Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
Game 2 of the Vancouver Canucks season kicks off as the club takes on the highly anticipated NHL debut of Matvei Michkov and the Philadelphia Flyers. Before puck drop, Rogers Arena had a special guest in the house as long-time defenceman Alex Edler was honoured as he signed a one-day contract to retire as a Canuck.
Not even two minutes into the game, Tyler Myers gets in an awkward collision with Flyers forward Joel Farabee, goes down on the ice, and stays there. He would need help from his linemates to get off the ice and trainers down the tunnel as he was unable to put any weight on his right leg.
Who would have thought that Michkov’s first stat on a stat sheet would be a two-minute hooking penalty on Teddy Blueger? The Canucks head to their second powerplay of the first period, and they generated some exciting scoring chances. Most notably, Jake DeBrusk had three shots on goal, all coming in the high-danger areas.
The teams trade chances back and forth, with both goalies playing strong. But after a Rasmus Ristolainen turnover in his own end, Conor Garland feeds Nils Höglander, who makes no mistake in sniping the opening goal past Samuel Ersson in the top left corner.
After a Höglander penalty, Kiefer Sherwood, Teddy Blueger, Derek Forbort and Carson Soucy started the penalty kill. They looked solid, not allowing the Flyers to get set up in the zone. However, at the tail end of the penalty kill, Elias Pettersson loses his man, and the Flyers execute a beautiful tic-tac-toe for Tyson Foerster to tip past Lankinen and tie the game at one.
There were a few standouts in the first period. Kevin Lankinen made his first start as a member of the Vancouver Canucks. He stopped Travis Konecny on a one-on-one shorthanded breakaway and saved nine of 10 shots.
Teddy Blueger had a few tenacious offensive zone shifts that led to scoring chances. And with the Myers injury, Quinn Hughes had to play 10:46 of the first period.
It was an uneventful start to the second period. Filip Hronek sent the Flyers to the powerplay off a tripping call. Joel Farabee is going to have nightmares tonight after missing two tap-in goals in the crease. Shortly after, Philadelphia took a penalty of their own, sending Vancouver to the powerplay. Which, quite frankly, gave shades of last season’s powerplay, where the team struggled to get set up and generate any sort of offensive pressure.
Teddy Blueger gets rewarded for his solid efforts in the first period as he sends a swift pass to the point man Derek Forbort and receives the pass back for an easy tap-in goal to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead.
We start the third period with Rick Tocchet shuffling up his lines again, obviously not liking what he’s seeing out of certain players. Perhaps that was Daniel Sprong? As he gets the demotion to the third line, Conor Garland moves up with Pettersson and DeBrusk. Well, that switch may have cost the Canucks as Sprong is caught puck-watching in the defensive end, leaving his point man Cam York wide open to receive the pass and whip it past Lankinen to tie the game at two.
After one of the best Canucks penalty killers, Carson Soucy takes a delay of game penalty, Kiefer Sherwood steps up. He perfectly stick-checks Owen Tippett to steal and dump the puck down the ice. Not quitting on the play, he reads Ersson and intercepts his pass to kill another 20 seconds in the Flyers zone. Vancouver got a powerplay of their own; however, the Flyers had the best chance as they had a 3-on-2 the other way.
Michkov finally looked a bit threatening when he made a slick move past Sherwood to find a shooting lane that caused a scrum around the Canucks net. Lankinen was able to just get in the way and keep this game tied at two. Michkov then tested Lankinen again with an in-between-the-legs move. Again, stopped by Canucks’ netminder.
And for the second time in as many games to start the Canucks season, they are off to overtime.
Unlike last night, Tocchet starts Hughes instead of Hronek with Miller and Brock Boeser. The Canucks dominated time of possession in overtime, but other than that, it wasn’t too exciting. Despite all the puck possession time, the only shot they registered was with nine seconds remaining, off the stick of Filip Hronek.
And we’re off to a shootout.
Miller – No Goal
Couturier – No Goal
Pettersson – No Goal
Michkov – No Goal
DeBrusk – Goal
Konecny – Goal
Garland – No Goal
Foerster – No Goal
Boeser – No Goal
Frost – Goal
Canucks lose 3-2 in a shootout.
Some takeaways from tonight’s game:
– Teddy Blueger had a very strong game. Both on the penalty kill and offensively. There were numerous offensive zone shifts by Blueger’s line, and he was buzzing around, creating high-danger scoring chances in low. If there were any questions about who should get that 3C role when Dakota Joshua returns, he might have settled it.
The above paragraph was all typed before Blueger scored his tip-in goal — great game from Blueger.
– The Canucks may have found their starting goalie…until Thatcher Demko’s back. Lankinen looked very solid. He came up big for his team when they fell apart defensively, stopping 28 of 30 shots in regulation and two big ones in overtime. It may not have been the ideal ending for Vancouver,
Tune into Rink Wide Vancouver with Jeff Paterson and Irfaan Gaffar LIVE on YouTube just moments after the final horn! And after that, catch Wyatt Arndt’s Stanchies later tonight or tomorrow morning here at CanucksArmy.com!
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!