On Sunday, Hometown Hockey was in Abbotsford, which meant lots of Brendan Morrison, even though he’s from Pitt Meadows, and a feature on Abbotsford’s own Jake Virtanen, in which they used a picture of Wes Myron in a Utica Comets jersey.
They got some of the Abbotsford content right, including an interview with Yale Hockey Academy’s Mike Blaisdell and a couple local players handing out the three stars, but the musical guest was the biggest miss of all.
No offense to former Canucks draft pick and Juno-nominated country artist Chad Brownlee, but he’s not exactly reflective of the local music scene. Where’s You Say Party? Or Teen Daze? They couldn't get Oh No! Yoko to stop messing around in Montreal and get back to making good music? Or how about GSTS! oh wait, nevermind, they swear pretty much constantly so that's a terrible idea. They should have just brought Fun 100 out of retirement.
I guess it could have been worse. They could have gotten Hedley.
There was also a hockey game and I watched this game.
- The Canucks scored more than two goals for the first time in six games. They scored more than four goals for the first time since December 7th. But this game wasn’t about the Canucks breaking out offensively—it was all about Ryan Miller, who played like his team wasn’t going to give him any goal support whatsoever, which was a pretty understandable assumption.
- Miller was a beast in this game, specifically a nargle, which are notorious thieves. Miller robbed so many of the Avalanche, that it would likely take less time to list the ones he didn’t rob, but his best save came on Carl Soderberg going post-to-post with the right pad, followed closely by his skate-blade save on Erik Johnson. Really, it was all Colorado’s fault, as they forgot to wear their butterbeer cork necklaces.
- Emerson Etem and Adam Cracknell both had a strong game on the fourth line and combined on the opening goal. Etem outworked two Avalanche players along the boards before throwing the puck towards the net, where Cracknell knocked it down, then placed his shot under the bar like he had drunk too much and lost his depth perception.
- Jannik Hansen continued his stellar season on the Sedins’ wing with a two-goal performance. The first came off Daniel’s wizardous, thread-the-needle saucer pass from behind the net. Hansen, surrounded by five Avalanche players, was somehow simultaneously wide open and he made no mistake, firing a one-timer inside the far post. There was some momentary confusion when Alex Burrows’ goal song “Someone Like You” accidentally played instead of Hansen’s goal song.
- Cracknell nearly had his second goal of the game, punching in a Derek Dorsett rebound early in the second period. Unfortunately, he literally punched it in and the goal was disallowed. Punching faces: yes. Punching pucks: no.
- Radim Vrbata came inches away from ending his goal drought in the first period from a nice pass by Jared McCann, ringing his shot off the post, but he ended it for real in the second period, chipping home a rebound on the power play. He then grimaced and winced, but it was really hard to tell if he had injured himself on the play or if that was just his normal expression while celebrating a goal.
- It was a moot point, as Vrbata fell awkwardly early in the third period and left the game with an injury to his undisclosed, which is an increasingly common injury in the NHL. Medical experts are baffled as how to best prevent injuries to the undisclosed region, but suggest that extensive stretching of the undisclosed prior to any heavy undisclosed activity is a good precaution.
- It was an unfortunate ending to what was really an unfortunate game for Vrbata. Despite the goal and the post, he had a lousy game on a line with Jared McCann and Alex Burrows. The Canucks got out-shot 12-1 with Vrbata on the ice at even-strength and out-attempted 20-2. But he scored a goal, so I’m sure all the scouts will report back to their teams that he had a “great game, but keep an eye on his injury.”
- Hansen put the Canucks up by four with his second goal of the game, again off some nifty playmaking by Daniel. Hansen got a step on Chris Wagner—who is an embarrassment to his name—in the neutral zone, then deflected Daniel’s one-hop saucer pass perfectly over Varlamov’s pad. Hansen is now tied for 6th in the NHL in even-strength goals with Vladimir Tarasenko, Joe Pavelski, Johnny Gaudreau, John Tavares, and Brock Nelson. No more unsung hero awards for this guy.
- Last season in December, Patrick Roy pulled his goalie with 13 minutes left in the third period when down by four goals, but that was while on a 5-on-3 power play. He did it again in February with 12 minutes left when down by three, again on a power play. In this game, though, the teams were at even-strength when he pulled Varlamov with more than 10 minutes left. It makes sense, though: whether you lose 4-0 or 5-0, you still lose, so you may as well take a shot. Chris Tanev also took a shot, hitting the empty net from centre ice.
- Miller deserved a shutout for his effort, but lost it when Duchene jammed a puck in during a scramble. Miller would have made the save, but was moderately inconvenienced by Iginla lying on top of him at the time. Iginla was “pushed” by McCann, because of course I can believe that the 170 lb McCann can out-muscle the 210 lb Iginla. The goal was reviewed, but stood according to the NHL because “no goaltender interference infractions occurred” which is a really weird way to spell “Canucks fans can’t have nice things.”
