The NHL couldn’t leave China without treating the crowd to their favourite thing: artificial highlight-producing shootouts! Sure enough, the Canucks and Kings delivered, as the Canucks executed a third-period comeback to take the game into extra time.
While the Canucks ultimately fell short, they put on a better performance in Beijing than they did in Shanghai. I saw some signs of life when I watched this game.
- Bo Horvat wasn’t in the lineup for the second game in China, apparently with an upper-body injury that will keep him out for a week. The Canucks (and their fans) will likely be holding their collective breath all week until he’s actually back. If Horvat misses any time this season, the Canucks could be comically bad this season.
- “Hello, Sam Gagner’s questionable defending, nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you!” Gagner at first made a great defensive play before the Kings’ first goal, backchecking hard on an odd-man rush, but he ended up turning the wrong way trying to defend the pass and ended up leaving his man, Nick Shore, wide open in front for a pass. It hit Nick’s stick, Shore scored.
- On the Kings’ second goal, it was Erik Gudbranson with the questionable defence, which isn’t ideal, as “defence” is kind of in his job title. He let Nic Dowd go right past him and behind the net without even waving his stick at him. With that much time and space, he easily found Jake Muzzin, unlike Sven Baertschi, who didn’t find him and check him coming out of the box after his penalty.
- Anders Nilsson probably wanted that goal back, as Muzzin’s shot went right through him like he wasn’t even there. After the goal, he panicked, staring at his hands, worried that he’d somehow become a ghost. “Can...can you see me?” he said to Alex Edler at the bench, but the quiet Edler thought it was a weird joke and didn’t respond, which did not help Nilsson’s state of mind.
- Despite the defensive lapse, Baertschi has arguably been the Canucks’ best player in China. He scored his second goal in two games after winning a puck battle versus two Kings, falling to the ice, then getting back to his feet in time to take a pass from Vanek behind the goal line. With , he quickly moved the puck to his backhand, and lifted it over Kuemper’s out-stretched pad.
- In case you were unaware, . Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty, and Anze Kopitar are not exactly small guys, but when the camera showed them talking to Ming in a suite in the stands, they looked like children. Bizarrely old-looking children. Of course, I can fully believe that Kopitar has been rocking the aesthetic since he was in kindergarten.
- Like , the boards were lively, leading to Tyler Toffoli’s 3-1 goal. The missed shot bounced off the glass and landed directly in front of the net, catching everyone except Toffoli off-guard and Nilsson couldn’t make the stop.
- The Canucks made it a one-goal game on the power play, where Alexander Burmistrov showed a flash of the skill that might make him a power play mainstay. He banked the puck off the boards to himself while executing a quick turn, losing his check and opening up space for Loui Eriksson down low. Eriksson cut in front and tried to feed Baertschi at the back door, but his pass banked in off a Kings’ defender.
- Canucks fans are well aware of Chris Tanev’s penchant for timely goals. He’s like on The Simpsons: he normally does nothing offensively, but when he does, you know it’s going to be good. He tied up the game with less than two minutes left, coming off the bench to barely keep the puck in at the blue line after an errant Henrik Sedin pass, then stepping into the slot and going bar-down on Kuemper.
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After a goalless overtime, Travis Green got his first look at his players in the shootout, tapping Thomas Vanek, Sam Gagner, and Sven Baertschi. None of the three scored, but Gagner had the best move, showing some quick stickhandling moves to open up Kuemper before running out of room to tuck the puck in.
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