Games against the New Jersey Devils are always so awkward. You rarely see them, so there’s no excuse for the two sides to get angry. They’re not in the same conference, so there’s no value in treating it like a playoff game. Cory Schneider is their goaltender, so you spend a lot of the time crying and eating ice cream.

Wait, Kinkaid started? THE TEAMS FOUGHT? THERE WAS EXCITEMENT IN NEW JERSEY? This is astonishing. There must be a catch, right?

The Canucks picked up the game’s opening goal just two and a half minutes in. Jarred McCann put Chris Higgins in prime position to try his own luck with a takeaway, and Higgins made no mistake, spinning around and sliding the puck past Keith Kinkaid to make it 1-0. Shortly later, Mccann drew an interference penalty out of Damon Severson, putting the Canucks in prime opportunity to double up.

Not so fast; the Devils had different plans. Travis Zajac and Adam Henrique took advantage of a misplaced drop pass by Alex Edler, and easily converted a shorthanded tying goal. Things got worse, before they got better, too, as late in the period, Mike Cammalleri undressed Ryan Miller with a fantastic deke to give New Jersey the lead.

That lead was widened to 3-1 just over ten minutes into the second period. A lost puck battle along the boards led to Sergei Kalinin circling around and firing home his first NHL goal, putting the Canucks in a tough spot. But there was still hope remaining. Edler made up for his prior mistake by taking a pass from Jake Virtanen and shelving a wrister to make it a one-goal game once gain, just a minute and a half later.

Things began to get heated from here. Jordin Tootoo went after Derek Dorsett before a faceoff, leading to both of them receiving fifteen minutes in penalties. Minutes later, Sven Baertschi tied up the game, and Bobby Farnham decided that fighting Jake Virtanen was going to be the way of keeping the game under control. Virtanen held his own, and oddly enough, scoring did taper off.

Midway through the third period, Adam Larsson almost got the two sides going once again with an incredibly illegal hit on Jared McCann, which led to him getting tossed. Vancouver, for the sixth time, couldn’t capitalize on the powerplay, and eventually headed to overtime. Two minutes into the extra frame, Dan Hamhuis took an interference penalty on his own, and, well..

Not a terrible outing in regards to momentum. At no point were the Canucks outshot by the Devils and at times, they really separated themselves from them. Alas, Kinkaid had a very solid game and Miller, well, he was due for a not-so-stellar one.

I wish I could name Brandon Prust the player of the game for this tweet, just because of how absolutely unreal it is. This is, of course, referring to Jake Virtanen’s fight against Bobby Farnham, where after managing to win a balance-battle after eating many of Virtanen’s fists, the 26-year-old journeyman riled up the crowd.

Prust didn’t play, but I’m happy he stuck up for his teammate nonetheless. My actual player of the game, coincidentally, is Jake Virtanen. Not only for holding his own in his first NHL scrap, but for being a positive possession player, setting up Alex Edler, and nearly having a goal of his own before it was messed up for him (more on that in a bit).

Fantastic little recovery here by Jared McCann, and some fancy stickwork to keep it out of harms way. Higgins spins around and fires his second goal in as many games. It’s a shame that the game went entirely downhill from here, but it was a heck of a start.

Many will argue that Kinkaid still had next to no chance of getting to the puck if Alex Burrows wasn’t there, but the NHL doesn’t deal in hypotheticals. Virtanen scored a nice goal that wasn’t created because of interference but rather, destroyed because of it. Having a goal taken away in an overtime loss stings a lot.

The Canucks return to the ice on Tuesday afternoon, when they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at 4PM Pacific. TORTS!