Oh, what a rush.
The Vancouver Canucks Road Warriors escaped Ottawa with a 4-3 win, a game made that looked much closer than it actually was, thanks to a couple of late third-period goals from the Senators.
Despite losing varsity quarterback, prom King, and team captain Quinn Hughes early in the game to a game misconduct for boarding, the Canucks rallied to have one of their most impressive performances of the season. Led by the trio of Jake DeBrusk, Elias Pettersson, and Kiefer Sherwood, the DPS lived up to their damage-per-second billing by scoring three goals and ending the night with seven points betwixt themselves.
That’s when you know it was a fun night when we’re out here betwixting things.
At one point, the Senators had a delayed penalty call against them, and the Canucks played keep away with the puck for almost two minutes, generating a Bronx cheer when Ottawa finally got the puck back. It felt like the low point for Ottawa and, in hindsight, might have lit a bit of a fire under them? Instead of having a team resigned to their fate, the Senators started fighting and getting angry and eventually got back into the game with a couple of goals.
At one point, you kind of thought maybe Ottawa would pull off the comeback because this is Vancouver, and we’re not allowed to have good things, but then you remembered Travis Green was on the other bench and it immediately calmed you down.
The end result was the Canucks walked away with two points, and Quinn Hughes got to rest for the night, which is about the biggest road victory you can get for the Canucks if we’re being honest.
Let’s break this game down, shall we?
Best quick start
The much-maligned Carson Soucy/Tyler Myers pairing discussion will have to wait for another day, as the Quinn Hughes deportation kind of threw a wrench in any partner swapping, so let’s focus on the quick start the Canucks had in this one.
And while the DPS line was clearly the engine on the night, I did like what I saw from the Dakota Joshua/Pius Suter/Conor Garland line:
Clearly, Joshua was going to need time to get his NHL legs under him, and I feel like we’re starting to see his game come together now. Saturday night was probably the most physical we’ve seen him be, whether it was in the form of driving the puck on net, winning battles in the corner, or fighting the guy on the other team who looks like he lost his binkie.
And you can see in the clip there is some chemistry starting to form again with Garland and Joshua, and with Pius Suter being the ultimate Gorilla Glue guy, it’s been a handy line to deploy when your team is missing Brock Boeser and JT Miller.
It’s kind of like when your drill runs out of batteries, you know worst case scenario you can use an ice pick and hammer to get the job done.
I’m not quite sure how this metaphor lines up with this, but you know what, it’s provocative, it gets the people going.
Best big boy hockey
Elias Pettersson, your angry Uncle’s favourite player to scream about falling to the ice too much, has largely put most of the concerns over his game behind him. He has become the Canucks most consistent forward over the last several weeks, and we have seen his game round back into form despite Uncle Ed texting the family group chat several clown emojis and eggplants, not quite fully grasping what he’s doing.
“He’s a clown vegetable, not even carrots respect him, what else would I be trying to say?”
One sign that Elias Pettersson might be feeling better about his game? Him going full Imagine Dragons on Tim Stützle and laying down the thunder on him:
His head was up the entire time, so I don’t know if Tim did a quick spot check and just assumed that EP40 wasn’t about that life, but he quickly found out that Elias’ favourite thing to hunt is the most dangerous game in the world.
Which kind of sets the tone, especially with JT Miller out. I have a theory, based on science and five minutes of ivermectin YouTube research, that posits that Elias gets stronger and stronger every time a star player falls out of the lineup.
No JT Miller, Brock Boeser, or soon-to-be Quinn Hughes? No problem. Elias levels up and goes Thanos mode, carrying the team on his back.
The season could end with Pettersson playing with Colby Armstrong and a variety of players from ASHL standouts A La Mode, and I would bet good money that EP40 would set up Tyler Ransom for a hat trick at one point.
Best smashing time
The DPS line almost opened up the scoring when Jake DeBrusk did the old slip-and-slide around Ridly Grieg, a man whose family I assume despises the letter ‘e’:
(The DPS line name came from Blue Sky, and it allows me to make jokes about hackers and Warzone, so it has to stay forever now)
Jake DeBrusk is one of the more unique players we’ve seen come through this town. He consistently puts up 40+ points, so he’s very much in that Conor Garland territory of “good player who will probably elevate playing with other skilled players,” and so far, we’re seeing that as he gains chemistry with his fellow Warzone squad.
