The Canucks kicked off their seven-game road trip with an early game in Buffalo. This marked Ryan Miller’s first return to the First Niagara Center since being traded in early 2014. Miller received genuine cheers from the home crowd after making an impressive save on Ryan O’Reilly in the first and was the subject of a touching video tribute that covered everything from spectacular poke checks to a Cody Hodgson haircut.

Today’s contest was the first time the Canucks met Jack Eichel, who is very good at hockey. Eichel left the game with his first career assist and his second one, too! 

Buffalo opened the scoring early in the second after some miscommunication on the Canucks’ part led to this neat Jamie McGinn goal:

Rasmus Ristolainen doubled the lead and it looked as if it would be an purely unfortunate days for the Canucks, until Young Legend Ben Hutton entered the offensive zone and got the puck to the Sedins, who did what they do best. Hansen deserves some credit for starting this play and making space for Henrik in front of the net. Very nice. 

After a couple of lacklustre power plays, the Canucks managed to tie the game up. Higgins’ first of the year was a nice effort, only made better by Derek Dorsett’s decision to forego celebrating and engage in a post-goal scrum. 

At this point, it felt as if the Canucks were going to walk away with a point. But the imminent overtime loss was not on the cards as Daniel Sedin turned the puck over in the Buffalo zone and moments later, Rasmus Ristolainen scored his second of the night with just 17 seconds left. Credit to Rasmus for the celebration, though. 

Just prior to this, Miller had been shaken up by Chris Tanev, who had been pushed into the crease. Hopefully Miller is fine, though Jacob Markstrom does look as if he’s almost ready to return and give Miller some rest. 

The Canucks get right back at it tomorrow night in New Jersey, because goalie narratives are the theme of this road trip. Hopefully, the frustration of dropping a point (or two) today will manifest itself into some good hockey from the Canucks in New Jersey. 

Ever-controversial Sven Baertschi had some great moments tonight alongside Bo Horvat but the pair could not solve Linus Ullmark. Fellow youngster Jake Virtanen had some moments of brilliance tonight as well, most notably on this little rush he created for himself: 

Ben Hutton makes for some very exciting hockey. His highs are pretty great, as we saw on the Henrik goal, but he can be a bit of an adventure in his own zone. Mistakes and all, though, he’s awesome to watch. 

Speaking of awesome to watch: Jack Eichel is so good at hockey.