Erik Karlsson and the Ottawa Senators were in Vancouver Thursday, so naturally, all eyes were on the league's premier offensive defenceman. I refer, of course, to Matt Bartkowski, whose two-goal performance went a long way towards lifting the Canucks over the Senators, 5-3.
It could go a long way towards facilitatong a deadline day trade for the depth defender as well. I mean, sure, he's only up to five goals on the season, but forget what happened before this game. Tonight, Bartkowski scored twice. Extrapolate that over a full season and he's an 160-goal guy. Frankly, the Canucks should probably hold onto him. I mentally re-signed Bartkowski for five years when I watched this game.
- Bartkowski wasn't the Canucks' only two-goal scorer in this game. Emerson Etem accomplished the feat as well, tallying the first and last goals in Vancouver's win. The opener came just five minutes in, as Etem gained the zone, sent the puck to Linden Vey, then headed to the net in search of a rebound. Sure enough, Vey's shot produced one, and Etem pounced on the puck in a hurry like this dog shutting down this cat.
- Speaking of shutdown specialists, a brief word on Chris Tanev, who took a penalty in this game. A minor penalty alone shouldn't be notable. He's a top pairing defenceman who goes up against the league's best players night after night. Penalties are inevitable. But they're extremely rare for Tanev. Tonight's infraction -- delay of game, as Tanev inadvertently sent the puck over the glass trying to clear it -- was his first penalty since November 4th. We should probably spend more time in utter awe of Tanev's capacity for avoiding the box. He's like the polar opposite of Maru.
- The Senators tied the game up before the end of the first, then they took their first lead midway through the second on what seemed like Mark Stone's umpteenth shorthanded opportunity. But the Canucks answered right back. Just over a minute after Stone's goal, Matt Bartkowski scored a rare goal. Here's how rare: the goal was Bartkowski's fourth. His second came two days before Chris Tanev's last minor penalty. But if this was the first time you'd ever seen Bartkowski -- and one can only hope it was for any potential trade partners -- you'd think he scored all the time. Bartkowski's shot was such a laser, he could have written his name on the moon with it like Chairface Chippendale.
- Sadly, the Sens had an answer for that too, as Bobby Ryan and Marc Methot combined to score, thanks in large part to some shoddy defending from Etem and Vey, who both missed Methot during his rush up-ice. (That's embarrassing. He's not that fast. This is Marc Methot we're talking about, not Marc Gagnon.) But again Bartkowski had an answer, and once again it came on one hell of a slapshot. This one was in a lot closer, as Bartkowski had tons of room to approach thanks to Bobby Ryan blowing the zone like it was Lebron James's left ear.
- Even Bartkowski's possession numbers were excellent. I joked about comparing him to Karlsson, but in terms of on-ice impact, tonight they were pretty similar. Karlsson was on the ice for a game-high 25 Ottawa shot attempts. The only other skater in the 20s was Bartkowski, with 22. Bartkowski probably won't be Karlsson-esque every night, but if he could do that just one more time before the trade deadline, I think we'd all appreciate it. Seriously, Bartkowski, one more time and we're gonna celebrate.
- Jake Virtanen picked up an assist on the second Bartkowski blast, and he added his second point of the night with what turned out to be a game-winning powerplay goal. After a couple quick passes on the rush completely bamboozled the Senators' penalty-killers, Virtanen and Bo Horvat found themselves in a two-on-one down low. It wasn't particularly well-executed -- Virtanen's feed to Horvat was in his skates -- but it all worked out in the end, as Horvat managed to kick the puck back to Virtanen, who made no mistake on his second touch, burying the puck like it was a news story that doesn't involve Donald Trump.
- My goodness, was Virtanen flying in this game. In addition to the two points, he had a game-high six hits, and we're not just talking about those garbage hits players rack up when they arrive on the spot a moment after the puck's gone and finish their check. Virtanen made big hits, and meaningful hits. My favourite had to be during a first period backcheck, when he raced through the neutral zone, caught up to his man, and then knocked him on his ass, and off the puck. To have that kind of power at 19 is pretty special, and it didn't go unnoticed by the Senators, many of whom wanted a piece of Virtanen by the time this game was over. Fortunately, no one got a piece of Virtanen. He left the game fully intact -- a complete player.
- Markus Granlund had an interesting debut. He had several great scoring chances, he made some nice plays, he was on the ice for three Canuck goals, and he even picked up an assist on Bartkowski's first of the night. I liked a lot of what I saw. But he also got buried by the underlying numbers, finishing the night a team-worst minus-11 in even-strength corsi, and he lost all six faceoffs he took. So we'll call it a mixed bag.
- My biggest regret is that Daniel Sedin didn't score, allowing me to make an easy reference to that Damn Daniel meme. Now I'll have to wait until Sunday, which sucks, since it won't be relevant by then.
- The Canucks added one more, as Etem added the insurance marker by scoring into an empty net. By the by, Etem's personalized goal song was Frank Sinata's "Come Fly With Me". A classy choice, to be certain, but hardly the sort of banger that's going to get the juices flowing in Rogers Arena. I'd have gone with Weird Al's "Eat it". Sure, it's a parody, but it's a parody of a real jam. Plus the wordplay opportunities are too good to pass up! I love wordplay. Although if parodies are on the table, I'd be tempted to commission a new one. I'm thinking Blu Cantrell. Imagine if every time he scored, Rogers Arena pumped a song called "Etem Up Style (Oops)". That'd make me the happiest boy in the world.
