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I Watched This Game: Canucks 2, Jets 4

It feels like it’s been a month since we last saw Brock Boeser play for the Canucks, but it’s only been 12 days.
I Watched This Game

It feels like it’s been a month since we last saw Brock Boeser play for the Canucks, but it’s only been 12 days. Perhaps the reaction to Boeser being a healthy scratch for the first two games of the season, but it was immediately clear when he stepped onto the ice that he is an NHL-caliber top-six forward.

Sports offers us something unique in a world full of grey areas: a definitive end result. When a game is over, there is a winner and there is a loser. It’s comforting, even after a loss, because at least you know where you stand.

It’s tempting to take that end result and use it to justify or condemn everything decision leading up to that result. Some mediocre coaches have won the Jack Adams Award because their goaltender had a Vezina-caliber season, retroactively justifying every coaching decision by stopping a bunch of pucks.

When the Canucks won the first game of the season by utilizing a shutdown forward line on Connor McDavid, the criticism of keeping Boeser in the press box quieted for a moment. But the win didn’t mean scratching him was the right decision and the loss to the Jets doesn’t mean putting him in the lineup was the wrong decision.

I was glad to see Boeser in the lineup when I watched this game.

  • Boeser even slotted in on the first power play unit with the Sedins and immediately made an impact, taking a great Thomas Vanek pass on his skate, then ripping a shot glove side that was too hot for goaltender Connor Hellebuyck too handle, and simultaneously too cold to hold. The rebound came off Hellebuyck’s glove to Daniel Sedin in the slot for the putback slam.
  • Beyond the assist, it was a strong game overall for Thomas Vanek, who saw the Canucks out-shoot the Jets 8-to-0 when he was on the ice at even-strength. That’s right: eight shots for, zero against. Vanek might be good, you guys.
  • Vanek’s zone starts might have played a role: Vanek was on the ice for 10 offensive zone faceoffs and just 1 defensive zone and 1 neutral zone faceoff. In addition, he (and the Sedins) saw mostly the Jets’ mediocre third line of Shawn Matthias, Adam Lowry, and Brandon Tanev. I’m guessing if Vanek made a mixtape for Travis Green, he would include songs by The Rolling Stones, Ray Lamontagne, and Cinderella.
  • Erik Gudbranson was a completely different story. When he was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Canucks were out-shot 11-to-1. That is worrisome. He saw a steady diet of the Jets' second line of Bryan Little, Patrik Laine, and Mathieu Perreault and got crushed like chips in a heavily-handled bag of Lays.
  • The Jets tied up the game thanks to some good old-fashioned luck: Josh Morrissey’s centring pass hit Michael Del Zotto’s skate and went in. It’s a shame, as Del Zotto did the right thing, tying up Bryan Little’s stick to ensure he couldn’t get to the puck: a lousy end result does not condemn everything leading up to that result.
  • Del Zotto ended up on the ice for all four Jets’ goals, though partly because he was constantly on the ice. Alex Edler left the game midway through the first period with an injury and Del Zotto picked up most of the slack, playing a game-high 27:46. He didn’t play particularly poorly, but when you’re on the ice for nearly half the game against the likes of Patrick Laine and Nic Ehlers, you’re going to get a couple minuses.
  • Laine scored 36 goals last season and should never be left alone in the slot. So everyone on the ice for his goal — Del Zotto, Gudbranson, Derek Dorsett, Brandon Sutter, and Sam Gagner — gets a measure of blame. The bulk of my fingers are pointing at Dorsett, though, who fruitlessly chased the puck-carrier, Bryan Little, down the boards instead of picking up his check, Laine. Then, when he should have just stuck with Little because he had already committed, he peeled off, giving Little all kinds of time and space to find Laine with a pass. Laine, unlike Dorsett, made no mistake.
  • The Jets’ third goal was tinged by irony: with just a few seconds left in a Canucks’ power play, Travis Green sent out two defencemen instead of the usual four forward, one defenceman setup. This safer, more defensively-sound setup immediately backfired, as Chris Tanev pinched down the boards and got caught, leading to a 2-on-1 rush the other way. Tyler Myers took the puck and wired it top corner for the oxymoronic shorthanded goal, as the 6’8” defenceman’s hands are, inevitably, quite tall.
  • The line of Loui Eriksson, Markus Granlund, and Jake Virtanen seemed like a good idea, but it didn’t last the game. Down by two two-thirds into the game, two-thirds of the line sat on the bench for the third. Eriksson, Virtanen, and Dorsett had under two minutes of ice time in the final frame, with Virtanen skating just one 7-second shift.
  • The Canucks dominated the third period and pulled within a goal thanks to a Chris Tanev knucklepuck. We joke about the Russ Tyler special, but Tanev’s one-timer of a rolling puck actually swerved in mid-air, evading Hellebuyck’s glove and dive-bombing into the net. I'm no physicist, but I honestly think Tanev’s weak shot helped him on this goal, as a harder blast would have flattened out the puck’s trajectory; instead, the slower puck stayed partly on end as it sailed through the air, allowing the drag of the air to change its direction.
  • The Canucks couldn’t muster much with the goalie pulled for the extra attacker and, with seconds remaining, Ben Hutton gave the puck away at the Jets’ blue line trying for one last-ditch chance. Instead, Ehlers picked it off with a clear path through the neutral zone. At that point, it was like shooting fish in a barrel, which is, as Mythbusters proved, stupidly easy. Incidentally, shooting fish in a barrel is easy, but you can also shoot fish with a (longer) barrel.