You can take the Canucks to Shanghai, but you can’t shanghai the Canucks. Wait, “shanghai” means to kidnap someone to force them to serve as sailors on a ship. That doesn’t work at all. In retrospect, the word "shanghai" seems really racially problematic.
What I meant to say is that even if this was a special occasion, with the NHL’s first ever preseason game in China, the Canucks were still the Canucks. They couldn’t create offence, the power play was sloppy and gave up a shorthanded goal, and they struggled to effectively break out of the defensive zone.
To be fair, this was the first preseason game for most of the Canucks’ lineup and there was the added complication of a long flight to another time zone and sightseeing around Shanghai, so you shouldn’t judge them too much based on one preseason game. Of course, the Kings were in the exact same boat, so that doesn’t make for a particularly compelling excuse.
I got up way too early in the morning and I watched this game.
- This game gave the Chinese audience in attendance exactly what they wanted: a copious amount of penalties! I’m not sure if anyone was expecting the referees to “let the players play” for the benefit of putting on a show, but they called this game the same as every other preseason game: the lightest of taps to the pants, stick, or gloves earned an immediate slashing penalty. There were 34 penalty minutes in total, with minimal overlap, meaning about half of this game was played 5-on-4.
- The Canucks were on the power play 12 times in this game, but, as is their wont, struggled to do anything with the man advantage. They scored just one power play goal and gave up a shorthanded goal, so with a literal dozen power plays, they merely broke even. Obviously it’s far too early to freak out about the power play — for many of these players it was their first preseason game and they had a few good chances — but breaking even is only worth celebrating if you’ve been losing money hand-over-fist up until that point.
- Oddly enough, Troy Stecher wasn’t on the power play. Both units used four forwards, with Alex Edler on the first unit with the Sedins, Thomas Vanek, and Sam Gagner, and Ben Hutton on the second unit with Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, and Alexander Burmistrov. The power play units didn’t look bad and I am very much in favour of Hutton with Horvat, but Stecher deserves a look with the Sedins.
- One of the reasons the Canucks signed Thomas Vanek and Sam Gagner is their prowess on the power play, but in their first preseason game they teamed up to give the Kings a shorthanded breakaway instead. Vanek’s pass to Gagner at the point was off the mark, sending Tanner Pearson in alone on Markstrom, who made his Peardad proud by beating him glove side.
- Markstrom didn’t have his best game, allowing 4 goals on 26 shots, but he didn’t have much help on any of the goals against. On the third goal, Daniel Sedin lost track of Alec Martinez as he snuck in from the point and Martinez made like a sneaky mailman and slotted it in the backdoor.
- The Canucks responded with their lone power play goal of the game. Burmistrov and Hutton moved the puck across the point, then Hutton set up Baertschi with a morsel of room at the left faceoff circle and he Jonathan Quick, sneaking his shot just under Quick’s glove.
- Burmistrov nearly pulled the Canucks to within one as time expired in the second period, firing a slap shot that deflected off Derek Forbort’s stick and past Quick, but the quirky-sounding buzzer sounded before the puck could cross the line. It makes me lament that there are no buzzer-beaters like in basketball, like if the puck left his stick before the buzzer sounded, it could still count. Buzzer beaters are fun.
- Horvat created some excitement in this game with his drives to the net, but his line as a whole wasn’t quite visible enough. Perhaps it was the limited time spent 5-on-5, but it could also be that he and Baertschi could really use an exciting young goalscorer on their wing. Someone whose name rhymes with Lock Dresser or something like that.
- Markus Granlund played at centre in this game and I would much prefer he play on the wing. Still, he wasn’t bad at all and scored the Canucks’ second goal, keeping the puck on a 2-on-1 with Michael Del Zotto and slotting home his own rebound while Quick looked behind him like Granlund had yelled, “Look behind you!” and Quick, even knowing that this is the oldest trick in the book, didn’t want to risk it.
- I like the idea of Hutton and Stecher as a pairing, but if you wanted to make an argument against, all you would need is footage of the Kings’ fourth goal. Jeff Carter and Tanner Pearson broke in 2-on-2 on the young defence pair and, for some reason, both tried to hit Carter, taking out each other instead in Keystone Kops-like fashion. That left both Carter and Pearson to go in 2-on-0 and Pearson went through Markstrom’s legs like .
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Like a Halfing Rogue, Jeff Carter had the dagger, scoring the 5-2 goal into an empty net. Overall, not a great showing for the Canucks, but they have the chance to redeem themselves in Beijing on Saturday.
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