The Canucks entered tonight’s contest an upbeat 1-0-1 after a home and home with the Calgary Flames.

It may be early, but it’s looking as though the reports of Vancouver’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Vancouver looks faster, is younger and perhaps most importantly, are receiving goaltending the likes of which we haven’t seen since Roberto Luongo’s hay-days. 

While the circumstances may vary, this isn’t the first such surge out of the gates by a supposedly declining Canucks lineup. If memory serves, we’ve taken this ride the two seasons prior. Similarly to these years past, the Canucks mettle has been tested early with a daunting California road trip. These serve to either validate the Canucks status in the present or reaffirm their investment in the future – annually, it seems.

With that in mind, the Canucks entered the Honda Center to face off with the Anaheim Ducks. In sticking with their Canadian roots, they gave us plenty to be thankful for as we embark on the working week. 

Via Hockeyfights.com

It may have been game three of the Canucks season, but for the Ducks it was their home opener. Were that not enough, they’d been embarrassed just a few days prior in their inaugural game. Then there’s the matter of Anaheim icing a lineup with three very recently departed Canucks. It’s a set of circumstances that hung ominously over Vancouver as they stepped into the pond, set to face a pissed off Ducks squad in front of their mallard faithful.

Vancouver countered this emotion with an adrenaline of their own – the kind that often drives a visiting team out of the gate. They launched a strong first initial wave of offense, pressing the Ducks early. The second line in particular applied pressure, led by Bo Horvat. Their speed was often times too much for the Ducks balanced defense pairings to keep pace.

The Ducks weathered this storm, made the requisite adjustments to their breakout and flipped the script promptly on Vancouver. By the beginning of the second period this game looked to be very much so in the Ducks control. If only the same could be said of their coaches complexion…

The shots kept coming and before long one of them turned to a goal; shot quality is real, but there really is something to be said for volume. Anaheim capitalized on a fire drill defensive series by the Canucks blue liners, before launching a puck off Ben Hutton’s shin pads and past a baffled Miller. 

Looking for a spark, the Canucks upped the ante and pressed back. As Willie Desjardins is often wont to do, his fourth line seemed to get more shifts, in higher leverage situations as the game wore on. Not necessarily sure why, but it was a thing. No arguing with the results, though. Near halfway through the second, the Canucks were rewarded for this line non-matching, in the form of an Adam Cracknell goal.

This was the peak. Vancouver really fell back into their shell after this goal, relying almost entirely on Miller to drag them – kicking and screaming – to overtime. It was a shooting gallery and Miller never buckled. A tour de force if I’ve ever seen one.

That said, an argument could be made that Vancouver was waiting for overtime to really give it their darndest effort. They certainly looked their best in this frame – untimely penalty aside. The Sedins almost scored mere seconds after puck drop and Vancouver was pressing as the final whistle went to boot. When a penalty kill is sandwiched on each side by ten-bell scoring chances, the infraction seems a tad more palatable.

In what’s seeming like a recurring theme, the Canucks and Ducks went to a shootout to settle this one. Vancouver one, on the back of Miller’s 0.666 in the shootout – nice. That, and a pair of goals from Alex Burrows and Radim Vrbata.

Well, that was a fun one, wasn’t it? Tomorrow night the Canucks face the Los Angeles Kings, on exactly one days rest. It’s less than ideal. All the more so because Jacob Markstrom is sidelined by injury and it’s all but guaranteed the Canucks will play Miller tomorrow – he’s been amazing, don’t get me wrong, but playing back-to-backs is never ideal. On the bright side, most signs point to Jake Virtanen making his Canucks and NHL debut. I mean, that in and of itself is worth being excited about.

Catch you then.