The pre-game ceremony celebrating Daniel Sedin’s 1000th career point was pretty much perfect. The Canucks couldn’t have nailed it any better if they had hammered it with Mjolnir.
Markus Naslund’s “letter” to Daniel literally brought tears to my eyes. Starting with Naslund remembering the Sedins as toddlers, then the shots of Daniel’s goals and assists, the images of Daniel in the community, the highlights of Naslund and Daniel playing together, and finally, the sign-off: “You’ve earned it, and I’m so proud of you Daniel” — how could you not get emotional?
To top it off, the Canucks brought out Thomas Gradin, the scout who campaigned so hard for Brian Burke to draft both Sedins, to present a Tiffany crystal to Daniel, then brought Derek Dorsett out to thunderous applause to give Daniel a silver puck as a gift from his teammates.
The whole thing took around six minutes, barely delaying puck drop at all. Memo to the rest of the NHL: that’s how you do a pre-game ceremony. And after I watched the ceremony, I watched this game.
- Let’s make one thing clear: the Canucks were badly outplayed after the first period. At one point the Canucks went nearly 14 minutes without a shot on goal. If not for some stellar goaltending by Jacob Markstrom, occasional desperate defending by the skaters in front of him, and several truly astounding misses by the Leafs, this could have been the biggest blowout since Pauly D’s.
- That first period, though. The Canucks looked like they had travelled through time from 2011 in that first period, which is a pretty neat trick considering they were coming off a six-game east coast road trip. The Canucks had 17 shots in the first period; they got nine in the next two periods combined. Fortunately, they made that first period count, getting the only two goals they would need the rest of the way, even if that does seem like a pretty frivolous use of time travel.
- The role of Troy Stecher was played by the man, the myth, the legend himself: Scott Sterling. Poor Stecher took a slapshot from Nikita Zaitsev off his foot in the first period and hobbled to the bench, looking like his night might be done. Instead, he got right back on the ice, only to take a puck to the nose in the second period, causing him to collapse to the ice, kick his skates in pain, and bleed all over the ice. He needed six stitches, but was back for the third period, where he managed to avoid injury.
- Markus Granlund hasn’t had the ideal follow-up to his 19-goal campaign last season, but he looked like a bonafide goalscorer five minutes into the game. He picked up an Auston Matthews turnover at the blue line, took a couple strides, and ripped a wristshot over Frederik Andersen’s glove, leaving Andersen stunned.
- I’m going to have to take a closer look at Bo Horvat’s usage in this game, because it was fascinating. Horvat took 23 faceoffs in this game; the rest of the team combined took 28. On the penalty kill, Horvat took all four faceoffs for the Canucks. On several occasions, he came out for a defensive zone faceoff in place of Jake Virtanen between Markus Granlund and Brendan Gaunce, two players who have experience playing at centre. Travis Green clearly only trusts Bo Horvat in the circle, possibly because he has tiny cameras following him wherever he goes.
- If you haven’t seen The Circle and don’t get that reference, don’t worry: nobody saw The Circle.
- On a delayed penalty midway through the first period, the Sedins proved that there is still magic in this world, pulling off some vintage Wizardous Sedinery. They controlled the puck in the offensive zone for about half a minute after the ref’s arm went up, just toying with the Leafs before Henrik fed a wide open Alex Edler, who picked the top corner like he was completing a line on Hollywood Squares.
- I understand the purpose of trying to turn Jake Virtanen into a complete hockey player, but sometimes I wonder if he would be more effective as an incomplete one. Just fire him off the bench like you were firing a cannon: skate in straight lines, hit somebody, and when you have the puck, drive to the net. Then get him off the ice and prime him to be fired from the cannon again. Because right now he seems to hesitate instead of taking the puck to the net hard when he has the chance. Go with Henry David Thoreau and “Simplify, simplify,” except that might lead to simplifying Virtanen right out of the lineup a la Calvin’s parents.
- Virtanen had one fantastic moment in the second period when he created a breakaway, then nearly lost his stick. He managed to snag it again, but ended up holding it like a mini-stick, with his hands on the bottom half of the shaft. Amazingly, he managed to get a shot off; if it had gone in, it would have been a legitimate goal-of-the-year candidate.
Next time your mom tells you to stop playing inside hockey with mini sticks, you show her this gif and tell her you're training for the NHL pic.twitter.com/gLLwPv4qBr
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) December 3, 2017
- After a great season debut, Nikolay Goldobin’s ice time was more limited in this game, finishing with a team-low 11:43. He was largely unnoticeable in those minutes, but when he was, it was usually for the wrong reasons. A bad defensive zone pass led to an extended Leafs’ shift in the Canucks’ end, for example, and after that Sven Baertschi took a couple shifts with Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser. Here’s hoping that “Nothing gold can stay” won’t be the case for Goldy.
- I thought Brendan Gaunce had a strong game. He had a team-high five shot attempts, with two of them on goal, both during one fantastic shift in the third period. On that shift, he ragged the puck along the boards while his teammates completed a line change, then created two good chances for himself. He couldn’t score of course, because Gaunce is basically the Krillin of the Canucks, and his shot is Destructo Disc, but it was still one of the few offensive forays for the Canucks in the third period.
- Poor Jacob Markstrom. He was fantastic in this game and looked almost certain to get the first shutout of his career. Instead, he took a page from a previous Canucks goaltender, Roberto Luongo, and gave up a late snack goal. Longtime Bulies will be very familiar with snack goals, but for those not in the know, a snack goal is a small goal you give up at the end of the game to spoil a shutout, so that the opposing team isn’t too hungry the next time you face them. A snack goal satisfies, but doesn’t fill: it’s just a light snack, not a full meal.
- The snack goal brought Markstrom up to 128 games played without a shutout, just four games away from “Pokey” Reddick’s 132-game record.
- The Leafs scored with 2:52 left on the clock. After that, Edler did not leave the ice. His final shift was literally two minutes and 52 seconds long, as he spent the entire remaining time defending the Canucks’ one-goal lead. Edler was a beast in this game, logging over 25 minutes of ice time to go with his game-winning goal. Just before the final horn sounded, he lept on the puck like Steve Rogers onto a grenade. Just call him Captain Sweden.
