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Canucks Army Postgame: First Line Centre, Brandon Sutter

By J.D. Burke

Jan 27, 2016, 01:54 ESTUpdated:

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Reinforced and returning from a six-game Eastern road swing, the Vancouver Canucks hosted the Nashville Predators for their final game before heading into the All-Star break.

Brandon Sutter would be making his return to the Canucks lineup, slotting into the Canucks first line in Jared McCann’s stead and picked up right where he left off, finishing a great tic-tac-toe passing play with Daniel Sedin for the Canucks opening marker, knotting the game at one heading into the first intermission.

The Canucks took command of the game from that point into the third, dominating the shot clock and controlling the flow of play quite mightily. Some might argue that they were generating a high quantity of shots, without getting many high quality shots, but really, we’re just nit-picking there.

Nashville pushed back in the third though, keeping Vancouver off the shot-clock for well over ten minutes (prompting a super neat and sad graphich by Sportsnet). Then the opportunistic Preds took advantage of a sloppy Canucks change and put the gamewinner past Ryan Miller for a 2-1 victory.

Highlights

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Not-So-Quick Hits

So, Sutter had a pretty damn good game. I mean, there’s that ugly 33.3% Corsi For mark. There’s also a sweet goal in front, on a deft passing play and a breakaway that followed not long after.

Luca Sbisa had himself a game. Again, rocking the ugly 33.3% Corsi For, but there were brief glimpses of what this regime might see in Sbisa all the same. There was an earth-shattering hit in the second and an end to end rush, complete with a controlled zone entry et al.

The goals are eventually going to come at a slower pace for Bo Horvat. That’s not to say he can’t remain a highly productive player, as he continues to showcase great touch with the puck and slick dekes that few imagined were in his repertoire.