On Sunday afternoon the Vancouver Canucks’ Young Stars team – and their defense in particular – bounced back from an 8-2 drubbing at the hands of Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers in the tournament opener by dominating throughout and defeating the Winnipeg Jets’ Young Stars side 4-1. 
Vancouver’s prospects controlled proceedings throughout, outshooting the Jets’ young players by a better than two-to-one margin. While the game was close late the Canucks busted it open in the third period thanks to goals from AHL signee Michael Zalewski, tryout Reid Gardner and Hunter Shinkaruk – who iced the game with an empty netter. 
The Canucks’ prospects seized control of this one early, starting the game with a 10-2 edge on the shot clock – though they were unable to beat hot shot Jets goaltending prospect Connor Hellebuyck, who dominated the World Championships for Team USA and is widely believed to be the best goaltender outside the NHL. 
Easily the biggest difference from Game 1 to Game 2 was the play of the Canucks’ defense. As a group Vancouver’s prospect defenders were tighter in their own end on Sunday, and crisper breaking pucks out. 
“They did a great job tonight,” Travis Green said of Vancouver’s defense corps. “We talked a lot to them the last few days about getting back hard, working together, good low-centre support, and give the D credit. They did a real nice job tonight.”
Probably the noticeable Canucks player on Sunday, and arguably throughout the tournament so far, was Jordan Subban. Subban’s dynamism through the neutral zone was evident again on Sunday – I’m not sure he’s put his head down once all tournament – and he dictated proceedings throughout. 
“In practice I just try and make sure I keep my head up when I’m stick handling,” Subban said of the work he’s put in to make sure he can rush the puck well, without looking down. “I put an emphasis on it, particularly when shooting in practice. I’m always trying to get better at those little things.
“You can’t get hit when you’ve got your head up,” Subban added.
In an otherwise excellent outing, however, Subban did take a bad penalty when he boarded Jets prospect Nikolaj Ehlers after a prolonged one-on-one battle in the defensive end.
“I’ve got to realize the situation he’s in there,” Subban said, taking responsibility for the hit. “I wasn’t really expecting him to turn like that. I don’t think I pushed him really hard, just sort of an awkward situation, but we’ve all sort of been in that spot. It’s a tough play.”
The Canucks finally opened the scoring when Jared McCann beat Hellebuyck with one of his patented wrist shots. He celebrated by giving the referee a hug, which even Young Stars head coach Green admitted made him chuckle. 
“He looked like he needed a hug,” McCann said, explaining away the tender embrace with a laugh.
The Jets would tie it up later in the period with a 5-on-3 power-play goal, that was a bit flukey. It was the only goal that beat tryout goaltender Jackson Whistle, who was solid though mostly untested on Sunday. Whistle’s game is a bit old school technically speaking, but it’s hard to ignore that he’s managed some decent results throughout his WHL career. 
Vancouver’s prospects continued to put the boot in to the Winnipeg Jets in the third period, which began with the clubs tied at one-one. The Canucks’ prospect outshot their opponents handily and put two pucks past Hellebuyck to seal the victory. 
Though he was noticeable physically once again on Sunday – though he was on the receiving end of a big hit, rather than the initiator in this one – Jake Virtanen didn’t finish with a point. He did have some nice power moves cutting to the net off the wing throughout the contest though, and he looked fast and involved at times. 
While the physical package is impressive, I’m not sure Virtanen’s puck skills are a strength of his game at this point of his development. Occasionally you’d like to see his daring forays in the offensive zone result in more dangerous scoring chances. That’s a relatively minor quibble though. Virtanen’s speed and physical play have looked NHL-ready throughout this tournament, and that should give him a leg up as he enters main camp next weekend looking to earn a fourth-line spot with the Canucks.
More noticeable on Sunday, from my perspective, was Hunter Shinkaruk – who only managed an empty net goal, but was occasionally dominant down low and had a particularly impressive power-play shift early in the contest. Shinkaruk’s ability to rush the puck through the neutral zone hasn’t seemed to be a strength of his game, but he’s deceptively strong on the boards and has looked particularly dangerous when controlling the puck down low. He’s done nothing to disabuse me of the notion that he has more pure offensive upside than any other prospect in Vancouver’s system.
We should probably also note that Ben Hutton, who earned specific praise for his defensive play from Green post game, as well as the club’s secondary pairing of Ashton Sautner and Guilaume Brisebois were very solid. Tate Olson had a nice sequence in the third period also, when he stripped the puck from Ehlers. That none of Ehlers Nic, Petan, Scott Komachuk, Chase De Leo, or Andrew Copp were noticeable on Sunday, except perhaps intermittently, is a credit to a blue line that had a rough game to open the tournament.
The Canucks will finish off the Young Stars tournament on Monday with a game at 4:30 pm EST PST. Then there will be a couple of days off, before some of the players we’ve watched this weekend head to main camp with the club, while others are dispersed to their junior teams, or to Utica.