The prevailing sports talk around Vancouver today is, “The Canucks are first in the NHL; who’da thunk it?”
And I’ll admit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised thus far myself, but not for their perfect record against Alberta teams, or how they ground out a 2-1 shootout win in Anaheim. Rather, I’m impressed with the way this year’s Canucks are playing an entertaining game, and finding different ways to win. Interestingly, they’ve only found one way to lose — badly, as they did in 7-3, 6-3 and 5-1 lopsided losses as well as ones where 3-1 and 4-2 scorelines flattered the boys in blue quite dramatically — but hey, there are 12 Ws and only 5 Ls so far this year, so we’ll surely see some variation in this category soon enough.
Canucks 1, Sens 0: Shawn Matthias from Linden Vey and Brad Richardson, 6:13 of the second period.
The Canucks outshoot the Senators 12-6 in the opening period, but as he’s done all season, Craig Anderson keeps Ottawa in the game early. This guy had a ridiculous, best-in-the-league .952 save percentage coming into the game, so that should not surprise anyone. He pulls a bit of a boner on this second period goal by Shawn Matthias, though, which should. Matthias squeezes along the boards past career AHLer Mark Borowiecki, and power waltzes his way towards the net the way Mike Gillis hoped he would when he gave up a Hall of Fame goaltender late last season. Good on ya, Matty. But why Anderson opens up the five hole and slides halfway to the left corner of the rink is beyond me. Goalie gaffes or no, it’s nice to see Canuck forwards go hard to the net from time to time instead of stopping at the half boards and looking for the trailer shift in and shift out.
Canucks 1, Sens 1: Mike Hoffman from Curtis Lazar and Jared Cowan, 10:02 of the second period.
This one kinda comes out of nowhere. The Canucks get complacent on an Ottawa shoot-in, and give the Senators a text book POP goal. (POP = Pass Off the Pad — thanks to Vancouver Giants coach Troy G Ward for the heads up on that particular acronym.) As we’ve seen a few times this season on goals against, the Canucks are guilty of giving up the wrong real estate at the wrong time. They have all five players below the face-off circles compared to just three Senators.
Three Vancouver jerseys are in front of the net — Kevin Bieksa, Ryan Stanton and Brad Richardson are all in pockets of no-man’s land on this harmless-looking play, leaving only Linden Vey remotely close to a position to impede Mike Hoffman’s rebound. As the scoreline tells us, he wasn’t close enough.
Canucks 2, Sens 1: Alex Burrows from Nick Bonino and Chris Higgins, 16:17 of the second period.
Alex Burrows had just five goals in 49 games last season. After this pretty four-way passing play, he’s one shy of that mark just 14 games into his 2014-15 season. Dan Hamhuis expertly banks the puck off linesman Mark Wheeler to Chris Higgins, who chips it down low to Nick Bonino. The man they call “Not Kesler” shows some skill to corral the puck and feather a pass cross crease to Burrows, and before you can say “tanks man, led’s win da turd”, it’s 2-1 Canucks.
Canucks 2, Sens 2: Kyle Turris from Clarke MacArthur and Alex Chiasson, 17:53 of the second period.
Once again, four Canucks collapse down low in what turns out to be a goal against. This time they cover the right places at the right time, but get unlucky. Clark MacArthur is disarmed nicely by Dan Hamhuis on a dangerous play at the side of the net. Alas, the puck goes straight to some dude named Kyle Turris — which sounds like a character in a bad Call of Duty rip off, am I right? — and KT roofs it over Ryan Miller’s shoulder. For this goal, you can’t really put goat horns on anyone in particular. The fact is, Miller is screened during a scramble for the puck, and has to play percentages. PFC Turris just snaps a wicked shot into the only spot it can go to count on the score sheet.
Canucks 3, Sens 2: Kevin Bieksa from Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin, 5:36 of the third period.
For the third time in the game, Vancouver takes the lead. Gotta like the pluck of the Canucks this year — last season they’d have folded under comeback pressure by now. Henrik bounces a pass to Daniel; Daniel bounces a pass to Bieksa; Juice bounces a shot off the foot of Eric Gryba for his first of the season. Kudos to Jannik Hansen for honeybadgering the bejeezus out of the slot area.
Canucks 3, Sens 3: Mark Stone from Kyle Turris, 8: 42 of the third period.
It’s almost as though number 36 wants to reverse apologize for his good work on the previous goal. It’s not the first time Hansen’s inability to keep the puck in at the blueline has cost the Canucks a goal on the counterattack, and it’s almost certainly not the last. A naysayer might start to give credence to the Hansen haters out there in Boobirdland. Hopefully, we won’t continue to see many red lights flashing for the opposing team when they come forward without significant numbers. I mean, come on: Turris and Stone skate up against, like, 67 blue jerseys, but they score anyway. (67, get it? Ottawa? Is this thing on)
Canucks 4, Sens 3: Daniel Sedin from Henrik Sedin and Dan Hamhuis, 4:05 of overtime.
Good gravy, the glorious Sedinery. I can’t even.