The thing I like about his game is just how soft it is. And not soft as in Uncle Ed’s definition, but just this soft, subtle game based around using his hockey intelligence to make plays. He isn’t the guy who drops hot at Control Center, he 100% lands at Harbor and slow plays his way towards the circle.
Which is interesting because he can play gritty hockey, we’ve seen him barrel roll into the offensive zone and drive hard to the net. We know he has a bit of that power-forward game in him.
But he often times tries to make the slick subtle plays, whether that’s in the form of a nice tipped shot or as is the case here, making Ridly Grieg think he’s about to go one-on-one in a hitting contest, only to watch as Jake skates right around him and generates an unimpeded shot on net from the faceoff circle.
The flip side of all of this is when he isn’t scoring, his playstyle isn’t very visually pleasing, which can lead to a lot of people asking, “Where’s Jake??” Nothing gets a hockey market angrier than a well-paid player trying to make slick moves in a losing cause. If you aren’t getting in the pit trying to love someone, then people will say mean things online about you.
I think this is what leads to the “streaky player” label that Boston fans gave him because when another player, like, say, Kiefer Sherwood isn’t scoring, he’s out there attempting to murder people. This pleases the fans because it shows passion and it shows a willingness to commit homicide on their behalf. It’s Gladiator 2 on ice.
When Jake isn’t scoring, his slick plays look lazy and uninspired. All of a sudden, fans are wondering who this fancy so-and-so thinks he is wearing a puffy shirt and asking the waitress at the Keg if they have any tofu options. It riles people up.
After a two-goal, three-point night, however, steak is clearly on the menu.
Best spoiler alert: it didn’t
Instead of showing a failed power play, how about I show you Quinn Hughes hitting some dingers?
I also need you to really, really savour this clip because Quinn Hughes gets kicked out of the game after this. No, not for embarrassing Drake Batherson by breaking his ankles on live TV, but because of a boarding call that will surely cause a lot of debate.
Before we get to that, we do need to point out that the Canucks power play went 1/6 on the night, including a failed full two-minute 5 on 3 power play in the third period.
Which I think says something that a lot of you were probably excited they even managed to get a single power play goal, which kind of shows the state the Canucks special teams are in right now.
Best two sides of a coin
Quinn Hughes, the Godfather himself, saw his night end halfway through the first period:
It wasn’t an egregious hit, I will say that. Quinn Hughes didn’t come barreling in, whiskey on his breath, muttering about how it’s about time someone took care of that Norris problem. He didn’t come in with speed or violence on his mind.
But he did lean on Josh Norris near the boards and in the numbers, which is a dangerous spot.
There was a lot of debate about whether this should have been a major or minor penalty, and I thought it was going to be a minor. Given the fact that Quinn just isn’t that type of player, and it truly felt like bad timing in terms of Quinn leaning in with his shove in combination with Norris turning his skate to try and get an edge. It felt like the end result was the reason it was given the major, due to the fact there was some blood on the mouth of Norris due to the impact with the boards.
Small shoves to the back in board battles happen all the time, so you either as a league actively try and discourage that by calling them all the time, or we live in this world in which you only call a major penalty “due to injuries” which as Wagner pointed out, is probably what they did:
I guess my main issue is that “bleeding from the mouth” is such a superficial way to gauge an injury because, as we’ve seen with high sticks, a dude can get beamed in the head and only generate a two-minute penalty, but sometimes a stick grazing some lips and causing bleeding can get you a four-minute call. Whenever they have a player lifting up his lip to try and point out a tiny speck of blood to try and earn an extra two minutes of power play time, I tend to lose faith in humanity as a whole.
So once again, I find myself begging the NHL to resist using blood as a key piece of evidence in on-ice trials. As we will see later, Stützle laid an arguably more dangerous hit on Nils Höglander in the third period, but because Nils managed to angle his body out of danger, no penalty was called.
Regardless of where you stand on this issue, the Canucks had to kill off a five-minute power play, which they did quite handily. We shall represent the entire five-minute kill with this blocked shot from Pius Suter:
Stepping up to make a play was kind of the theme on the night, which the Canucks deserve full credit for.
