Brendan Gaunce is the only Canuck who has played in all three pre-season games so far, as the Canucks seem intent on giving him every opportunity to earn his way onto the opening day roster.
He’s performed well and what stands out most for me is his intelligence and decision-making. He seems to always make the smart play. It makes me wish that “The Professor” wasn’t already taken as a hockey nickname, but since Gaunce is, of course, nowhere near Igor Larionov, he needs a lesser nickname. Maybe Gaunce could be “Adjunct Professor” or “Guest Lecturer” or “Teaching Assistant.”
Brendan “T.A.” Gaunce. It could work. I watched this game.
- Gaunce’s best sequence came midway through the second period, as he hammered Sam Bennett to the ice with a hard hit while forechecking, then knocked Dennis Wideman off the puck behind the net and centred to Jack Skille for a great scoring chance. Skille didn’t score, because it’s too much to ask for a guy to be named “Skille” and actually have skill, but it was still a great play by Gaunce.
- The Canucks’ top line in this game was Anton Rodin, Markus Granlund, and Sven Baertschi, which is a line we could see in the regular season, except with Bo Horvat substituted for Granlund at centre. Granlund had a strong game, creating chances and hitting the post, but if Horvat isn’t on that line, then we can’t call it RoBoBear and that is not a world I am prepared to live in.
- Rodin and Granlund combined to set up Guillaume Brisebois’ first goal as a Canuck. Rodin won a puck battle along the boards, then managed to slide the puck to Granlund while his stick was tied up. Granlund found a wide open Guillaume Brisebois streaking in from the point then the net found the puck streaking in from his stick.
- With Troy Stecher’s success in his Rogers Arena debut, you could say the pressure is on Philip Larsen to match him. Look, Larsen hasn’t put up points, but he had a good game, distributing the puck well on the power play and holding his own at even-strength on a pairing with Nikita Tryamkin. Let’s give him a little more time before sticking him in a large wooden crate with a couple airholes and shipping him back to the KHL.
- Speaking of Tryamkin, has been fairly quiet so far in the pre-season, partly because he doesn’t play as much of a physical game as his behemothian size would suggest. He showed some edge when he got in a shoving match with Troy Brouwer while shorthanded, drawing a penalty to end the power play, so he does have that element to his game, but it's just a lesser element. Like molybdenum. No one gives a crap about molybdenum.
- Joseph Labate has opened some eyes in the pre-season with his physical play and he made an impact once again, this time on Matthew Tkachuk, crushing him against the boards as he admired a pass and briefly knocking him out of the game. As a reward, he got an undeserved interference penalty and a pointless fight from Micheal Ferland, but if the Canucks need someone to crush teenagers, Labate could get a call-up from the Comets this season.
- Labate must have felt bad about hurting Tkachuk, as he helped him get a goal later in the game that stood up as the gamewinner. Trying to intercept a pass on the penalty kill, Labate unintentionally tipped the puck on net. Demko made the stop, but Tkachuk cleaned up the loose rubber like a janitor at a tire factory.
- Chris Tanev reportedly worked on his shot in the off-season, but he still probably shouldn’t be on the power play. When the Canucks got the man advantage in the third period, he missed two passes at the point, forcing the Canucks out of the zone. Even when he’s on the power play, he can’t help but kill the penalty.
- That’s not entirely fair to Tanev, who passed the puck effectively during earlier power plays. But look, no one’s going to be upset if he’s not a power play guy. He’s perfect at everything else; we can live with him being bad at something.
