Fired-up Virtanen sparks Canucks

If it’s just based on pre-season, Jake Virtanen has made the Canucks.

Here’s pretty much everything you need to know about the changes Jake Virtanen has made:

He said he was in Vancouver three times this summer. And one of those times was to participate in the Vancouver Pride Parade.

Why is this so important? This is a 21-year-old who has been criticized for his focus. In the not-too-distant past, it’s possible he was too easily distracted.

Maybe that’s what happened last summer, when he was in Vancouver just about every day. There are a lot of distractions in the big city with the bright lights and Granville Street.

“I just wanted to get out of Vancouver for a while. I was in Abbotsford living at my house with my mom and training in Chilliwack,” Virtanen said. “I wanted to come in fresh.”

Consider his mission accomplished.

Virtanen’s surprising turn this month took another leap forward Thursday, a 3-1 NHL pre-season win against the Calgary Flames in which the 21-year-old winger was Vancouver’s best player.

Watching Virtanen lately has been like diving into a bath filled with ice.

He wakes you up. He did it with some smart defensive plays. He did it laying the body along the boards. He did it with his skating, but most of all he did it working with Sam Gagner, whose terrific back pass in the first period opened up some ice for Virtanen, who scored fivehole on Mike Smith at 4:52 of the opening period.

Virtanen would later hit the post, nearly scoring again.

He was open several more times in the game, ready to bury onetimers, but Gagner either missed him or simply chose to try something on his own.

Virtanen was everywhere. He was fast. He carried his line for several shifts. And he’s done just about all he could do to make this team next week.

Scottie Upshall? He’s gone. One of the reasons Scottie Upshall said he signed a tryout deal with the Canucks was that trip to China.

He figured it would get some leaguewide attention and if the Canucks weren’t interested some other team would be.

That team turned out to be the St. Louis Blues, who suffered a string of recent injuries and because of it decided to bring Upshall back.

Oh well, one less player Virtanen has to beat out.

Burmistrov admits he hasn’t done enough: Asked by TSN 1040’s Jeff Paterson what he’s accomplished in training camp, Alexander Burmistrov had a pretty blunt answer following the pre-game skate. “Not enough,” he said. That did not change in Thursday’s game, even though he was on a line with Gagner and Virtanen, both of whom were playing well.

Burmistrov’s most memorable play just may have been getting his pocket picked by Matt Bartkowski along the boards.

Boeser holds serve: Sure Brock Boeser didn’t score, but he did lots to suggest he needs to be on this team opening night. He won battles along the boards and actually created a scoring chance on his own with a nice defensive play. Poke checks: Other Canuck goal scorers Thursday were Michael Del Zotto (power play) and Darren Archibald. Sean Monahan scored for the Flames