Instant Reaction: Connor Bedard and other Canucks fans pay tribute to John Garrett

Alright Canucks fans, you’ve done it.

You’ve gotten through another up and down season that featured a whole lot more downs than ups. As is tradition, most of the “ups” came toward the end of the season after the Canucks’ playoff chances were gone with the wind.

Tonight, it all came to a close, as the Vancouver Canucks topped the Arizona Coyotes by a final score of 5-4 in overtime.

Elias Pettersson opened the scoring with a sweet backhand to tally his 39th goal and 102nd point of the season, giving the Canucks a 1-0 lead. Liam O’Brien tied things up shortly thereafter, and then the Canucks scored three — count ’em three — unanswered goals, two of them coming off the stick of Conor Garland, the other off the stick of JT Miller.

And before the first period even came to a close, former Canuck Travis Boyd made it 4-2. O’Brien scored the only goal of the second period, with Nick Schmaltz scoring his 22nd of the season to tie things up late in the third. This one needed overtime, and it was there that Conor Garland scored his 17th goal of the year to complete the hat trick and give the Canucks the victory along with the worst odds of any team eligible to win the first overall pick in this year’s draft. Speaking of which…

The focus turns to May 8th when another Connor is going to be up for grabs. Sure, it’s just a 3% chance, but never tell us the odds! Like the rest of us, Bedard even paid tribute to Cheech tonight. This kid bleeds blue and will one day wear a Vancouver Canucks uniform. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day…

Most importantly, tonight was the final broadcast for John Garrett, and it was an emotional one. Cheech is a legend in this market and manned his position for 20 years with class and professionalism all throughout. He deserves nothing but the best.