Thereās something wonderfully pure about preseason hockey. The final score is meaningless, as there are no points in the standings at stake. Itās just a bunch of people who have devoted their entire lives to being good at a game endeavouring to prove that they should continue to devote their lives to this game.
For fans, itās a time of blind hope and faith, a religious experience even for the most secular of atheistic hockey fans. During the preseason, you can believe anything. Yes, that fringe prospect will become a top-six forward. Certainly, that centre that struggled on another team will find new life in a new environment. Of course those two struggling defencemen will mesh perfectly on a pairing and become a dominant shutdown pair.
And the team, despite all the red flags and warning signs, is clean and pristine, without a single loss to blemish their record. You can believe the Canucks are a playoff team this year during the preseason. You can boldly declare, āThis is their year,ā because stranger things have happened. The inescapable reality of the regular season for another couple weeks, so indulge yourself in the fantasy of fandom.
I was sleep-deprived and slightly delirious when I watched this game.
- The referees, apparently aware that teams havenāt had much time to work on special teams in training camp, gave the Kings and Canucks plenty of time to practice the power play and penalty kill. The referees were handing out penalties like they were a bad indie band handing out show flyers outside the Biltmore.
- Just over 38 minutes of the game were actually played at 5-on-5, as the referees announced to the rest of the NHL that they were serious about . Four of the 16 penalties called were for slashing and they were some of the softest slashes I have ever seen, like if .
- How much should we read into power play lineups in the Canucksā first preseason game? Possibly a lot, as the formation of Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, Brock Boeser, Alex Burmistrov, and Michael Del Zotto actually sounds like a plausible unit, particularly after . Just replace Del Zotto with Ben Hutton and you have Bo, Baer, Boes, Burmi, and Ben: The B-Team.
- The Canucksā power play opened the scoring, though it was the backup to the second unit. Nikolay Goldobin gained the zone and dropped the puck for Troy Stecher, who cut to the middle and flung the puck on net. Like my go-to move when I was a young baseball player, Markus Granlund got a piece of it, and the puck bounced past a too-slow Jonathan Quick.
- Jake Virtanen had a strong game overall, but he owes Alex Biega a nice thank you card for his goal. Biega did the bulk of the work, burning into the offensive zone for a scoring chance off the rush, then knocking down the Kingsā attempted clear with a deft stick at the blue line. He set up Virtanen for the one-timer, which deflected off Paul LaDueās stick and made like it was on the Paleo Diet and went against the grain to beat Quick.
- Like a telecommuter at a business meeting, Jacob Markstrom was dialed in. He posted half a shutout, making 19 saves on 19 shots before he was switched out for Anders Nilsson midway through the second period. He looked more agile in his recoveries after a save than last season, which was particularly evident during a long 5-on-3 late in the first period.
- Anders Nilsson didnāt fare anywhere near as well when he came in. He gave up all of the Kingsā three goals in the first four shots he faced. Itās tough for a goaltender to come into a game cold; itās like a coder taking over a programming project and the previous coder used a bunch of esoteric code that somehow compiles and works, but left no comments, so youāre just flailing around blindly trying to find something you can take out or improve without killing the whole dang thing.
- The preseason is for convoluted metaphors.
- Philip Holm got some kudos from Travis Green post-game, which I found completely baffling. He was...okay, I guess, but two of the goals could be traced back to his errors. On the Kingsā second goal, he completely lost Tanner Pearson when he made a quick stop while skating in deep, leaving him with oodles of time to centre for Dustin Brown. The third came about after he rushed a pass with Anze Kopitar bearing down on him, turning the puck over. Maybe Green had just seen a video of Holly Holm knocking out Ronda Rousey in UFC 193? Different Holm?
- Hereās what I did not expect to see from this game: solid defensive play from Nikolay Goldobin. I particularly liked one play after he missed the net on a scoring chance: he busted back into the neutral zone, cut off the puck-carrier, and created a turnover that put pressure back on the Kings in the offensive zone. He treated the backcheck like a matte black sports car and was all over it.
- After giving up three straight to go down 3-2, the Canucks tied the game late when Erik Gudbranson threw the puck towards the net and Sven Baertschi deflected it just inside the near post after pushing off LaDue. Fun Fact: LaDue is french for āThe Due.ā
- Brock Boeser picked up a secondary assist on Baertschiās tying goal and it was interesting trying to assess his play. He very clearly is ready for the NHL, showing poise under pressure, strength in puck battles, and plenty of skill, he also clearly needs seasoning: his passing isnāt as crisp as it could be and he was guilty of some unnecessary turnovers. In terms of making an argument for making the Canucks out of camp, letās just mark this one as an āIncomplete.ā
- Oh wait, he scored the overtime game winning goal on a ridiculous laser of a wrist shot, driving up the ice with his speed, cutting inside on his defender, then firing the shot through the defenderās legs and past goaltender Darcy Kuemper before he even knew what was happening. Boeser is a one-shot scorer, who can create a goal out of seemingly nothing. How can he not make the team?
Ģż
What a release.
ā Ā鶹“«Ć½Ó³»Canucks (@Canucks)
