The theme for this game was “Defence Never Rests”, as the Canucks brought out fan-favourite defencemen Sami Salo and Ed Jovanovski for the ceremonial puck drop.
Regrettably, they didn’t then head back to the bench, suit up, and take the ice for the actual opening faceoff. The Canucks really could have used them. I mean, Salo’s only 41—that’s three whole years younger than Jaromir Jagr, who’s leading the Florida Panthers in scoring—and Jovanovski’s only 39. He’s practically a kid!
Salo is 3rd all-time in goals from a Canucks defencemen and Jovanovski is 6th. The Canucks have just 17 goals this season from defencemen, fewer than Sharks defenceman Brent Burns alone, as the broadcast so helpfully pointed out. Heck, one season Jovanovski alone had 17 goals.
The Canucks could have used Jovo-Cop and your Pal-o when I watched this game.
- Martin Jones got his first start in Rogers Arena for the Sharks, which was neat, because Jones is from Vancouver and his dad is the vice president of arena operations for the Canucks. Well, he’s from North Vancouver. Yeah, he’s one of them. (note: I’m not from Vancouver and have no idea if people from Vancouver have a thing about people from North Vancouver; I’m just assuming they do)
- Dan Hamhuis played in this game, despite being the Canucks’ biggest trade chip at the deadline tomorrow. This led every shift being a white-knuckle thrill ride as fans wondered which unfortunate collision would lead to a season-ending injury, scuttling any potential trade. Of course, if he had been scratched, he likely would have thrown out his back picking up press box popcorn.
- Also in the lineup: Adam Cracknell, who was waived earlier in the day. That’s a little unusual, but it suggests that he was waived to make him eligible for the AHL playoffs, not to actually send him down right away. That’s good, in that Cracknell has been a pleasant surprise this season, and excellent evidence for why you should never overspend on fourth-liners, but also bad, as it meant Jared McCann was scratched, and about the only reason to be excited to tune in for the rest of the season is to watch the future of the Canucks.
- Not in the lineup, however, was Matt Bartkowski, leading to rampant trade speculation until it was revealed he simply had the flu. Unless...what if it was a typo and it was meant to say FLA. Everyone was trying to report that Bartkowski was traded to FLA! MATT BARTKOWSKI HAS BEEN TRADED TO THE PANTHERS!!!
- Why am I talking so much about the roster? Because this was a pretty dull game. The most exciting moment of the first period was a Derek Dorsett scoring chance. I mean, it was a legitimately brilliant move, as Dorsett took a nifty bank pass from Cracknell, tucked the puck between Roman Polak’s legs, then jumped around him, but seriously, nothing else happened.
- The Sedins dominated the Canucks’ lone powerplay, keeping the puck in the offensive zone for a minute-and-a-half, finishing with a goal just after the penalty expired. There wasn’t anything fancy or wizardous: just a couple passes, a defenceman paying too much attention to Henrik and too little to Daniel, and persistence. It was his 350th career goal and defencemen still haven’t learned: don’t turn your back on Daniel. Especially not this season, because this season’s Daniel doesn’t give a crap: he will straight-up shoot you in the back.
- The Canucks entered the third period with the one-goal lead, then everything fell apart. They got out-shot 14-6. Two penalties gave the Sharks a 5-on-3. And, four unanswered goals later, the dreams of the Canucks’ first three-game win streak of the season were dashed. Yeah, this season stinks. It stinks on ice. It's mostly stunk off-ice too.
- The Canucks’ young’uns were a mixed bag in this one, with Emerson Etem, Linden Vey, and Mikael Granlund creating chances and out-shooting the Sharks 6-2 at even-strength, while Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, and Jake Virtanen struggled, and got out-shot 8-2 at even-strength. But hey, the Canucks have two complete lines that can legitimately be called young’uns, so that’s neat. 24-year-old Vey is the wizened old man in the Canucks’ middle six. Which, if we’re doing a hero’s journey for the Canucks’ prospects, means he’s the mentor that has to die heroically fighting the bad guy (Brad Marchand, I guess?) before the Canucks can win the Cup.
- Finally, I liked that Willie Desjardins was bold enough to pull Ryan Miller with more than four minutes left in the game. Is losing 4-1 any more demoralizing than losing 3-1? When you’re down by two in the third period, it’s time to take chances, make mistakes, get messy. Also pretty good advice for the trade deadline at this point.
