Before the game started, Tyler Myers got his silver stick as the Vancouver Canucks defenceman was given his flowers for appearing in 1,000 NHL games. No surprise, Myers’ teammates had wonderful things to say about him. He’s one of hockey’s great people, and it was special to see him honoured by a city and province that he calls home.

Now, the game.

Michael Bunting took a roughing penalty to kick things off on the heels of a strong offensive zone shift from Elias Pettersson’s line, giving the Canucks the game’s first power play early on.

What followed was one of the most disjointed power plays I’ve ever seen, as both the first and second units struggled to get set up.

The Penguins opened the scoring when Anthony Beauvillier tipped a point shot over Kevin Lankinen’s right shoulder to make it 1-0 visitors.

The shots were 7-2 Pittsburgh at this point. Tyler Myers took a high sticking minor almost immediately after the Penguins’ opening goal, but the PK killed it off successfully after a close call on an open net chance that Noel Acciari shot wide.

The Canucks started to put together some strong shifts, none stronger than when Conor Garland took control all by himself and put together some dangerous sustained zone time for the Canucks. This was capped off by noted penalty taker Michael Bunting getting his stick up high on JT Miller, giving the Canucks a four minute power play to close out the first period.

The man advantage looked better the second time around than they did on the first power play opportunity they got on the night, with Brock Boeser getting a few chances to score.

It wasn’t to be, however, as the period ended with 23 seconds remaining on the man advantage to open the second. Those 23 seconds quickly went by the wayside, and we were back to 5v5.

Just under two minutes into the second, Bryan Rust benefited from a favourable bounce off the end boards and an out of position Kevin Lankinen to tuck home a wraparound chance that made it 2-0 Penguins. 

Elias Pettersson scored a promising-looking goal after yet another nice play and subsequent set up from Conor Garland to cut the Penguins lead to one. 2-1.

While PA announcer Al Murpdoh was still announcing the goal from Pettersson, he was rudely interrupted by Mr. Electric, Kiefer Sherwood. 2-2

I know nicknames are typically reserved for The Stanchies, but I’m tabbing Sherwood Mr. Electric. Deal with it.

And for the first time in my life, I heard the PA announcer interrupted AGAIN by another goal, this one coming from JT Miller to make it 3-2 Canucks. 

These three goals happened within the span of 65 seconds.

The players very politely waited for Al Murdoch to finish talking, but then went right back to pouring it on against the Penguins. This time, it was Daniel Sprong with an aggressive play along the boards to beat the Penguins defenceman and move in on a 2-on-1 with Arshdeep Bains. Sprong shot low for the rebound, and Bains made no mistake in burying it for the first goal of his career. 4-2 Canucks.

All four of these goals came within 10 minutes of each other, and the Penguins were suddenly reeling. 30 second timeout Pittsburgh, bedlam at Rogers Arena.

The Canucks entered the third with all the momentum in the world and a two-goal lead. The third period saw the Penguins start to generate some more shots, and the Canucks’ lead was cut down to one with just under seven minutes to play after Filip Hronek and Vincent Desharnais both went down in the neutral zone after getting tangled with Sidney Crosby, allowing Evgeni Malkin to move in alone on Kevin Lankinen to make it 4-3. 

What a goal from Malkin.

The Canucks managed to lock this one down, winning by a final score of 4-3.

What a six minute span that was.

Some other takeaways from tonight:

-Conor Garland is this team’s engine so far this season. He was stellar tonight, especially in the opening frame.
-Another strong game for Erik Brännström. With Derek Forbort returning soon, these are games where the young defenceman can show the coaching staff why he deserves to stick in the lineup.
-Daniel Sprong had a few defensive miscues, but he also had a few offensive bursts that few players can pull off, including the one that ended with Bains getting his first career goal. Sprong giveth, Sprong taketh.
-Awesome to see Bains get his first goal tonight. There’s just something so poetic about the local boy pulling off the feat in front of a blisteringly loud Rogers Arena crowd while wearing the black skate jerseys.
-By my count, that’s four solid games in a row for Elias Pettersson, with tonight being the best of the bunch. The other three are what you’d like to see serve as a star player’s floor or “worst” performances, and the hope now is that his play only continues to improve as the season gets underway. Tonight was big for that reason.

What are your thoughts on tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!

Be sure to tune into Rink Wide Vancouver LIVE moments after the final horn over on YouTube! Hosts Jeff Paterson and Irfaan Gaffar will bring you all you need to know from tonight’s game. You can also interact with other Canucks fans in the live chat!