You all know the story at this point. John Tortorella used to be the head coach fo the Vancouver Canucks. We all thought it would be fun at first, but it turned out to be awful. Next to nothing positive came out of it. Suddenly, the Blue Jackets showed up and offered up a draft pick in exchange for permission to hire a guy that the Canucks already fired. We all laughed as the team obviously approved the move.

Tonight, we got to see the Canucks face him for the first time. It was an interesting one, to say the least.

This game didn’t start the way that the Canucks would hope. Six minutes into the first period, Boone Jenner opened the scoring fortieth (okay, maybe third) attempt at a rebound before Chris Tanev and Alex Edler could get back.

The Canucks were quick to respond, as the Jannik Hansen presents the Sedin Twin Experience show began. Daniel set up Jannik for an easy goal in front of the net at the period’s midway point, and seven minutes later, Jannik returned the favour, feeding Daniel for a go-ahead goal. The lead didn’t last long, though; Jack Johnson took advantage of a penalty to Jared McCann, pinched towards the slot snapped home a one-timer past Jacob Markstrom to even things up again.

Goal scoring took a backseat in the second, largely because Markstrom stood on his head. The Blue Jackets outshot Vancouver by an absurd 22-7 over this time frame, but the returning goalie kept his team afloat. That was, of course, until the third period. Despite Johnson sitting in the box, the Canucks gave up a shorthanded goal, thanks to a fantastic read by Cam Atkinson on a David Savard dump to give himself a breakaway.

But alas, Scandinavia struck back. Daniel and Jannik fed Henrik for his fourth of the season, and just a few minutes later, Hansen set up Brandon Sutter for a break of his own, which he capitalized on. Henrik added an empty netter, Torts was angry, and all was good with the world.

Again, the Canucks got slaughtered in the second period, and it really didn’t get significantly better in the third. Jacob Markstrom deserves a lot of credit for his performance tonight, having stopped 42 of 45 in his first NHL game since his hamstring injury before opening night.

We all like to rag on Vancouver’s token breakaway catastrophe, but when Jannik Hansen is hot, he’s hot. He picked up a goal and three primary assists tonight and was good enough at driving play in a game where a lot of players were really bad.

Markstrom, admittedly, made an awful play to set up this save. A tape to tape pass to his opponents, no less. But man, what a way to recover. If he doesn’t react fast enough, that puck is definitely in the back of the net. 

This was a pretty scary moment in the first period of the game. Derek Dorsett takes Brandon Saad’s rolling skate to the face; an action that occasionally leads to serious injury. Thankfully, Dorsett appeared to be fine and even got back on the ice with a relatively quick turnaround.

The Canucks will move on to not-at-all scenic and totally annoying Ontario to continue their road trip. Coming up immediately is a Thursday matchup against the Ottawa Senators. The Sens are second in the Atlantic division right now and have struggled at home to start the year. Puck drop is at 4 PM Pacific once again.