Welcome back to INstant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s game and welcome our regular readers and commenters to do the same in the comment section below! The Stanchies by Wyatt Arndt will be posted later tonight, and The Statsies — CanucksArmy’s analytics-based post game report by Mike Liu — will be up tomorrow morning.
I had a few reactions tonight.
First, I thought this article would be all about Conor Garland silencing his doubters by opening the scoring for the Canucks, and looking solid on Elias Pettersson’s wing all night long.
Then, I thought it would be about how the Canucks’ penalty kill, forecheck, and overall team defence looked top notch. But no, you’ll have to wait for the Stanchies for all that, because the top story from tonight’s game is without a doubt the performance of Brock Boeser. Lastly, I thought this article’s headline needed some alliteration. Was the win really “brilliant”? You might say that, but you’d certainly say it if you were trying to think of an adjective that started with the letter B.
One place it’s very safe to use the word brilliant tonight is to describe the performance of Brock Boeser.
What else do you call scoring the first home opener natural hat trick in Canucks franchise history? Not only that, but adding a fourth goal? This was the statement game of all statement games for Boeser, and for both Boeser and the Canucks, you couldn’t ask for a better opening night.
First, Boeser scored a perfectly placed snap shot over the glove side of Jack Campbell:
Boeser’s second goal was the result of some heads-up playmaking and good awareness to get to the front of the net:
Boeser’s third goal was arguably the most heartwarming, as Boeser’s rotten luck of years’ past seems to have finally turned around:
Seriously, when is the last time we used “lucky” and “Brock Boeser” in the same sentence? Boeser’s fourth goal was just another cherry on top as the Canucks took down the Oilers by a final score of 8-1.
If you aren’t absolutely thrilled to see what looks like it could be a real redemption campaign for Brock Boeser, what are you even doing? What are you a fan of? Because a Brock Boeser redemption tour means more of what we saw tonight: Secondary scoring being far from a problem and the Canucks taking care of business against the league’s best teams.
It’s game one, and it’s important not to overreact too much, but given what we saw from this team last year, it’s okay to enjoy a win like this one. More importantly, it’s okay to enjoy Brock Boeser finding success and scoring some goals after everything he’s been through.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!