The Canucks have so many players missing with injuries right now that I passed out when I tried to say them all in one breath. They have more people out than the Vancouver Pride Parade. They have more players out than Outkast on Christmas day.
Brandon Sutter, Chris Higgins, Ryan Miller, Luca Sbisa, Dan Hamhuis, Chris Tanev, and Alexandre Burrows were all injured for this game, pushing the likes of Linden Vey, Ronalds Kenins, and Andrey Pedan into the lineup.
They had more scrubs than the passenger side of their best friend’s ride. More scrubs than Grey’s Anatomy. More scrubs than cleaning dishes without the grease-cutting power of Dawn.
Thank goodness they were only playing the Oilers. I watched this game.
- Is it harsh to call guys like Vey, Kenins, and Pedan scrubs? Of course. But I wanted to make a bunch of dumb “scrubs” jokes, so what other choice did I have?
- Pedan made his NHL debut as a defenceman, but to be pedantic, it wasn’t his NHL debut, as he previously playing as a forward against the Kings at the beginning of the month. His inexperience was no impedance, as he acquitted himself well, throwing several sizeable hits and, like a ropedancer, showing some finesse and poise.
- With so many injuries, Yannick Weber had to play heavy minutes, finishing with 23:31 in ice time, second to only Alex Edler and actually led in even-strength ice time. Remarkably, he dominated possession with the highest corsi percentage of the game. He just may never score again: he had five shot attempts and they all seemed to be golden scoring chances, but he either missed the net or got robbed every time. He has yet to score this season: he’s had less luck than the Indianapolis Colts for the last couple months.
- Weber wasn’t the only Canuck missing the net, as they were credited with 18 missed shots, but seemed to miss a lot more, probably because they all came on great scoring chances. Sven Baertschi was all around the net all game, but unfortunately so was the puck, as he shot it around the net three times.
- Baertschi’s line with Bo Horvat and Radim Vrbata was arguably the Canucks’ best line. Vrbata had a game-high 7 shots on goal, Horvat won 16-of-23 faceoffs, and Baertschi looked dangerous all night. Horvat had the move of the game, however, undressing Mark Fayne with a vicious move that would have lived forever in highlight reels, if only he had scored. But he didn’t. So here’s a gif in a tweet that will last until Twitter goes the way of MySpace and Friendster.
Nice move by Bo. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/Uvx3FWj9aC
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 27, 2015
- Edler had to eat up minutes, playing a game-high 27:16, nearly 16 minutes of it against the Oilers’ top line of Leon Draisaitl, Teddy Purcell, and Taylor Hall. He was basically the kid brother that always tagged along whenever the cool kids were going anywhere (“Take your brother with you, he needs to get out of the house”) and he prevented scoring just as effectively.
- Well, he at least prevented the top line from scoring. Edler will get lots of flak for Mark Letestu’s game-opening goal, as his gap on the Oilers’ centre was wider than the brain and he screened Jacob Markstrom to boot. But I don’t blame Edler; that was just a weird play. He did well to step up at the blueline and break up the Oilers’ zone entry, but the puck went straight up in the air behind him and he lost sight of it. Radim Vrbata made a weak play trying to get too cute with the puck and by the time Edler realized Vrbata didn’t have it, it was too late.
- That was the only puck that would get by Markstrom, who made 32 saves for his second straight win. He’s up to a .924 save percentage on the season, good for 14th in the NHL. Let’s just say that there’s no reason for Ryan Miller to get fatigued again this season.
- Henrik Sedin is my hero. The Canucks captain is battling through some unknown lower body injury hurts badly enough that he can’t even sit down for any length of time, instead standing in the Canucks’ bench for most of the game. He literally could not sit down. He also didn’t take faceoffs as the game progressed, appropriately passing them off to Daniel and Hansen. Henrik was hurting, but he still played over 20 minutes. Henrik Sedin is my hero.
- Henrik assisted on the Canucks’ first goal, winning a battle along the boards with Iiro Pakarinen, then playing a little give-and-go with Daniel before setting up Hansen in front for the five-hole goal. It was done so casually that it was easy to miss how gorgeous it was: Henrik’s saucer pass sailed just over Nikita Nikitin’s leg and landed directly on Hansen’s stick. That pass was a tiny moment of perfection, a microscopic unicorn, and we treat it like it’s no big deal because he makes it look so easy.
- Things got a little scary towards the end of the game as both Cam Talbot and Jannik Hansen got their heads rung off the post. Talbot was first: as he tried to corral a rebound after a nice stop on Brandon Prust, Adam Cracknell collided with him while chasing the puck, knocking the back of his head against the post. He stayed down and play stopped, but instead of the concussion protocol kicking in, he stayed in the game. It’s hard to blame him—he likely felt fine—but the concern is if he takes another blow to the head soon.
- The concussion protocol likely should have kicked in for Hansen as well, as he went hard to the net, then went hard into the net, smacking his head off the crossbar in a battle with Eric Gryba. He was bleeding profusely, but immediately skated off the ice and seemed to be fine, but the concussion protocols are supposed to kick in for any blow to the head. If they only kick in when the team feels like it, then they’re basically useless. I mean, they might already be entirely useless as concussion symptoms can take hours or even days to show up, but if they’re never used, then the protocols have even less use than useless.
- Of course, if Hansen had undergone the concussion protocol, he might not have gotten back for his shift in overtime, where he did the seemingly impossible: he scored a goal at 3-on-3. For the first time all season, the Canucks won in overtime, thanks to the most devastating slap shot since Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice, which was devastating for very different reasons, namely Stephen Baldwin and Gary Busey. Also, this slap shot involved Hansen, not the Hansons, and didn't forever taint his name.
