Daniel Sedin now has the most goals of any Canuck from Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. I mean, it’s a pretty specific record, but it now belongs to Daniel. He still has a long way to go to become the greatest goalscorer in NHL history from Örnsköldsvik. Markus Naslund still holds that one. But he’s on his way. It’s good to have goals.
I watched this game.
- The Canucks had given up 40+ shots in four straight games heading into Boston and, for a moment, it looked like it was about to happen again. The Bruins dominated the first period, out-shooting the Canucks 11-4 and out-attempting them 27-8. For most of the period, the Canucks couldn’t get out of the defensive zone and couldn’t sustain any offensive pressure. It was almost as ugly as the 456.
- So, of course, the Canucks scored first. On their first shot—actually, first shot attempt—of the game. Hockey is a cruel and capricious game. Sidenote: “capricious” sounds like a word that Capri Sun would use in a commercial. “It’s Capri, it’s delicious: it’s capricious!”
- Sven Baertschi scored the opener through pure persistence. The puck got away from him on a breakaway when Kevan Miller lifted his stick, so Tuukka Rask attempted to sweep it to the corner, but Baertschi managed to reach out with one hand on his stick and change its direction just enough to evade Rask’s stick and slide between his legs. In retrospect, the last half of that sentence sounds irredeemably dirty.
- The three passes leading up to the goal deserve some attention. Chris Tanev should get a tertiary assist, as he made a fantastic play to kick the puck to Bo Horvat to start the breakout after he broke his stick. Horvat then made a nifty bank pass to Radim Vrbata, and Vrbata’s backhand flip pass to Baertschi was perfectly weighted. It was the best sequence of passes I’ve seen since I watched The Room.
- Somehow the Canucks managed to escape the first period with the lead intact, largely thanks to Jacob Markstrom, who had another strong game. His biggest save came in the third period, kicking out his left-pad to rob Loui Eriksson. He was saving so much, even Dr. Lazarus was impressed.
- The Canucks started turning things around in the second period and a lot of credit has to be given to Jake Virtanen and the new-look fourth line. Virtanen threw hit after hit and made himself noticeable with his speed, creating a breakaway in the third period before ringing his shot off the crossbar. The most noticeable thing about his speed was how it wasn’t Brandon Prust’s speed. If Prust had to keep a bus going above 50 mph or a bomb will explode, the bus has already exploded.
- Mike Zalewski played a strong, simple game in his first appearance of the season and won 5-of-7 faceoffs, while his line with Virtanen and Dorsett was the lone line to out-attempt the Bruins. It’s almost like you don’t have to spend $2.5 million to get an effective fourth-liner. Imagine that.
- The Bruins’ tying goal was tinged with controversy. Ryan Spooner appeared to shove Tanev from behind head first into the boards. Tanev stayed down for a moment, but with no call forthcoming attempted to get back into the play. Clearly shaken up, Tanev looked lost and Jimmy Hayes’ shot careened off his leg and in. Ryan Miller gave the refs a sarcastic job-well-done clap on that one, while Willie Desjardins reamed out the refs for missing the call. Here’s the important bit: Tanev’s hair was okay and returned early in the third period, along with the rest of Tanev.
- Of course, the real reason the refs didn’t call a penalty is that an evil sorcerer erased all knowledge of minor and major penalties from their minds before puck drop. Somehow, in a game between the Canucks and Bruins, not a single penalty was called. It was the worst episode of the Twilight Zone ever.
- Alex Burrows scored his second goal in as many games, leading John Garrett to exclaim, “Free steamed buns!” It sort of made sense in context. Linden Vey set up Emerson Etem for a shot, but the pass was deflected, and Etem’s fanned shot instead went across to Burrows, who went HAM on the puck, ripping it top shelf, which is where your ham should go in the fridge.
- Vey has quickly found his rhythm after getting called up from the Comets and he was one of the Canucks best forwards in this game, tying Daniel with a team-high 4 shots on goal, tallying 2 assists, and winning 13-of-20 faceoffs. The Canucks out-shot the Bruins 10-6 when he was on the ice and he ended up leading all Canucks forwards in ice time. He’s been surprisingly effective defensively for a small, offensively-skilled forward. He’s like a young Kyle Wellwood out there.
- After a Jannik Hansen turnover led to Brad Marchand tying the game, Marchand returned the favour, giving the puck away to Hansen, which led to Daniel Sedin’s franchise record 347th goal. Tanev and Hansen execute a nifty give-and-go, while Daniel casts some sort of spell to make the Bruins forget he exists. That’s the only explanation I can think of for why they left him all alone at the side of the net to jam in Tanev’s rebound.
- Is it any surprise that Daniel’s record-breaking goal was a gamewinner? Daniel was already the franchise leader in gamewinning goals with 78 and is tied for 28th all time in the entire NHL with Vincent Damphousse, Marion Hossa, Steve Thomas, and Peter Bondra. Daniel just wins.
