Curtis Douglas got the call to be in the starting lineup for his Canucks debut, and my goodness, is that dude tall.

Nils Höglander made a sharp play to keep possession of the puck along the wall, then drove out from behind the net and backhanded a chance into James Reimer. Höglander has started to look more and more like himself lately, and that’s great to see.

Kevin Lankinen — who had his best game in recent memory in the Canucks’ 3-2 OT loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday — made a good stop off of Brady Tkachuk, who made a drive of his own to the net from behind the red line.

Then Elias Senior Pettersson took a cross-checking penalty to give the Senators the game’s first power play.

Not only did the Canucks’ PK keep the Senators at bay, Brock Boeser and Liam Öhgren even got to move in on a 2-on-1. Unfortunately, Reimer stopped Öhgren’s shot attempt after Boeser saucered the puck over to him. That was the best chance of the two-minute sequence.

It was a fairly eventful start to the game, all things considered.

One notable thing that happened: Zeev Buium was absolutely flying in the opening frame. The Ottawa forecheck was strong, but on multiple occasions, Buium wheeled the puck out of the Canucks’ end with plenty of speed and poise. Good to see.

Curtis Douglas was quickly making a routine of finishing every one of his checks whenever the opportunity presented itself. That’s a great trait to see in any player, but especially for a Canuck.

Thomas Chabot was called for slashing after a great little give-and-go between Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander. On their first power play chance of the night, the Canucks only got 1:03 to work with, as Linus Karlsson was called for Shane Pinto grabbing onto him. No, you didn’t misread that. Pinto hooked his arm onto Karlsson’s and hauled him down, and Karlsson was assessed two minutes for interference. That left Ottawa with over a minute of power play time, and while they didn’t score on the power play, they did score shortly after the Karlsson penalty expired following an inadvertent blocked shot found its way to Ridley Greig, who buried his chance.

The Canucks challenged the play for a missed hand pass, but it seemed fairly obvious that Shane Pinto didn’t mean to glove the puck toward Greig, and the goal stood as a result.

Of course, that failed challenge meant another power play for Ottawa. Liam Öhgren did a great job on the ensuing PK of breaking up a hard cross-crease pass intended for Drake Batherson, and the Ottawa power play went by the wayside.

After 40 minutes of play, the Canucks trailed by a goal. One other thing that happened: Stone Cold Linus Karlsson hit Artem Zub with a stunner. Watch for yourself.

The Canucks came out flying to start the third, but that momentum was quickly killed when Marcus Pettersson was nabbed for holding the stick, putting Ottawa back on the power play. Again, the Canucks’ PK held strong.

There was a whole lot of nothing going on for most of the opening 10 minutes of the third, which the Senators, in the heat of a playoff race and looking to lock down the win, were absolutely fine with.

Teddy Blueger drew an interference penalty against Thomas Chabot, giving the Canucks another power play opportunity as they tried to tie this game up. The Canucks’ first unit gained the zone, cycled the puck around, and got a one-timer look for Elias Pettersson, but Tyler Kleven blocked the shot. The second unit moved up quickly thanks to some more smooth skating and puck transportation by Zeev Buium, but didn’t manage to test Reimer.

The Senators sure made things harder on themselves, as Warren Foegele took a hooking penalty to put the Sens back on the PK.

This time, the Canucks’ PP managed to get set up and cycle the puck around, but once again, they didn’t test Reimer. I know I might sound like a broken record here, but I really liked Buium’s game tonight. He looked every bit the part of a power play quarterback in this one.

With 2:30 remaining, the Canucks pulled Lankinen and sent out an extra attacker.

After just over a minute, Brady Tkachuk scored the empty-netter to put the finishing touches on this one.

When you read The Statsies tomorrow, you’re going to see Zeev Buium’s name. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Canucks outchanced the Senators 19-11 with Buium on the ice.

What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!