Quinn Hughes is objectively their most important player, so to lose him early in a game, a game where you’re already without JT and Brock, and you respond with a performance like this? Put that one on your LinkedIn profile, baby. The Canucks could have easily crumbled, but instead, they used whatever “hard work” metaphor you want to choose from to get the job done.
Pulled themselves up by their bootstraps?
Went the extra mile?
Kept their nose to the grindstone?
Rolled up their sleeves?
One of those.
Best Fil-ing his shoes
I kid you not; this is video evidence of an actual power play goal from the Vancouver Canucks:
Nothing magical here; just solid puck movement followed up by Corolla Garland recognizing that 25% was open all alone in front (DeBrusk is 25% because he tips a lot, you see.)
As much as I respect Garland’s game, nobody respects his shot, which is why, on the power play, you often see the other team give him the Ben Simmons gap control of disrespect in which they almost beg him to take a shot from out far.
Which is why you often see Garland move in and become a distributor on special teams, or as in this case, sending the puck on net because 25% has set up shop in the crease.
It’s also a filthy tip if we’re being honest. This isn’t just an “Oh it changed directions, the goalie couldn’t track it” kind of tip. This is a, “Oh dear god, that goalie had a family, that tip went top shelf where Mom keeps the DNA test your sister can never find out about” level of a tip.
The period then ended with Ridly Greig kicking the puck through the crease, proving once again that people from Lethbridge crumble under pressure:
So, to summarize:
  • The Canucks lost their best player halfway through the first period
  • They killed off a five-minute power play
  • They ended the period scoring the only goal, a power play goal of their own
  • Crazy P was nowhere to be found, thus proving my other theory correct in that he’s been holding this team back
It was about as good of a result as you could have hoped for, all things considered.
Best question
Part of me thinks he was watching from the rafters in a trench coat, holding a baseball bat like Sting, but the other part of me thinks he was just reading some esoteric book in a small cubby hole somewhere in the building. What better time than now to start a journey of self-discovery by reading The Alchemist?
Best leader of the pack
Best he’s got the look
With Nils Höglander sitting in the box for slashing, we got treated to Rick Tocchet shaking his head on the bench, which has become a familiar tradition for us in Vancouver.
Nils does something bad on the ice, we wonder if he will ever play again, people fantasy trade him for Marcus Pettersson, but then he’s in the line up next game. Rinse and repeat.
The bad news for the pig man is that this penalty led to the Senators tying the game up on the ensuing power play:
Again, I don’t often attack power play goals because they are chaotic by design. Players getting lost in coverage happens when you’re down a guy; I get it.
That being said, I’m not in love with the Canucks letting Brady Tkachuk set up shop behind them? I will say that the Canucks, and Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy in particular, have struggled with boxing players out at times this year. And on this goal, when Jake Sanderson takes the shot, Brady is behind all four Canucks players.
By the time Brady tucks the puck in, Tyler Myers is watching from the other side of the crease, and the other three Canucks skaters can only watch from afar as the Senators captain finishes off the goal.
Brady’s game is all about that net front presence, he’s going to waltz in like it’s last call at the Roxy and Ryan Kesler needs to belt out some karaoke, so you need to do your best to box him out of your crease.
Instead, he just glides right in behind the Canucks diamond formation, and nobody touches him as he picks up the rebound.
Best I was told there would be goals on this tour
The Canucks power play is frustrating because it’s not bad enough that you can clearly see why it’s awful, but it’s not good enough that you want to keep riding with it.
For example, the puck movement here? Perfectly cromulent. Move the puck around a bit, try and get a look on net, and take the shot:
They try the bumper pass, it doesn’t work, so they move the puck back to Garland, who looks like he waits to see if Jake will set up shop for a tip, but when it isn’t there, he hands out the free muffin.
The problem is when the most dangerous chances somehow always seem to end up coming from the penalty-killing team:
Canucks get caught in the offensive zone, the Senators push back, and Artem Zub almost tips in a shorthanded goal past Kevin Lankinen.
