Gary Valk astutely phrased it, "If you wanna win, you gotta keep him." To Troy, all I can say is that I think you’re really neat, and can I keep you?
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Erik Gudbranson kept Vancouver competitive late in the contest when he made a dramatic sliding block to deny McDavid another scoring opportunity as he cut down the wing. Seconds later, Gudbranson blocked another pass from Milan Lucic to prevent handing McDavid a clean shot on net.
He also won an early tilt against Oilers tough guy Zack Kassian, swinging for the fences and connecting where it counts, unlike Javier Baez. (Sorry Cubs fans… that was mean.) -
Ryan Miller was sharp as usual against Edmonton, holding the Canucks within a goal until he was pulled for the extra attacker. His best save probably came after McDavid had his 83rd scoring chance on a breakaway in the third period.
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It certainly looks as though Edmonton has come through the woods. They have a young, fast and tough mixture of players. This is a copycat league, so I expect the Canucks will follow the same blueprint. Vancouver is simply a decade of struggle, four first overall picks and one generational phenom centre away from contention. (After all, how better to build the right way than to exhaust every possible wrong way?)
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A recurrent problem for Vancouver was an inability to set up in the offensive zone, mirroring their struggles against Ottawa. Many of their chances were the result of broken plays. The Canucks must find a way to consistently break into the zone if they want to generate some scoring. Call me naive, but have they bothered to try the flying V ?
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The game was iced when Milan Lucic won a footrace with Stecher and slid the puck into the empty net. Daniel Sedin hurled his water bottle in frustrated rage and hundreds of Canucks fans began collecting the materials for McDavid voodoo dolls in advance of the next matchup on December 31st.
