You have to love the start of the Canucks season.
Canuck Nation has been waiting for the puck to drop for months and then it’s here, one solitary game to base all of your judgements on.
The fan reaction from Vancouver’s 6-5 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames in the season-opener for both teams at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night was what you would expect: an emotional overreaction.
Goaltender Arturs Silovs — the darling of last year’s post-season who performed admirably in filling in for an injured Thatcher Demko — came up with a sub-par performance. One bad game and everyone is calling for Kevin Lankinen to get the bulk of the workload until Demko returns.
The third defensive pairing of Derek Forbort and Vincent Desharnais had a rough night with both players going -2 and seeing their ice time reduced as the game wore on. All of a sudden, the Canucks have no depth on the blue line.
And then there is Elias Pettersson, who some fans believe should be scoring a hat trick every time out because he has a contract that earns him $11.6 million a year. Don’t even get me started on that.
There are positive overreactions as well.
J.T. Miller was front and center all night long – sometimes being noticed for good things, sometimes for bad. Miller’s hit on Calgary’s Kevin Rooney in the first period certainly riled up the Flames and made Miller public enemy #1.
The hit itself wasn’t dirty but when Rooney hit the boards awkwardly and appeared to be knocked out, several Flames made it a priority to get retribution against Miller.
They wound up taking seven penalties in the first period with the Canucks taking advantage as Daniel Sprong and Brock Boeser scored on the power play.
After Miller squared off against Calgary’s Anthony Mantha late in the first, the Flames returned to playing hockey and didn’t take a penalty the rest of the night.
The Canucks led 4-1 after the first but all of those power plays gave the team a false sense of security as the Flames rallied to eventually take a 5-4 lead on Brayden Pachal’s goal midway through the third period.
Miller wound up scored with 1:37 left in the third period to tie the game at 5-5, forcing overtime which would see the Flames win it on Connor Zary’s goal 1:33 in.
So as we step back and look at this game objectively, what can we gleam that is not an overreaction?
One common theme through the post-game sessions was how the Canucks played too much ‘summer hockey’ and weren’t disciplined enough when it came to defensive structure.
“We probably got a little loose in the second, stopped making it hard on them and started making it hard on ourselves,” Quinn Hughes said afterwards.
Hughes also made a reference to last season’s record of 42-1-4 record when leading after two periods.
“That (blowing the second period lead) is not a characteristic of ours. But in saying that, we have work to do to clean that up and I’m looking forward to doing it,” he added.
Miller, who completed the Gordie Howe hat trick with his goal was obviously disappointed with his team’s performance.
“We didn’t win any battles. We just played loose summer hockey. We need to learn (from this) and raise our intensity. That’s a team over there that wanted to win more than we did today,” said Miller.
Again, it is one game but Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said something post-game that I found interesting.
“We got away from our identity. Our play without the puck was not good. That was a year-and-a-half-ago hockey,” Tocchet said, referencing to the Canucks undisciplined play before his arrival.
“I have to take a little bit of the blame because I was really heavy this year in training camp on the transitional game. We did do D-zone drills but not as much as we did last year but it’s one game. The players know they have to be in certain spots and they weren’t. If it’s a trend for four or five games, I’d be worried but it’s one game. We’ll sharpen it up tomorrow (at practice),” said Tocchet.
Again, it’s ONE game. But if you are to have some concern, it’s that the Canucks opening night lineup did have seven players on it that weren’t with the team last year.
A refresher course on the team’s defensive system is probably a good idea, not only for the newcomers but for returning players as well.
I’ll never be mistaken for Scotty Bowman when it comes to the X’s and O’s of hockey but one thing holds true in every sport.
Your entire philosophy starts with solid foundational play and then you expand off of that.
I imagine you’re not re-inventing the wheel with most defensive systems, so most of the newcomers should be able to grasp the concepts while returning players probably just need a reminder of what the Canucks identity is.
OVERTIME
* Conor Garland and Brock Boeser also scored for Vancouver. Garland notched his tally after being levelled on the same shift by Calgary’s Mackenzie Weegar in the Canucks zone. Garland had some fun chirping the Flames bench after scoring. The Flames also got goals from Mantha, Weegar, Rasmus Andersson and Jonathan Huberdeau. Silovs made 20 saves for Vancouver while Calgary’s Dan Vladar made 19 stops.
* The Gordie Howe hat trick is accomplished when a player records at least a goal, an assist and a fighting major in a game. Ironically enough, the legendary Howe only accomplished this feat twice. The all-time leader in Gordie Howe hat tricks? If you answered Rick Tocchet, go to the front of the line. The Canucks head coach hit hockey’s version of the trifecta an amazing 18 times. Brendan Shanahan is next in line with 17 during his Hall of Fame career.
* The Flames contingent had a little Vancouver flavor to it. VP of Hockey Ops and Assistant GM Brad Pascall — the son of legendary BCTV sports broadcaster Bernie Pascall — grew up in B.C., while Director of Media Relations Sean Kelso spent time with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. Former Canucks GM Dave Nonis is also with the Flames as their Senior VP of Hockey Ops and Assistant GM.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob “the Moj” Marjanovich writes twice weekly for Black Press Media.
READ MORE: Calgary Flames battle back to defeat Vancouver Canucks 6-5 in OT
READ MORE: THE MOJ: Canucks debut will mark a special homecoming for Danton Heinen
