There are some games in the preseason that really remind you that the preseason simply does not matter.
Well, it matters to some people a great deal, to be clear. It’s just that none of those people are watching the games — they’re playing in them.
Friday night’s preseason game between the Vancouver Canucks and Seattle Kraken was largely a snoozefest from an entertainment perspective. The Kraken took a 2-0 lead on a couple of ugly deflection goals in the first period and the two teams played some choppy, rizzless hockey the rest of the way.
Even as the Canucks started to get better as the game went on, the Kraken collapsed back and prevented them from building any sort of rhythm or momentum.
Head coach Rick Tocchet said it seemed like the team was “a little tired” early on. It seemed like the Canucks skipped the Starbucks run in its city of origin, as they didn’t wake up until halfway through the game.
“It took us 30-35 minutes to get going,” said Tyler Myers. “Ultimately, it was just too late to come back. It just goes to show you that it’s just a mindset. We all decided to start moving our feet the last half of the game and we looked like a completely different team…We’ve got to come out ready to go.”
So, from an entertainment perspective, this game was a bit of a dud for Canucks fans and one that’s easy to dismiss as inconsequential. No points were lost in the standings, after all.
But for some of the prospects in the lineup, this was a vital game: a major opportunity to prove something to the Canucks’ coaching staff and management team.
There was the forward line of Arshdeep Bains, Max Sasson, and Linus Karlsson, all three of whom were trying to make the argument that they deserved to be called up this season. Then there were the three rookie defencemen — Sawyer Mynio, Kirill Kudryavtsev, and Christian Felton — each of whom were matched on a pairing with a veteran.
“I thought our young D-men played really well tonight, they played hard,” said Myers. “They were making some good plays on breakouts. They should be proud of how they played. As an older guy, you just try to help them out as much as you can.”
Kudryavtsev was arguably the best of the three, making calm and poised plays in all three zones, but all three had their moments. Mynio had a monstrous backcheck to disrupt a breakaway and Felton showed some surprising offensive flash with a couple of great holds and passing plays at the offensive blue line.
“I thought Mynio — a 19-year-old kid, he’s a great prospect for us — I thought he was poised out there,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “I thought Kirill was really good. I really like this kid, from rookie camp on. He’s been in Vancouver all summer, working. He came in in really good shape. He’s another good prospect…Kirill and Mynio, for young kids, it’s a pretty good future.”
So, it was an important moment for those prospects to make an impression. Still, I couldn’t help but crave the start of the regular season when I watched this game.
- It was a tough first start as a Canuck for Kevin Lankinen, who had to deal with more traffic than Vancouver in rush hour in the opening twenty minutes, not to mention a whole lot of shot attempts. The Kraken out-shot the Canucks 11-to-4 in the first period and there wasn’t much Lankinen could do about the first two goals.
- “He was good. We hung him out to dry the first half of the game,” said Myers. “Not what you want to see for a guy putting on the jersey for the first time. One thing I noticed is he’s really good at playing the puck, so I had to adjust to that. He made some nice plays to us on breakouts.”
- Kiefer Sherwood’s audition on Elias Pettersson’s line got off to a bad start: with Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk already down low in the offensive zone, Sherwood pinched down the boards and got caught deep, giving up an odd-man rush the other way. As the Canucks scrambled to defend the rush, Derek Forbort left Eeli Tolvanen all alone behind him to chase the puck. The unmarked Tolvanen easily tipped in Adam Larsson’s wrist shot to make it 1-0.
- Mynio deserves a ton of credit for his backcheck on Jordan Eberle late in the first period. At first, it might have seemed like he was making up for his own mistake in letting Eberle behind him but, to paraphrase Milli Vanilli, you can blame it on the Bains (and Karlsson). The two forwards were supposed to be backing up Mynio after a pinch down the boards but they instead went for a horribly-timed line change. To top it off, when Bains got back into the play, he completely failed to pick up the late man, Brandon Biro, for another Kraken chance.
- To Bains’ credit, he and his linemates were among the Canucks’ better forwards in the second half and he drew both of the penalties that led to Canucks power plays. He’s still got promise; he’s just going through some growing Bains.
- Forbort got victimized again on the second Seattle goal, as Ryan Winterton blew right past him to gain the offensive zone. Then, as Forbort tried to tie up Biro as he went to the net, Brandon Montour’s point shot went off his butt and in. That’s a tough break for the new Canuck; you never want to be the butt of the joke.
- The Kraken made it 3-0 early in the second period on a play that illustrated why Mynio isn’t quite NHL-ready. The 19-year-old got caught puck-watching on a Kraken regroup after Nate Smith failed to get the puck in deep at the red line. Mynio missed seeing Winterton crash the net, so when he couldn’t block the pass from Lleyton “Winding” Roed that led to the backdoor, Winterton had all kinds of time to roof the puck over a sprawling Lankinen.
- It wasn’t the best night for Christian Felton, who had some puck-moving miscues against the Kraken forecheck, but there are flashes of potential in his game. Late in the second period, he calmly held the blueline after Forbort’s shot was blocked, cut across the top of the zone and protected the puck with some nice edgework, then found Brock Boeser cross-ice for one of the Canucks’ better chances. He even held the blueline again when the puck ricocheted wildly around the boards.
- Some Canucks fans argue that Tyler Myers is miscast as a defenceman and should actually be a power forward. The argument doesn’t make a lot of sense, but every now and then Myers does something that makes them look like geniuses. He scored the Canucks’ lone goal by jumping up in the rush, picking up an Elias Pettersson drop pass, and then using his Ralph-Dibnyan reach to tuck the puck in on the wraparound when Joey Daccord went down early.
- “I just held onto the puck and noticed he was hugging that strong post, so I just tried the wraparound,” said Myers. “Luckily, it worked.”
- Honestly, the Canucks were lucky the final score wasn’t worse than 3-1. Even as the Canucks improved in the second half of the game, it was the Kraken who hit two posts in the third period. Tolvanen rang the post with a one-timer after Forbort lost track of him in a scramble, then Montour sent a bomb off the iron on the power play.
- It’s fine, it’s the third game of the preseason. If the Canucks played a game like this in the regular season, it would be perfectly fair to excoriate them for days afterward. As it is, let’s just enjoy the gentle absurdity of a Tyler Myers wraparound goal and call it a day.
