Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers appeared to lay to rest Troy Stecher’s chances of making the Canucks out of camp. It’s not really because of anything he did, but because of how he was used.
First off: no power play time. That’s a bad sign. Second: he played with Alex Edler. You’d think if he were sticking around, they’d want to see him play with Luca Sbisa on the third pairing. Instead, he was on the top pairing, playing the third most minutes behind Edler and Ben Hutton, which might suggest they want him playing big minutes, which would necessitate a trip to Utica.
It’s playing with Edler that is the biggest red flag, because who is Chris Tanev going to play with? Nikita Tryamkin? Luca Sbisa? Ben Hutton? Wait, actually, that last one sounds pretty good.
I got a great idea for the Canucks defence pairings when I watched this game.
- Stecher didn’t help his chances with a moment of rookie panic in his first shift, hurriedly hoisting the puck out of play from the defensive zone, giving the Oilers an early power play. It was like going into a job interview after preparing for weeks, then panicking and immediately listing all of your greatest weaknesses when the interviewer attempts to shake your hand.
- Apart from that mistake, Stecher played a solid game. He ended up playing a lot against Connor McDavid and held his own, breaking up a McDavid pass on a 2-on-1 and taking the body on another rush to separate McDavid from the puck. Like Marlon Wayans in Requiem for a Dream, it was a solid performance in a role for which he seemed entirely unsuited.
- If Stecher gets sent down, that likely means Alex Biega is staying up, which I can live with, but not be happy about. Just like my former English teacher father won’t be happy about me ending that sentence with a preposition.
- Honestly, Biega was fine in this game playing alongside Ben Hutton and even had one great rush through the neutral zone and into the Oiler’s end, creating a rebound for Henrik Sedin that led to Milan Lucic hooking him to prevent an easy goal. The Canucks scored on that power play, so, in a roundabout way, Biega got a power play assist.
- Philip Larsen and Luca Sbisa got buried in the defensive zone for much of the game, revealing some of Larsen’s defensive warts. He got burned by Benoit Pouliot on the Oilers’ first goal, giving up the inside lane like a long distance runner getting lapped.
- Larsen immediately redeemed himself just 22 seconds later, firing a shot off a Brandon Sutter faceoff win that got tipped by Sutter past Cam Talbot for the tying goal. Sidenote: Larsen’s helmet makes him look like a life-sized bobblehead.
- Connor McDavid is so good, you guys. His 2-1 goal was so ridiculous that it made me cuss repeatedly in my game notes. He looked for all the world like he was going to go around the net. Everyone in the entire arena, on the ice or off, thought he was going to go around the net. Then, at the last possible moment, he casually flipped the puck into the puck-sized space between Markstrom and the post. It was so filthy and simultaneously so casual, and yet the phrase “filthy casual” means basically the exact opposite of Connor McDavid.
- The Canucks got absolutely crushed in the second period. They were out-shot 18-to-3. Shot attempts were 36-to-9. It was ugly. Somehow, and by somehow I mean Jacob Markstrom, the Oilers only managed to score one goal and it took a McDiculous shot to do it.
- After some line juggling—bumping Loui Eriksson back up with the Sedins to replace Jannik Hansen, for instance—the Canucks were much better in the third period. Really, Willie Desjardins should do all his line juggling before the game starts.
- Sven Baertschi tied up the game on the power play, picking his own rebound out of a scrum and sending it just under the bar. It was a gorgeous backhand, like David Duchovny’s in Zoolander.
- Markus Granlund has benefited from both low expectations and a solid pre-season, changing a lot of minds with his play. He capped his pre-season off with the gamewinner, swatting a pass from Alex Edler past Talbot on the short side. In other exceeding expectations news, Edler picked up his seventh assist of the pre-season, tying for the league lead in assists.
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With Jack Skille and Tuomo Ruutu vying for jobs, both Jake Virtanen and Emerson Etem were hoping to make an impression to finish of the pre-season. Neither were particularly good, but Etem was pretty much entirely invisible. While he might not get sent down just yet, like a home Blue Jays game, the waive could come at any moment.
