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I Watched This Game: Canucks 6, Hurricanes 8

Wow. So that happened. I generally like to write as I watch. Knowing that, you had better believe that I had to change the intro, twice. One significant rewrite per period. And that's pretty much how the game went.
I Watched This Game

Wow. So that happened.

I generally like to write as I watch. Knowing that, you had better believe that I had to change the intro, twice. One significant rewrite per period. And that's pretty much how the game went. The first period was fast; the play favoured the Hurricanes, but scoring was relatively even. In the second period all the Vancouver lines were clicking and Sven Baertschi was absolutely everywhere. And the third period, well, tires were piled together and someone produced gasoline and matches.

The Canucks were looking for a big game to finish out their lengthy road trip, and they got it. Lots of big things happened: big goals, big hairstyles, big defensive breakdowns.

Despite my eyes being alternatingly filled with tears of both joy and rage, I was able to watch this game.

  • Carolina struck first. Five minutes into the first period, Erik Gudbranson broke the First Commandment of Gudbransondom, “thou shalt not pinch.” Markus Granlund held back at the blue line to cover him, but Granlund is no defenceman and on the ensuing Carolina rush, he couldn’t decide who to cover. Lee Stempniak sent the puck across the ice to a late-charging Brett Pesce, whose shot was redirected by Sebastian Aho through Ryan Miller’s five hole. A contrite Gudbranson immediately went to confession and was ordered to do three “Hail Bennings” and four “Our Fanbases.”
  • Sven Baertschi evened the score shortly thereafter. He plucked a loose puck from a tangle of skates, and calmly flipped the puck over Cam Ward’s blocker on the backhand. It was beautiful. The golden rule of avid fandom is to remember all bad coaching decisions while diminishing all good ones. In that spirit, I must highlight that Sven was benched the previous game in favour of a returning Jannik Hansen. That said, if it was intended to wake him up, it worked.
  • There are Gudbranson choices and Badbranson choices, but the defenceman’s decision to take a charging penalty right after Baertschi knotted the score was Terribadbranson. On the ensuing power play Noah Hanifin sent a hard slapshot on the net. It bounced off Miller’s pads and deflected right onto Jeff Skinner’s stick, who swatted the puck behind the Vancouver netminder. It was a greasy one, but Skinner has recently joined the John Travolta Lookalikes of Raleigh, so grease is kind of his thing.

    Grease Skinner
  • Ron Hainsey made like a cannabis delivery man and delivered a high hit right to Loui Eriksson’s doorstep as he attempted to gain the offensive zone. Tru Fakt™: Luca Sbisa is a vocal opponent of legalizing marijuana, so he decided to pummel Hainsey with his fists. The fight was more of a wrestling match, neither one was able to really smoke the other, but I’m glad they were able to hash it out. I hate seeing Sbisa look so out of joint.
  • Baertschi continued his dominant game in the second period. At the five minute mark, the line of Alex Burrows, Bo Horvat and Baertschi gained the zone and cycled for about thirty seconds. Nikita Tryamkin deserves credit for keeping the play alive after the puck nearly sailed out of the zone. Baertschi fed the puck to Alex Burrows from behind the net for a hardhat goal. I’m not sure what happened to pump Sven up. The only logical explanation is that Sandstorm by Darude was playing in his head the whole time.
  • Sitting on the bench next to Baertschi, Markus “The Other M.” Granlund must have got a whiff of that crazy techno energy. Granlund scored less than two minutes later, collecting a Loui Eriksson rebound in the crease. That gave Vancouver its first lead as the Canucks chased Cam Ward from net.
  • Three minutes later, Lee Stempniak gave away the puck to Brandon Sutter, who fed it back to Ben “Mississippi Mud Flap” Hutton. He made no mistake, slapping a shot which deflected off Teuvo Teravainen and in past backup Michael Leighton for his fourth goal of the season.

    Hutton was sporting a North Carolina neck warmer, so playing in Raleigh must have felt like a home game. Hutton’s marker reaffirms the old creed: if you’re anxious to score, there’s no surer way than to sprout a mullet.
  • Right after an Elias Lindholm penalty expired, Sven Baertschi snapped home a razor sharp wrister on a delightful setup from Daniel and Henrik Sedin. That was Baertschi’s second goal and third point of the game.