But as I said, the Canucks manage to stay in the middle ground of power play efficiency. They currently sit 14th in the league at just under 21%, so it’s enough that you can think, “Okay, they can figure this out, and once they do, oh boy, look out league.”
But until then, I will continue to make gif money off of shorthanded odd-man rushes.
Best branding opportunity
Max Sasson was called up for his first NHL game, and wouldn’t you know it, he managed to get his first NHL point on the Canucks second goal:
I also promise to try not to bring up Vidal Sassoon commercials every time I see his name.
That’s a pretty big league play by Max to drive hard into the offensive zone before pulling up and finding Teddy KGB for the goal; I have to admit.
I generally liked Max’s game, and just in terms of all the bodies we’ve seen come up through the system lately, he had a pretty impressive outing. His speed was noticeable, and he seemed to have a good grasp of the kind of hockey Tocchet wants to play.
He also had one play where he back-checked really hard but turned around and gave the puck away, to which he slammed his stick and swore out loud. It was nice to see him stepping up and filling a screaming void that has been left by JT Miller.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out Tyler Myers setting this goal in motion, watching Fake Quinn Hughes Tyler Kleven like a hawk before swooping in for the interception at the 50-yard line. He then eats a hit from Batherson and slowly gets up, impeding the back check of Drake, allowing just enough time for Blueger to get the shot off.
All in all, a very tidy piece of business from the Chaos Giraffe.
Best Fil-tering out the negative
Filip Hronek has the world’s easiest job in that he gets to watch Quinn Hughes play hockey. Once in a while, he gets the puck, but mostly, he gives it back to Quinn and then game-plans his next Instant Pot recipe while he watches Hughes make magic on the ice.
And when Hughes left the game, Hronek struggled a little bit with the adjustment, which isn’t an indictment, nor is it very shocking. After all, Quinn Hughes leads the league in almost every metric involving puck possession and zone exits, so clearly, life is going to change when that responsibility falls to you.
And I also get the desire to see Brännström rock the power play, both because the power play is the very definition of middling and because with Hughes out, Erik is very much a potential “Quinn Hughes at home” approach that could work to a lesser degree.
But at the end of the day, Fil stepped up, man. Honestly, I thought this team was going to crumble as they figured out zone exits with Quinn, but they came together and got that sh*t solved. In particular, Hronek stepped up and provided a calming presence on the blue line sorely needed.
While his zone exits will never be as slick as Quinn Hughes, the same could be said for 99% of the league. All that matters is that when the time came, Fil found a way to get the puck out of his zone:
Protected the puck the entire time and safely got the puck to a teammate for a dump-in? That’s an objective victory right there.
For a guy who has been accused of struggling to win 50/50 battles, I felt like he stepped up his physical game as well.
Even when it was crazy 2 am Skytrain passenger Brady Tkachuk stumbling into the offensive zone, Hronek stood his ground, separating him from the puck:
Did Hronek “accidentally on purpose” glove Brady in the face? Of course he did, and I am here for it.
The Senators trying to dump and chase? Hronek will meet you head-on and get the puck out:
This doesn’t even get into the fact that there is no one on the team better at giving a post-whistle angry shove than Hronek. Soucy can shove with the best of them, but his face is always so impassive.
Hronek, though? You can see it in his eyes how disgusted he is with you at digging for a loose puck.
I just thought it was one of the best games I have seen from Hronek this season, and was a nice glimpse into why the Canucks gave him the contract they did.
He might have an easy job playing with Quinn Hughes, but at the end of the day, he does have a top-tier skill set, one that the team relied heavily upon on Saturday night.
Best DPS improvement
The DPS line continued to put on a show when they scored the third goal on an all-in effort:
  • You have Elias Pettersson racing to win the board battle, pushing the puck up to Kiefer Sherwood
  • You have Kiefer going full Jack Bauer by protecting the puck, spinning away from his check and then showing the patience to draw in Artem Zub away from Jake before slightly changing his angle so he can slide the puck over to DeBrusk
  • You then have Jake patiently out-waiting Linus Ullmark and sliding the puck in, causing a big debate about whether the TTK on his stick is way too high. One shot is all it took?
The DPS line was on fire Saturday night, is what I’m saying.
