The Canucks started this game with far more offensive flair than in their first game of the season out-shooting the Hurricanes 9-1 in the first ten minutes. It’s almost as if the Canucks’ forward lines actually had players on them that complemented each other, allowing them to play to their strengths.
Bo Horvat reunited with Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen. Markus Granlund moved to the wing of a two-way line with Brandon Sutter and Jannik Hansen. Brendan Gaunce centred the fourth line with Alex Burrows and Derek Dorsett.
This novel concept—forward lines that make sense—paid dividends with a win, which is something for which we should be grateful: a loss likely would have meant Bo Horvat back on the fourth line. I watched this game.
- The Canucks were clearly the better team in the first period. At least, they were until the Hurricanes scored, at which point the Canucks, like a sweater, if you hold this thread and walk away, came undone.
- After the Hurricanes opened the scoring, Henrik Sedin took a penalty on the next shift. Jacob Markstrom, who otherwise had a decent game, completely lost track of the puck after a point shot hit Erik Gudbranson. Teuvo Teravainen had half the net to shoot at while poor Markstrom, like an American watching hockey on TV in the 90’s, had no idea where the puck was.
- Gudbranson looked terrible on the Hurricanes’ third goal: first he lost the puck in the neutral zone, then, when Markstrom stopped Justin Faulk’s initial shot, Gudbranson swatted the puck back towards Faulk, knocking it off his leg and in. You could fault Ben Hutton for not staying with Faulk, but he has to be expecting Gudbranson to pull that puck away from the crease towards the boards, not towards the guy whose momentum is driving straight to the back of net.
- After the 3-0 goal, the Canucks’ defence pairings went into the blender, eventually emerging with Larsen in a strawberry-mango smoothie with Edler on the top pairing, bumping Chris Tanev to a mixed-berry smoothie with Luca Sbisa. Normally I would decry any move that resulted in less ice time for Tanev, but Larsen held his own in the increased minutes as the Canucks pushed for a comeback.
- Like a lead-off double in the bottom of the ninth, Bo Horvat got the comeback rolling with his first goal of the season, picking up Markus Granlund’s missed shot off the end boards and going to the backhand like Uhura on mirror-universe Sulu.
- Granlund looked great on the wing with Sutter and Hansen and picked up his first goal of the season when he rushed a Carolina outlet pass with a strong forecheck. The pass hit Sutter and he tic’ed it to Hansen, who tac’ed it to Granlund for the easy toe. The goal, like the hills in Monument Valley, was a beaut.
- The Canucks dominated the third period and Ben Hutton tied things up after a strong shift by the fourth line. Derek Dorsett found Hutton at the top of the slot with a nice pass and Hutton made like a Baltimore Orioles pitcher facing Jose Bautista and sent some chin music towards Eddie Lack, deflecting off his mask and into the net.
- (I’m actually 99% sure that Alex Burrows tipped Hutton’s shot and it didn’t hit Lack’s mask, but Hutton is still being credited with the goal and the “chin music” reference doesn’t work if it didn’t hit Lack in the chin)
- Even before he assisted on Hutton’s tying goal, I wrote in my notes that Dorsett was having a strong game offensively. He also had a game-high five hits, including a crushing collision with Teuvo Teravainen in the third period. I can be a little hard on the guy, but when he’s not being asked to ride shotgun with a top-six forward, he does his job and does it well.
- Brendan “T.A.” Gaunce picked up the second assist on Hutton’s goal with a neat little through-the-legs backhand pass to Dorsett off the boards, capping off a strong performance as the fourth line centre. The Hurricanes didn’t get a single shot on goal when he was on the ice, so the gameplan against St. Louis on Tuesday is obvious: leave Gaunce on the ice all game.
- The Canucks best player in this game was Jannik Hansen, who was everywhere, tallying a game-high five shots on goal and leading all Canucks forwards in corsi. With just over a minute left in the game, he nearly set up Granlund for another goal with a ludicrous backhand saucer pass, but Lack cruelly made the save, robbing us of a magnificent highlight.
- The Canucks are 0-for-6 on the power play to start the season and I’m already done with the idea of the Sedins playing on opposite sides of the ice on the first unit. It’s cruel and unusual punishment to keep the Sedins so far apart for such a long period of time. At one point, Henrik just held the puck on the right boards, fruitlessly waiting for a passing lane to materialize instead of creating one with his brother on the cycle. It was the saddest thing I’ve seen on ice since the deranged penguin in Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World.”
- It was baffling to see Brandon Sutter come out with Daniel Sedin for 3-on-3 overtime instead of Henrik, but Sutter made Desjardins look like a genius, scoring the game winner off the rush with a shot just inside the far post. Just ignore that Daniel blatantly tripped Jeff Skinner at the other end of the ice to get Sutter the puck so you can safely keep complaining about the refs always being out to get the Canucks.