    It all makes sense if you think about it. By giving Ben Hutton a mullet and benching Sven in favour of Michael Chaput, Willie Desjardins inadvertently completed the final two steps in the ancient and secret Markus Naslund possession ritual, with Baertschi the happy recipient of a Nazzy haunting. If Sven continues to play like this, well, I’ll let Doge sum up my feelings on the matter.
  • On an attempted shot block, Luca Sbisa nearly booted the puck into his own net. Question: does a distinct kicking motion still invalidate a goal if it’s against your own team?
  • In the third period the wheels came off and were replaced by cement blocks. Now trailing 5-2, Carolina astutely chose to activate the Ice Tilter 3000. They exhibited some beautiful passing on a power play to open the period. Like a pond full of Carolina frogs, it was truly ribbetting. Jeff Skinner squeaked in a tricky slider just beyond the reach of Miller, his second goal of the game.
  • That was just the beginning. Not content to go quietly into that good afternoon, the ‘Canes mounted a fierce comeback. After an extended period of puck possession, Ron Hainsey ripped a tricky shot which appeared to deflect off of Henrik Sedin’s stick. Miller had no chance to stop this puck; I’m not even sure he saw it.
  • No comeback is complete without a defensive snafu. Seconds after play re-commenced (after a goal review on Hainsey’s tally), Erik Gudbranson had the biggest giveaway since John Oliver decided to show up Oprah. It was bad; he skated out from behind the Vancouver net and gifted the puck to a waiting Derek Ryan, who fed a wide open Victor Rask at the side of the net, tying up the game at five apiece.
  • At this point, Ryan Miller couldn’t help but notice that Cam Ward was eating a hot dog on the bench. It had sauerkraut and everything. He wanted to win for Vancouver, but dang if that weenie didn’t look good. He just needed to let in one more goal and he could punch a one-way ticket to yumtown. Sure enough, Justin Faulk fired a shot that deflected off Nikita Tryamkin and down into the net, and Miller's night was finished. Poor Nikita. I haven’t seen a giant so upset since Rock Biter couldn’t save his friends from the Nothing.
  • The rally in Raleigh wasn’t over. Jordan Staal padded an already statistically impressive game. Joakim Nordstrom fired a shot on net, Elias Lindholm had a whack at it, and finally Staal picked the rebound out of mid air for the game winner. This goal made me so very sad. What that you say? No, I’m not crying, it’s just been raining on my face.
  • Brandon Sutter scored on his own rebound to make the score 6-7, restoring a bit of life to the Vancouver bench and temporarily replacing my manly tears of sadness with macho tears of relief. The goal seemed to stanch the bleeding and Vancouver was able to get their legs under themselves again.
  • Vancouver pulled Jacob Markstrom with two minutes remaining. Troy Stecher fired at least two deadly looking shots from the point, but ultimately Justin Faulk managed to chuck the puck to Lee Stempniak who fired it into the empty net. Like a beehive mishap at a nudist colony, this loss stung for everyone.
  • Your post-game post-mortem: So much went wrong for Vancouver in the third period that it’s difficult to sum up. Mainly, the Canucks couldn’t seem to calm down once their lead started to evaporate. With young players playing big roles that’s not terribly surprising. Still, I’m very curious why Willie Desjardins didn’t make use of his timeout when the score was 5-4 to slow things down.

    Goaltending was statistically poor and rebounds were an issue, but it’s hard to pin any one goal on a Vancouver netminder. I mean, four goals were tipped. The real issue was that the Canucks allowed too many quality shots, their penalty kill was ineffective, and they lost all momentum in the final frame. In other words, Willie Watch is back in session, folks.
  • Your optimistic outlook: For a brief period of time all of Vancouver’s top three lines were rolling, and the second period was flat-out fun. The Sedins look much improved with Jannik Hansen clearing the way. Little more needs to be said about the Baertschi line’s dominance. Now it's just a matter of keeping that scoring balance without, y’know, allowing eight goals in a game.