It is a crying shame that NHLers won’t be at the Winter Olympics, not only because we won’t get to see a true best-on-best tournament in Pyeongchang, but also because I feel like we could all use a little break from Canucks hockey.
It would be nice to turn Pass it to Bulis into Pass it to Zamuner for a couple weeks, turning up the dial on the patriotism and following Team Canada on their quest for gold. Alas, the Canucks will keep playing throughout the Olympics.
And I will keep watching them play, just like I watched this game.
- With no Brock Boeser and no Chris Tanev, the result of this game was predictable. Perhaps you could hope for the team to rally in their absence, to “win one for the Gipper,” as it were, but like the Jark of Sprades, that just wasn’t in the cards.
- I dropped the gloves with Jake Virtanen and Sven Baertschi for coasting back on the first goal, but there was plenty of blame to go around. Virtanen gave the puck away in the middle of the ice by mishandling Alex Edler’s pass, but Stecher got the puck again with a chance to move it out safely. Instead, his bank pass was out of the reach of Bo Horvat, turning into a scramble coming back into the defensive zone. Horvat, as F1, took Sebastian Aho, but neither Virtanen nor Baertschi took the responsibility of being F2 to take Brett Pesce, who was open as the trailer to beat Jacob Markstrom with the first shot of the game.
- After the game, Markstrom said, “I'm not good enough, and we got a lot of guys on our team that's not good enough either to be in this league. It's embarrassing.” That’s possibly the quote of the season, even if he may not have meant it to be quite as harsh as it sounded. Markstrom was mediocre, but he’s not wrong that without Boeser and Tanev they’re short on high-end NHL players.
- One player from the AHL made an impression, however: Darren Archibald. He made his season debut on his birthday and he came exactly as advertised: big, physical, and hard-forechecking. He provided yet another argument against paying big money for fourth-line grit. Archibald has been available to be signed all season and is on a league-minimum $650,000 contract, yet teams will pay millions of dollars for fourth-liners. It’s nonsensical.
- The Canucks were chasing the game right from puck drop, but did have chances early. Henrik Sedin fanned on a great setup at the back door from his brother, while Sutter couldn’t beat Scott Darling after Archibald won a puck on the forecheck and swung it in front. Then Henrik actually got a shot on target, but was robbed by a sliding Darling. It was a missed opportunity for John Shorthouse to shout out, “Oh my, Darling! Oh my, Darling!” and then somehow force the word "clementine" into it.
- With Pesce and Di Giuseppe scoring Carolina’s first two goals, I couldn’t help but wonder if any other Italian stereotypes played for the Hurricanes. Corleone? Soprano? Mickey Blue-Eyes? Maybe they should sign Angelo Esposito.
- Troy Stecher readily admitted that he had a bad game and he looked at his worst on the third Hurricanes goal, letting Aho sneak behind him for a breakaway, but I really didn’t like how Markstrom played it. Stecher recovered well and forced Aho to go to his backhand, with limited ability to raise the puck, but, like a beaver tail stand on the Rideau Canal, Markstrom opened up on the ice, allowing an easy 5-hole finish.
- Erik Gudbranson has been eager to show his physical presence ever since Brock Boeser got hit from behind by Trevor Lewis. I’m not sure coming flying in to throw gloved punches at the 5’11” Jeff Skinner after he got tangled up with Michael Del Zotto was really the best chance for him to do it.
- Jake Virtanen got his opportunity in this game, starting the game with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi, but it lasted about as long as a pop-punk song. He ended up with Nic Dowd and Reid Boucher for most of the game, and finished with zero shot attempts. He was, however, credited with three hits and had three takeaways, but Dowd’s struggles in this game meant the Canucks were out-attempted 14-to-5 when Virtanen was on the ice at 5-on-5.
- That line was on the ice for the lone Canucks’ goal, with Boucher doing a lot of the work. He threw a hit that led to getting the puck in deep, got a shot from the high slot off a pass from Del Zotto, then hustled to the boards to keep the play alive. That led to the puck coming to Del Zotto, whose shot hit a couple skates on its way into the net. Boucher could get a longer look with injuries to Gaunce, Gagner, and Granlund.
- Boucher got some time with Horvat, something that I’m hoping to see more until Boeser returns from his hand injury. Boucher has a fantastic shot, if not at the level of Boeser’s, but saying Boucher is not at the level of Boeser is like saying Krillin is not at the level of Frieza. Krillin is still pretty awesome. Destructo Disk!
