You only get one chance to make a first impression. Unless you’re Henry Roth.
The Minnesota Wild made their first impression in the NHL with Jacques Lemaire as their head coach, playing a mind-numbingly boring, defence-first style that made visits to and from Minnesota the bane of many a Canucks fan’s existence. Thanks to that first impression, the Wild will forever be known for the neutral zone trap, even with post-Lemaire efforts to play a more uptempo style.
So, when this game was 1-1 halfway through the third period with barely any shots from either team, it felt painfully familiar. I got flashbacks to a decade ago when I watched this game.
- Daniel Sedin sat out this game with back spasms, which seems bad. The Sedin twins have quietly been quite good this season and backs are tricky. Here’s hoping Daniel isn’t out for too long. Henrik without Daniel is like Bert without Ernie. Like Chip without Dale. Like Sonny without Cher: a moderate Republican Congressman. Wait, that’s not right.
- This was an ugly game for the pairing of Erik Gudbranson and Michael Del Zotto. They got badly out-shot when they were on the ice and were on for both Wild goals — one on the power play and the other at even-strength. And yet Del Zotto somehow played four minutes more than Chris Tanev. How does that happen?
- Tanev was paired with Ben Hutton, which might explain the ice-time difference, as Travis Green doesn’t seem to fully trust Hutton. But Tanev and Hutton were enormously better than Gudbranson and Del Zotto, in a way visible to both the eye test and the stat sheet. If the idea is to showcase Gudbranson for a trade, it’s backfiring. It’s like how the animatronic shark in Jaws looked terrible, so Steven Spielberg had to show it as little as possible, ultimately making for a better, more suspenseful movie.
- The Wild had one power play and it lasted for just seven seconds. That’s how long it took for the Canucks’ penalty kill to disintegrate and give Jason Zucker a wide open shot from the slot. That may look like a great passing play, and it was, but one of the foci of the penalty kill is to prevent that exact shot.
- It’s hard to avoid blaming Gudbranson on the goal. When Nic Dowd took a circuitous route toward Mikael Granlund, Gudbranson stepped up to block a potential shot and even started to go down on one knee to propose to the puck a committed blocking relationship. The shot never came: Granlund instead passed the puck down low to Mikko Koivu, who set up Zucker, who had plenty of room behind Gudbranson.
- The Canucks responded before the end of the first with a great goal off the rush. Troy Stecher started things off with the outlet pass and Jake Virtanen neatly deflected the puck off the boards with his skate to the middle of the ice. From there it was a 3-on-1 that quickly turned into a 3-on-3, but Loui Eriksson lagged behind like he was on a 56k modem, allowing the Wild backcheckers to pass him by. That left him open for an Alex Edler pass and a quick snap shot past Devan Dubnyk.
- The Canucks’ ugliest shift of the game came midway through the second period when Gudbranson, Del Zotto, Sam Gagner, Brock Boeser, and Thomas Vanek got stuck in the defensive zone. Gudbranson and Del Zotto ended up with a 3-minute shift, while Vanek and Boeser were closer to 2:40. Poor Gagner couldn’t get off with the others, staying on for 3:25. If only Gagner had been wearing headphones, he would have just enough time to liven up his ugly shift with the most perfect song ever recorded: “S Club Party” by S Club 7.
- That’s pretty much the only thing of note that happened in the second period. My word, this game was dull.
- Thankfully for fans of hockey games where things occur, Gudbranson and Del Zotto struck again. Gudbranson got the puck along the boards off a dump-in, took too long to do anything with it, and was promptly stripped of the puck by Eric Staal. The puck came around to Del Zotto, who immediately lost it back to Staal, who flung it out front to Daniel Winnick, who Henrik, hoping instead for a pass from Del Zotto, wasn’t covering. Winnick made no mistake, putting the Wild ahead 2-1.
- I don’t want to overstate the struggles of Gudbranson and Del Zotto in this game, but things could have been even worse without Jacob Markstrom bailing them out. Twice he had to make big saves when the Wild split the pairing: Charlie Coyle and Eric Staal both skated right between them for good chances that Markstrom turned aside.
- Thomas Vanek is inconsistent from game to game, but he’s been superb overall recently, putting up 13 points in 10 games heading into Minnesota. In his old home arena (the Wild are still paying him $2.5 million this season from his buyout), Vanek added another goal, tipping home a Gagner point shot after a nifty drop pass from Tanev. The former University of Minnesota Golden Gopher was pumped about that one, celebrating the hardest I have seen him celebrate a goal this season.
- Markstrom saved his best for last. Or second last. His best save of the game came on the second-last shot he faced, stretching to his right on a backdoor pass to Jared Spurgeon to get his toe on the puck.
- Some might question Travis Green’s decision to start Brandon Sutter in overtime, bemoaning his preference for defensive-minded forwards in that situation, but 3-on-3 plays to Sutter’s offensive strengths, namely scoring off the rush. Sutter provided the game-winner on his second shift of overtime, cutting to the middle of the ice and firing past the blocker like Jadeveon Clowney.
- The pass itself deserves mad props. Like the Loki mask from the titular movie. Very mad prop. Crazy. That was one heckuva pass by Edler from behind his own net, calling the bank like he was disputing charges and hitting Sutter in stride at the Wild blue line.
