Welcome back to Instant Reaction — the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to the game and ask our readers to do the same. Wyatt Arndt is writing The Stanchies, and those will be posted later tonight.
To call tonight anything other than an off night for the Vancouver Canucks would be far too favourable coverage. That being said, the Canucks did move to 10-2-1 on the season — improving on their best start in franchise history.
Out of the gate, the Canucks looked phenomenal. Contrary to how they started Monday night’s game against Edmonton, they looked ready to play right from the get go. This resulted in Brock Boeser opening the scoring just 15 seconds into the game on his line’s very first shift. That’s the fastest Canucks goal since Henrik Sedin’s 10 second conversion back in 2014.
Keeping the pedal to the metal, Ilya Mikheyev scored just over two minutes later to push the Canucks out to an early 2-0 lead.
From there, the Canucks collapsed in just about every area except for the crease. All of the structure and habits we’ve seen this season were seemingly out the window. The Canucks were soft on pucks, slow getting in on the forecheck, and struggled to move the puck out of their own end.
It wasn’t the type of effort we’ve become used to seeing from the team, and I’m sure Tocchet won’t be overly ecstatic about his team’s performance when he speaks post game. We’ll hear from him in The Stanchies.
A positive takeaway from this game is that despite them not having their A-game, the Canucks still managed to get the job done against a Senators team that they should absolutely be able to beat if we’re to believe they indeed are an upper-echelon playoff team.
They didn’t have their best game this evening, but that happens sometimes. The truly good teams find ways to win these games, and that’s what the Canucks — who many are saying are a “truly good team” these days — did tonight in Ottawa.
Some other takeaways:
-Casey DeSmith continues to look great. With all the positives this team has had so far, DeSmith’s arrival feels like one of the more underrated parts of the Canucks’ success. Giving Thatcher Demko the ability to rest and
-The Canucks’ two second conversion on the power play to essentially ice the game in the third resulted in JT Miller’s 20th point of the season and Elias Pettersson retaking the lead in the NHL scoring race. Even on a night when the Canucks and their star players weren’t “on,” they still managed to put up points
-With two goals, Ilya Mikheyev is already up to five goals on the year. His season got off to a late start, and it feels like he still has more to give.
-The Canucks’ two second conversion on the power play to essentially ice the game in the third resulted in JT Miller’s 20th point of the season and Elias Pettersson retaking the lead in the NHL scoring race. Even on a night when the Canucks and their star players weren’t “on,” they still managed to put up points
-With two goals, Ilya Mikheyev is already up to five goals on the year. His season got off to a late start, and it feels like he still has more to give.
What’s your reaction to tonight’s 5-2 Canucks win? Let us know in the comments section below!