Best dialing it in
The underlying numbers weren’t fantastic for Dakota Joshua, but again, you can see his game starting to come together.
He is starting to bust out that physical power-forward game that made him a key part of the team last season:
Suter’s smart defence sets this play in motion, ending with Joshua trying the Burraparound goal on Ullmark.
This line never fully clicked on Saturday night, but you could say they were *this* close to figuring it all out. It just felt like they were a bounce or two away from having some really nice looks on net.
Best Leroy Jenkins mode
Much like the Chaos Giraffe, I feel like you live by the angry baby and die by the angry baby with Brady Tkachuk. His game is designed around being an upset child who was given a timeout and is now having a tantrum, and he makes it work for the most part.
When it doesn’t work, though, it does feel easy to criticize as he loses focus or hurts his own team with his antics.
But you can’t deny that he had the attention of the Canucks, and when he’s out there hitting people, you know Noah Juulsen is going to get riled up to try and throw a hit, which is exactly what happened at the end of the second period:
Juulsen goes for the big hit, puts himself out of position, and Josh Norris gets a semi-breakaway out of it.
All of which led to linesman CJ Murray making the play of the year for NHL officials:
If that’s Mario Yamasaki then this ends in a blood bath, that’s all I’m saying.
Instead, CJ Murray tracks Brady the entire shift and then steps in to prevent Brady from going after Juulsen at the last second.
Best quick whistle
The Senators tried to make it a one-goal game on this Tim Stützle tap-in:
The problem? The ref lost sight of the puck and blew the whistle around 90 times before the tap-in. Tim still put the puck in the net, to which the fans still cheered, because you know, just in case, and then Stützle even did the whole “what? no goal? that’s crazy” arms wide open Creed gesture.
I also assume this happened because Tyler Myers was on the ice, and where he goes, chaos follows.
Best road warriors
For whatever reason, the Canucks are a different team on the road.
A good example of this is how they attack the GOTI on the road versus at home:
I have seen endless shifts at home end with the Canucks stuck on the perimeter, never getting near the middle of the ice. A good dump-in sometimes feels like a successful shift at home. Sometimes, I even turn to Daniel Wagner in the press box and comment on what a lovely dump we just saw. It’s not a high point of my life; it’s just something that tends to happen at Canucks games on home ice.
On the road, they are hustling hard on the forecheck, causing turnovers and, more importantly, ramming the puck right up the GOTI.
By the time the game ended, the Canucks had 15 scoring chances for, compared to Ottawa’s six. Which, fair enough, that’s also very much on brand for Travis Green hockey, but I do think it speaks to the Canucks playing more efficient hockey on road trips.
Best increasing your DPS
The Canucks scored their final tally of the night with the most Kiefer Sherwood goal possible:
The TTK on Sherwood’s stick is considerably lower than Jake’s, but his accuracy in landing all his shots still gets him the kill.
The entire play is, in fact, started off by Kiefer being a nuisance as he tracks down Thomas Chabot, eventually getting his stick on the outlet pass.
That active stick is one of the things I love about Garland because if anyone has played hockey, you know how much harder life is when someone is swinging their stick in and out of your passing lanes. Give anyone time and space, and they can make a pass like Gretzky. If you take that away? That’s when you see teams make turnovers.
And Kiefer follows this play up by immediately hitting up the GOTI. He skates hard to the net just in case, and wouldn’t you know it, a rebound is waiting for him to whack at several times.
At its best, the DPS line is a deadly balance of defence and offence, as seen on this goal.
Best turning point
Later in the third period, the Senators took a penalty. And on the delayed penalty, the Canucks passed the puck around for almost two minutes.
You could sense the anger in the building rising, both from the fans and from the Senators.
Do I think the Canucks did this to stunt on them hoes? No, no, I do not.
I think the Canucks just wanted to eat up the clock, and the Senators made that very easy for them to do.
It also angered the Senators to the point that Brady Tkachuk activated his angry child tantrum mode and broke his stick cross-checking Hronek. A Filip Hronek who had been up in Brady’s grill all game long and had been battling him physically all game long. My point being that Fil pissed off Brady by shutting him down, another nod to his performance on the night.
