As I was dropping off my kids with Grandma and Grandpa this morning, I was listening to sports talk radio. A caller on Sportsnet 650 claimed that Brock Boeser is clearly the best player in the NHL and compared him to Mario Lemieux. So, just in case you were wondering where the hype levels were for Boeser right now, they’re at “Better than McDavid” levels and approaching “Greatest Player in NHL History.”
Due to circumstances, I had to write this I Watched This Game the day after the game itself, which gave me a little distance to reflect on the game and how the Canucks performed. Let’s be clear: Boeser wasn’t even the best Canuck on the ice in this game. Thomas Vanek was.
Boeser is having a superb rookie season. He leads all rookies in goals and points, he’s in the top-20 in the league in points, and he’s fourth in the league in goals. His season, so far, is better than even the most optimistic Canucks fan could have possibly imagined. But let’s not get carried away.
No, random guy calling in to a radio station, Boeser is nowhere near Mario Lemieux. He’s not better than Connor McDavid. Can’t we just enjoy Boeser for who he is without losing our minds and turning him into something he’s not? Can’t we just say, “Boeser is amazing” without saying “Boeser is perfect”?
It’s like when you’re whale watching around the San Juan Islands: feel free to get excited, but don’t go overboard. I watched this game.
- As a whole, the Canucks were a lot more defensively sound in this game than they were in their last nine games. While the Blackhawks got shots and scoring chances, they were mostly kept to the outside and had very few truly dangerous scoring opportunities. The only issue is that the Canucks didn’t really generate much offence of their own in the process, apart from one line.
- Fortunately, that one line was the best line since “Are you my appendix?” Thomas Vanek, Brock Boeser, and Sam Gagner were in scary-good harmony like The Little Shop of Horrors singers, creating chance after chance and scoring all five Canucks’ goals. It’s the best single-game performance we’ve seen from a Canucks line all season.
- Thomas Vanek nearly opened the scoring three minutes in when Ben Hutton found him wide open at the left faceoff circle. The net was nearly as wide open as Vanek, but Anton Forsberg somehow stretched back to get his stick on the shot. John Garrett credited Brent Seabrook, but it was definitely Forsberg’s paddle, and it’s a save that likely would have gotten a lot more attention if this turned out to be a closer game.
- Nikolay Goldobin had a great start to this game, drawing a penalty, assisting on a goal, nearly scoring another himself on a chance at the side of the net, and setting up a Markus Granlund chance with a spinning pass off the boards. It looked like he was on his way to a strong game, but he didn’t see much ice as Travis Green shortened his bench. He barely played a minute in the third period, which had to be frustrating.
- Goldobin looked great on the power play that led to the opening goal, keeping the puck alive along the boards, then getting into a good position high in the zone when Vanek kept the puck in at the line. As the penalty expired, Goldobin walked in and loaded up a wrist shot, which Gagner tipped in from between the hash marks. Like “A little silvery-blue eyeliner on the lower lid is very flirty,” it was a beauty tip.
- I thought Ben Hutton and Erik Gudbranson did some great work together on the penalty kill. Hutton is good at winning the puck and Gudbranson is good at clearing it, so they’re a solid combination shorthanded. I didn’t like, however, Loui Eriksson’s penalty killing on the Blackhawks’ first goal, as he chose to put his stick in the passing lane to the point, leaving the passing lane to the slot wide open for a Nick Schmaltz one-timer.
- Everything’s been going in the net for Boeser lately, so he must have been confused when he deflected a great Gagner centring pass off the post. He likely looked at his stick at the bench to make sure he hadn’t grabbed one of Jake Virtanen’s by mistake.
- After a couple of great chances, Vanek finally got his first goal off a ridiculous feed from Gagner. Boeser swung the puck behind the net and Gagner sent a blind backhand pass right onto the tape of Vanek in front of the net, and he made no mistake. It was the best blind backhand since Daredevil smacked that one guy in the hallway. You know the one.
- Fans weren’t happy with the reffing in this game, particularly when it looked like Gagner got hauled down heading to the net, then Troy Stecher got called for slashing a moment later. Also like Daredevil, it was bad optics, but both calls looked like the right ones to me. It didn’t look like Gagner got tripped or held, while Stecher chopped down pretty hard on the hands.
- The My Two Dads line took over in the third period. Brendan Gaunce sprung the breakout at one end, then got off the ice for Vanek, who immediately drilled a slap shot that got blocked. While Patrick Kane lazily looped around the boards hoping for a breakaway pass, his man, Gagner, stepped into the left faceoff circle, got the pass from Vanek, and snapped the puck inside the far post.
- Boeser is already learning from his two dads, as he copied Gagner’s blind backhand pass to set up Vanek’s second goal. It was a carbon copy, which is one of those weird references that has long outlived what it originally referenced. It’s like how the save icon in most computer programs looks like an old 3.5” disk or the send icon in an email program often looks like an envelope. The “CC” on emails refers to carbon copies, which haven’t really been a thing since the invention of the photocopier. It’s weird, right?
- When Vanek got a step on defenceman Jan Rutta, you might have expected him to drive the net and go for a hat trick. Instead, like a father that gives his son a fish instead of a snake, he gave Boeser a good gift, unexpectedly dropping the puck off between two Blackhawks’ defencemen for Boeser to roof. That gave Boeser his 21st goal of the season, officially passing Bo Horvat’s team-high 20 goals from last season.
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It wasn’t quite game over, as the Blackhawks made like Captain Ahab and spit their last breath at thee. Or them. They scored a goal is what I’m saying. Hutton got caught puck-watching and Ryan Hartman snuck in behind him. I have no idea what Gudbranson was thinking with the line he took on Hartman, but it wasn’t a good one. It wouldn’t say it was the biggest cock-up since Dirk Diggler, but it was a pretty big mistake, as he did a little flyby on Hartman, taking neither the body nor the puck.
