Canucks Clip Wings

The Canucks hit the ice coming off an impressive 3-2 S/O win over the Flyers for their second win of the early season.

This game features a team I grew up cheering for in the 60ties when they were a powerhouse squad that featured Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe, Norm Ullman, Alex Delvecchio and Roger Crozier between the pipes. 

The Canucks will start Thatcher Demko between the pipes who was selected in the second round, 38th overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

Demko’s last win was April 2nd against the Sharks who is recorded as having a 2.92 GAA and SV% of.906.

Entering the game has the Wings with 6 points through five games with a 3-2 record, while the Canucks have four (4) points through four games with a 2-2 record.

While the game had lots of “feel” during the pre-game it’s fair to say that the opening ceremonies this season are quite impressive and almost a “Vegas” style thyme while the lower bowl was shy of being full.

Along with the “Vegas” style feel only due to the two officials working the game with one from Calgary and the other from New Brunswick, so no one can mention the word bias. 

While the topic during supper was mostly Canucks, it wandered and ended up talking about the changes at Sportsnet, which is a huge loss to the area.

I am told that the changes are all related to funding and that 650 station brass were told they had to get the “numbers down’ to something ownership wanted, which says that they don’t care about Canada’s West Coast.

 When you look at what should be a Canucks win in this game, the start is something they would love to have over, given the fact that they allowed the Wings to score 30 seconds in.

This seemed to shock the Canucks, so rather than go with the Bo Horvat line, Bench Boss Green made changes and put the responsibilities to the fourth unit of Jay Beagle, Tim Schaller and Tyler Motte, who we should mention was playing his first game of the season.

Following the game Green mentioned at the press conference “Man they were good tonight and we talked about it before the game, using them in a bit of a matchup role. They managed to score on the first shift, the other line, and we switched it right away and [the fourth line] was good all night.”

From there it was all Vancouver with the first goal coming at the 17:58 mark of the first with Virtanen starting the play inside his blueline going down the left wing sliding it to sutter who in turn sent Stecher in for the first of the game.

In a class act of what many call a tribute the Canucks did show Alex Biega on the jumbotron during the first period along with the message and “Who Let the Dogs Out”  which was great for someone who fought so hard for the Canucks.

When asked about the play of Demko Green mentioned “I was happy for him and for a young goalie, that’s not the start you want, giving one of—if not their best players a breakaway. But he settled in nice, made some big saves on that 5-on-3.”

If you were looking for a quote of the night following the game Elias Pettersson made it short and simple by telling the media in a scrum “Well, we won the games.”

The Canucks hit the road to face the Blues, the Devils, the Rangers and a return match against the Wings and it’s interesting to note that both weekend games have a starting time of 10:00 AM Pacific Time.

They return home to face the Washington Capitals on Friday October 25th followed by a tilt with the Panthers on October 28th.

It’s going to be an interesting season of Canucks hockey!!!