The end result was a full 5 on 3 power play for the Canucks, and also this gift of Claude Giroux reminding us he didn’t retire yet:
The Canucks would promptly waste that power play and not score a goal, and Ottawa resumed playing with piss and vinegar in their bodies, which led to…
Best Fight Club
Brady was looking for a fight all game long, and when you get into a fight, it’s either deemed to have sparked your team, or it was someone losing focus:
Since the Senators would go on to make it a one-goal game, you could count this as Brady giving his team a lift. The problem is he’s their best player, so having him in the box for the majority of the end of the third period seems not great?
Either way, I have to hand it to Dakota Joshua for barely slipping one of those punches and looking bored out of his mind doing so. I don’t know if there is anyone as unflappable as Dakota in a fight.
Best double standards
Here is where things got a bit iffy for me.
Nearly Nils gets a chance on net and does his best to regain his balance afterwards, which Tim decides is the perfect time to jump on him and ride him into the boards:
That’s a player in a prone position near the boards, and not only does he get shoved from behind, but Tim jumps on top of him. If their combined weight slides into those end boards, that’s a real bad situation for Höglander. He just barely manages to twist his torso so that his back takes the brunt of it, but in terms of dangerous hits, this one was far more predatory than what Quinn Hughes did.
But I guess Nils didn’t have any blood in his mouth, so it’s all good.
What made it worse for Vancouver was that Höglander received the extra roughing penalty on this play for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom.
The end result of all of this? Ottawa gets their second goal of the night:
I now have to assume Claude Giroux was telling Jake DeBrusk that he would score a goal shortly, but in the grand scheme of things, it would be meaningless.
It’s a messy goal, and very clearly a “Quinn Hughes would NEVER have let that happen moment,” but such is life when the league hands out an extra penalty to a dude who throws punches at another dude who tried to hit him in a vulnerable position.
Best baby I hear the blues are calling
The Senators almost made it 4-3 when Arshdeep Bains made what I would call a pass a little too slick for its own good in his own zone:
I see the vision, you’re trying to slide the buttery pass to a zone exit for Garland with speed, but the goalie is pulled, you’re in your own zone, just use the glass and kill off some of the clock.
Luckily, Kevin Lankinen was there to shut the door, and if you’re thinking by the amount of post-whistle scrums that this felt tight, almost like a playoff game, you would be correct. These two teams started the night as amicable co-workers and ended the night as toxic as season 3 of Jersey Shore.
Are you friends with them?
ARE. YOU. FRIENDS. WITH. THEM?
Best full chaos, baby
Look, I know Tyler Myers didn’t help the team out here, but I have ride-or-die with his decisions.
Defending a two-goal lead with the goalie pulled? What better time than now to dangle in your own zone and then fire off a clapper from your own blue line:
And not on the ice, mind you. CG57 went for that top cheddar, my friends. He fired this shot high and wide, leading to an icing.
But you know what? If Myers dangles there and then goes bar down from a blue-line clapper in his own zone, that’s an iconic moment. I am 100% here for him trying to make that moment happen.
Should he be doing that? Of course not.
But at the same time, he absolutely should be doing it?
The Chaos Giraffe cannot be chained up.
Myers would then go on to ice the puck again, but this one wasn’t nearly as fun or egregious:
That’s just a tired dude making a bad outlet pass, leading to another icing. He’s clearly gassed at this point, as blue-line clap bombs take a lot of energy.
Noah Juulsen would then ice the puck after that (I feel like showing you three icing clips in a row would be malicious, so I am not including it), leading to a tired Canucks team letting in their third goal of the night:
Yes, Tim Stützle got the Senators to within one, which again just brings to the forefront that Quinn Hughes got kicked out of the game for a predatory hit, but Tim didn’t because, hey, Nils didn’t cut his lip.
Best hitting your emote
Not since Andrew Raycroft waved to Toronto fans have I enjoyed a regular season goalie celebration like this:
Kevin fist pumping because he didn’t just want that win, he needed it.
The Canucks survive the comeback attempt and now head on to the Boston Bruins revenge game from Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm on Tuesday.
Which I assume will end in a blood bath because Boston has a new coach and Zadorov excels in games where he gets to be a troll.
Giddy up.
Best home is where the losses are
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