That game had a little something for everyone. Catastrophically bad defending. Luongo robbery. Markstrom robbery. Young players doing cool stuff. Old guys doing cooler stuff. Horvat! Jagr! Virtanen! Huberdeau! Sedins! Wizardry!
And, to satisfy the old school hockey fans, there was some knuckleheadedness at the end, as the benches cleared, punches were thrown, words were said, and fingers were pointed. Somehow, Denis Potvin called Daniel Sedin a “lowlife.” When asked what started the kerfuffle, the Sedins, like typical lowlifes, took the high road and refused to name names.
Yes, Daniel Sedin was called a lowlife. Now I have truly seen everything, because I watched this game.
- I’d rather focus on the excellent game that happened before all the tomfoolery after the horn, so I’ll only say this: whatever was said by players from either team, the benches-clearing near-brawl doesn’t happen if Derek Dorsett doesn’t skate over to the Panthers’ bench after the Canucks celebrated their overtime win.
- There are two real stories of this game that are getting overshadowed: first, Daniel’s overtime winner ended the Florida Panthers’ 12-game winning streak and Roberto Luongo’s personal career-high 9-game winning streak. Later, in the locker room, someone put Ray Steven’s “The Streak” on the stereo and Daniel immediately turned it off. He then installed new windshield wipers on the team bus and punched Frank the Tank in the nose.
- The second big story: with his two-goal performance, Daniel tied Markus Naslund for the franchise lead in goalscoring. With the new custom goal songs for each player, I’m expecting a little Joe Esposito if he scores his record-breaking goal at Rogers Arena.
- The game started on a negative note with the Panthers scoring on their first shot of the game. The broadcast was quick to blame Jacob Markstrom for giving the puck away, but check out the highlight video above and watch Matt Bartkowski aimlessly drift to the corner while Jussi Jokinen goes to the front of the net. Take note of how he can definitely see Bo Horvat directly in front of him, moving to cover the same area. Try not to think about how he’s getting paid $1.75 million this season to play defence. I know, it’s like someone telling you not to think of pink elephants and now you can’t think of anything else. Sorry.
- Sidenote: turns out the name for that “pink elephants” thing in psychology is “ironic process theory.” One of the pioneers in that field: Daniel Wegner. That’s not ironic, but it did mess with my head a little bit just now, like seeing an alternate universe version of yourself.
- The Canucks also gave up a goal on the last shot of the period, which provided some ill-fitting brackets for what was a legitimately dominant first frame. The Canucks had chance after chance, but Luongo stopped them all, including a simply stunning glove save on a Bo Horvat one-timer. Lu was in a zone, and not the Low-Cal Calzone Zone, because that is a crime against Italian food and Luongo won’t stand for any of that nonsense.
- It seemed like it would take a miracle to beat Luongo and, to be fair, the existence of twin red-headed hockey-playing wizards on the same NHL team is pretty miraculous. Radim Vrbata, who played intermittently with the twins in this game, gained the zone then found a trailing Henrik, who quickly relayed to Daniel, who failed to follow the Third Law of Sedinery, that the Sedins will always make one more pass than is necessary, and instead shifted to the backhand and beat Luongo glove-side.
- Jacob Markstrom deserves a lot of credit for how he shut the door after the first period. He made 11 saves in the third period to get the game to overtime, including two big stops on Jussi Jokinen with less than two minutes remaining. It was pretty cool to see Florida’s goaltender-of-the-future become Vancouver’s goaltender-of-the-present against both Florida and Vancouver’s goaltender-of-the-past.
- The Canucks couldn’t muster up much offence in the third, let alone a little soft-shoe, gentle sway, but then Jake Virtanen busted a move in the final minutes, striking quickly off a faceoff win by Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi, sashaying past Brian Campbell, then Lindy whipping the puck short side.
- Emerson Etem made his Canucks debut and made an immediate impression, winning puck battles along the boards and driving to the net with his speed, drawing two penalties, including one in overtime on Jagr that led to Daniel’s game-winning goal. As Jessie Spano knows, speed can really mess you up.
- Daniel’s gamewinner came off a wonderfully direct and simple play from the Sedins, as Henrik dropped the puck off for Daniel, then rotated to the front of the net to provide a screen, while Daniel rotated up to the high slot and did something thoroughly unexpected: he shot it immediately. It was pinpoint perfect, pinging off the bar and in, with Luongo unable to pick it up until well after everyone was done skanking.
- Immediately after the goal, Daniel turned and just stared down the Panthers bench instead of immediately joining his teammates. I loved it. Daniel Sedin's take no crap attitude this season has been delightful. He’s 35-years-old and tired of putting up with anything from anyone: he came to kick ass and give a **** and he’s all out of ****s to give. He’s out for blood.
