Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

In what has to be one of the strangest moments in Vancouver sports history, prized Canucks rookie forward Jake Virtanen – nicknamed Big Country by his teammates – scored his first career NHL goal during a Vancouver Grizzlies-themed home game at Rogers Arena. 

What a time to be alive.

Here’s the goal in question. It was all kinds of impressive, as Virtanen started the play with a good defensive play to tip the puck away the Philadelphia Flyers defender. He received a pass from Ben Hutton and was off to the races.

Zooming in on an odd-man rush with Alex Burrows, Virtanen was thinking shot the whole way. He executed a power move into the slot that got Flyers goaltender Steve Mason to move, and then cleverly backhanded the puck back the other way and into the net.

Rogers Arena promptly exploded. It was probably the loudest cheer the Rogers Arena, formerly GM Place, crowd has ever given to a professional athlete nicknamed Big Country.