Myers salutes `the code' in fight to settle score with Edmundson
Canucks blueliner knew there would be payback for hit late in Thursday's game
You can love it or loathe it, but Tyler Myers gets it.
The towering Vancouver Canucks defenceman knows that as much as the game has changed — speed and skill trumping brawn and brutality — answering the call for a questionable or hard hit on the opposition is still a staple.
Somebody will come looking for you. And Joel Edmundson went looking for Myers with a warm-up skate invitation to scrap Saturday and settle the score.
What occurred early Saturday night at Rogers Arena with an avenging bout was the trickle-down effect of a late-game sideboards hit by Myers on Montreal Canadiens forward Joel Armia on Thursday.
Myers was initially assessed a major, but it was changed to a match penalty for an illegal check to the head. However, he didn't receive supplemental discipline from the NHL's Department of Player Safety. The head wasn't targeted or principle point of contact in the shoulder-to-shoulder hit that rode up on Armia and left him concussed.
“I thought it was a completely clean hit,” Myers recalled Sunday after practice. You can make the argument that it was a little unnecessary given the status and time of the game. It's the reason I said yes (to the fight) and I have a lot or respect for him (Edmundson) for doing what he did. I had no intent to hurt Joel and thought the explanation the NHL gave was spot on.
“I thought I drove through the body and part of the time, the chin or the head is going to get caught up in that. I certainly don't think it was a head shot.”
Myers also thinks the code will stay in the game because without it, sticks will ride higher and players will take liberties — especially on young stars like Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes — knowing they don't have to fear retribution.
“If you take things like fighting out of the game, even thought it's changing a bit, there are some things that would start,” warned Myers. “Guys thinking they don't have to answer would creep into their heads, so I do think there's place for it (code). It keeps guys honest. You can't take it out.”
Ottawa Senators defenceman Erik Gudbranson would agree.
The former Canucks blueliner had a memorable first-period fight with Travis Hamonic on Oct. 13, 2018 after answering the call of the code.
Hamonic had joined the Calgary Flames and absorbed several heavy right-handed punches in the bout and a vicious upper cut resulted in a broken jaw.
Gudbranson's early heavy shoulder-to-shoulder hit on rookie Dillon Dube lit the fuse. Gudbranson received an interference penalty and a fight challenge from Hamonic — now a member of the Canucks — and the retribution allowed the game to proceed without turning into a circus.
“Without it, sometimes nasty things happen whether on purpose or not,” Gudbranson said at the time. “The code keeps that level of respect among us and it's very important. It's good that fighting is leaving the game and becoming safer, but it's nothing you can get rid of in the NHL.”
HORVAT HIGH ON PETTERSSON
Like any captain, Bo Horvat prefers to lead by example. Let the effort, execution and points do the talking.
The Canucks centre became the first NHL player this season to hit the five-goal plateau Thursday. And he's also been the first to pump up Elias Pettersson, who scored his first goal of the season Saturday.
Horvat knows slumps. In his sophomore season, he went 27 games without a goal. He was having sleepless nights before being taken aside by Henrik Sedin and told by the legendary Swede that he had endured a longer funk. It worked. Horvat bumped the slump.
Horvat didn't tell Pettersson that story because he said it would never be applicable to the Calder Trophy winner.
“I don't think Petey is going to go through a 27-game slump,” laughed Horvat. “It's just mentally staying in it. It's such a grind when you're not putting the puck in the net. It's having confidence in your abilities and sticking with the process.
“Do other little things that go unnoticed, but your teammates notice a big block or a big backcheck. When you see your best player doing those kind of things, he pulls other guys into it.'