Crazy kids shine in barnburner OT win
All Vancouver Canucks fans have wanted as the NHL squad rebuilds is a little entertainment. If the team is going to put in the ground work for the future, at least don’t be boring in doing so.
They got that in spades in Friday night’s exciting 7-6 overtime win at Rogers Arena against the visiting Colorado Avalanche.
It was a throwback to 1980s fire-wagon hockey. Who couldn’t love that?
There was slump busting. There was a hint of the Sedins. There was plenty in one of the game’s superstars in Nathan MacKinnon. There was an overtime breakaway for Elias Pettersson.
There was international bhangra superstar Jazzy B. What else could you want?
Brock Boeser and Pettersson each scored twice for the Canucks, Loui Eriksson finally found some puck luck to get his first of the season and Markus Granlund picked up a third-period power-play marker.
And there was the overtime winner, also on a power play, by Derrick Pouliot. His shot hit the post, rattled around the Avalanche crease, and then hit Colorado’s Gabriel Bourque before landing in the net.
Colorado’s goal-fest was powered by markers from five different players: Sheldon Dries, Ian Cole, MacKinnon, Alexander Kerfoot, Nikita Zadorov and the near-winner on a late power play by MacKinnon again.
Here’s what we learned:
THE FIRST SHIFT
For a moment, 32 seconds into the game, we thought on press row that we were going to be writing about how fast MacKinnon is, and that he came of advertised.
He was on a breakaway. He doesn’t miss these.
And then he missed the net. It only took 26 seconds after that for Pettersson, barely on the ice for his first shift, to spring Boeser on his own breakaway.
Boeser, of course, made no mistake and showed a new way to finish: he didn’t wire a wrist shot or take a snap shot; no, he just drove to the net, got Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer moving post to post and then flipped the puck over Grubauer’s trailing right side.
SEDINERY
The long-bomb hard pass from centre ice off the offensive end boards was a classic piece of Sedinery.
More than once over the last 18 years we saw one of the Twins fire the puck down the ice, aimed and timed in such a way that the other would be racing on to it, risk of icing be damned.
Friday night, two players barely older than the Sedins’ careers did the same.
At 5:18 of the second period, Pettersson, 19, hammered the puck toward the end boards to the right of Grubauer.
Meanwhile, Boeser, 21, was speeding into the zone and was Johnny-on-the-spot for the puck popping back out to just below the faceoff circle, where he one-timed the rebounding puck over a dazzled Grubauer for his second goal of the game.
LOUI 1, MONKEY ON HIS BACK 0
Loui Eriksson is a pretty calm guy. But you knew that after he bagged his first goal of the year at 9:47 of the second period, he would be roaring in every way he knows.
The winger whacked home a rebound, finally scoring his first goal of the season.
The crowd’s applause was loud too. They knew what a good moment this was.
And Brendan Gaunce picked up an assist too, giving him three points in two games since being called up from the American Hockey League on Tuesday.
PROTECT YOUR STARS, NHL
Matt Calvert hasn’t scored a goal this year for the Avs, his first in Colorado. Maybe that’s why he decided to have a go at Brock Boeser’s back.
Whatever his motivation, his act wasn’t good, as he laid a hard cross-check on Boeser in the Avalanche slot, with the puck miles away.
Boeser was left in a heap and struggled to get himself to the bench.
The officials didn’t flinch. That’s disappointing. The Canucks’ sniper may not have missed a shift, but the league needs to protect its stars.
They did make a call on Ian Cole for a brutal hit in the third period, as the Colorado defenceman hammered Tyler Motte into the post as Grubauer was making a save.
Coach Travis Green was unhappy at the time that it wasn’t a penalty, but was philosophical about it after.
“It was a hard-fought game; there’s going to be hockey plays (like that),” he said. “They could say there was a cross-check on MacKinnon (by) Jake (Virtanen).”
“That’s hockey, it’s physical … we’re not going to jump up and down and whine every time one of our good players gets cross-checked.”
PP2
The Canucks’ first unit is still very much a work in progress. They’ve had some great moments and their potential is to be one of the league’s elite units.
As they look to establish their groove — they haven’t scored in six games, the currently injured Sven Baertschi scoring against the Washington Capitals — the second unit has found their own.
They were excellent on Wednesday night and while they didn’t score then, they did get credit from Travis Green for helping spark his team to a win over the Blackhawks.
On Friday night, their persistence finally paid off, as they bagged a third-period marker to tie things up, Markus Granlund firing home the loose puck from the slot.
HOME COOKING
Hometown boy Alex Kerfoot gave the Avs a second-period lead on a goal that the Pettersson-Boeser duo would have been proud of, as he raced through the neutral zone with speed, split the Canucks’ defence right down the middle, raced down on Jacob Markstrom and beat him glove side.