After a long break from action, the biggest of any team for the All-Star Break, the Canucks were able to control the game but couldn’t beat the Blue Jackets who ended up winning 2-1 in the shootout. The game was nothing to write home about, energy lacking most likely because of the time off. Speaking of energy, John Tortorella was the opposing coach tonight, do you remember him? Let’s dive in.

Of note, a non-surprising thing was tweeted out earlier today by James Mirtle.

If you weren’t able to stay awake during the 1st period, you didn’t miss much. Linden Vey scored, which is shocking, but other than that it showed that the Canucks were getting their legs back as the only player who has played since last Tuesday is Daniel Sedin, who represented the Canucks in the All-Star Game.

The great thing about the Vey goal, was it showed that Horvat and Baertschi haven’t missed a step. A great feed from Sven started the play, and Horvat dished it off to Vey for the beautiful feed. 

And if you don’t believe that excitement lacked in the 1st… well…

Thomas Drance, Nation Overlord, was part of the intermission panel as well.

If you were naive and expected the 2nd period would be more exciting, you were disappointed, because it was much worse. One of the players that broke through a boredom tonight though, was Chris Tanev. He was moving around with great speed, and made a couple great defensive plays including a diving stop in the 1st. 

Other than that, not a ton happened in the 2nd. It felt like the Canucks were happy with holding onto their 1-0 lead that they grabbed early on, and the energy was just drained out of the rink. 

Another bright spot in the game, was Linden Vey. Yes, he was the only player to notch a goal in the game for the Canucks but he also was playing fantastic hockey, he seemed to be making things happen. Perhaps a glimpse at what the Canucks thought they were going to get when they gave up a 2nd round pick to get him last year. 

And like clockwork, after all of that the Blue Jackets got a powerplay and capitalized knotting the game at 1’s.

Chris Tanev was nursing a hand injury he sustained in the final minutes of the 3rd period as well, after he was hit along the boards by Boone Jenner but he stayed in the game.

But Jannik Hansen created a superstar play and nearly won the game early in overtime on a stellar breakaway. And the chances kept coming for the Canucks, and they even got a powerplay for their efforts but they couldn’t capitalize and we were sent to the shootout.

Nobody could crack the goalies for the first 5 shooters but Alexander Wennberg did, and the Blue Jackets took the 2-1 win.