One of the things we repeatedly heard when the Vancouver Canucks signed Jake DeBrusk this offseason is that he’s a streaky scorer. He’ll be invisible for long stretches but then suddenly erupt.
His history backs that up, as he tends to pile up his goals in bunches: 7 goals in 5 games here, 6 goals in 5 games there, with a few 4 and 5-game point streak oases scattered amongst the droughts.
So, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that when it took DeBrusk ten games to score his first goal of the season, it turned immediately into a 3-game goalscoring streak and a 5-game point streak. Some players are like that: when their timing is off, nothing goes in the net, but when things are clicking, they can’t be stopped.
DeBrusk can’t be stopped right now.
It’s been an outstanding road trip for DeBrusk. He kicked it off with 2 goals and 3 points against the Ottawa Senators, then added goals against the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres. On Sunday afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings, he had his best game yet: a 4-point game with a hat trick, with his third goal the game-winner in overtime.
That’s 7 goals and 9 points in his last 5 games. That’s one heck of a hot streak.
Did he have any inkling that a hat trick might be lurking within his reach? Was he feeling good coming into the game?
“No, not really,” said DeBrusk with a grin. “Honestly, it was another afternoon game when we just played one. I didn’t really feel that different. Obviously, when you get two goals that quick with time left, you always think about getting that third. Over my career, it’s been pretty elusive, so it was nice to do it in overtime.”
The challenge for DeBrusk, now, is maintaining that level of play. He’s not going to keep scoring at a 1.4 goals-per-game pace but he has a strong chance of breaking his career highs in goals (27) and points (50) if he can keep any sort of consistency over the rest of the season.
Right now, as he leads the team in goalscoring with 10 goals, he’s on pace for 35 goals and 68 points. That would be a fantastic first season in Vancouver.
If he can do that, maybe he’ll shake the “streaky” label and earn a new one: just plain “good.”
I just plain watched this game.
- The Canucks were thankin’ Lankinen early, as the goaltender came up with some huge stops in the first period, particularly on the Red Wings’ power play. The Red Wings out-shot the Canucks 11-to-6 in the first period but Lankinen stopped 10 of those 11 shots and kept things from getting out of hand while the Canucks got their legs under them. Why their legs were above them to start the game, I do not know.
- Despite Lankinen’s best efforts, the Red Wings eventually got a bounce to open the scoring. The Canucks’ fourth line and third pairing couldn’t escape the defensive zone, leading to an Erik Gustafsson shot ricocheting off Vincent Desharnais’ skate to Jonatan Berggren on the opposite side of the ice. Lankinen lunged across but Berggren’s shot beat him to make it 1-0.
- “We’re a scrappy team. We might not be pretty some nights but we don’t give up,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “Obviously, we didn’t like our first. I thought our first wasn’t that good but I love the response. Sometimes things don’t go your way but the game’s not over. We played good hockey the last 40 minutes. We just keep marching along.”
- After Conor Garland drew a hooking penalty late in the first period, Elias Pettersson did his dekes driving into the offensive zone on the power play to draw a second penalty to give the Canucks a 5-on-3. Justin Holl protested the call but it turned out the referees were not, in fact, kidding him.
- The 5-on-3 proved to be a crucial turning point as the Canucks took advantage of the Red Wings’ league-worst penalty kill with two quick goals to start the second period. They kept it simple with the two-man advantage: Quinn Hughes sent the puck to Elias Pettersson and he found Jake DeBrusk on the doorstep for the tip.
- The secondary assist for Hughes broke Edler’s franchise record for the most assists by a Canucks defenceman, beating the record in 537 fewer games than Edler played for the Canucks. I still don’t think any of us fully appreciate just how incredible Hughes really is.
- “Did he steal my hat trick puck, is that what I’m hearing?” joked DeBrusk when he found out Hughes had set a franchise record. “Honestly, that one can be his.” Don’t worry, DeBrusk, he broke the record with his first assist of the night, not his third assist of the game in overtime on your hat trick goal. You both can have a puck.
- The Canucks struck again at 5-on-4. Pettersson again tried to deke through the defence but this time had the puck poked away. Brock Boeser got a piece of the clearing attempt, however, and it was picked off by Hughes. Cam Talbot stopped the initial shot by Hughes but he spilled out a rebound. DeBrusk pulled the puck to his forehand and tucked it in with a bedtime story to make it 2-1.
- Nils Höglander’s struggles continued as he took a penalty 200 feet from his own net to give the Red Wings another power play. Just as his penalty ended, Danton Heinen completely whiffed on a clearing attempt and the Red Wings pounced: Lukas Raymond’s centring pass tipped off Dylan Larkin to Alex DeBrincat, who hammered in the tying goal.
- Strangely, the Red Wings pulled their own goaltender after DeBrincat’s goal, as Cam Talbot left the game with a lower-body injury, replaced by Ville Husso. That’s tough news for the Red Wings, as they’re already down a goaltender, with Alex Lyon out with a lower-body injury of his own.
- The Canucks were without the services of Conor Garland for half the second period after he took a puck to the left ear and needed to go in for repair like Raine Maida. He returned for the third period with some stitches and a bloodstained jersey.
- After a rough performance against the Buffalo Sabres, Erik Brännström bounced back against the Red Wings. It wasn’t just his offensive contributions but his defensive game, as he broke up a couple of odd-man rushes. His best was a sprawling pokecheck with five minutes remaining in the second period to end a 2-on-1 and spring a rush the other way. Kevin Bieksa would’ve been proud.
- Shot attempts were 18-to-8 for the Canucks when Brännström was on the ice at 5-on-5, shots on goal were 8-to-3, and goals were 2-to-1, with the one goal against being the unlucky bounce in the first period.
- Pius Suter can’t stop scoring. Dakota Joshua jostled a puck free in a battle along the boards and Suter poked the puck past the pinching defenceman for a 2-on-1. With Holl taking away the pass to Kiefer Sherwood, Suter took the shot like Eve Moneypenny, only he didn’t miss: he snapped the puck past Husso’s blocker and just inside the far post.
- Apparently, DeBrusk completely missed Suter’s go-ahead goal. In his second intermission interview with Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy, he talked about how it was “a tie game going into the third.” Murph had to tell him they were up one, to which DeBrusk said, “Oh!” with genuine surprise, then laughed and said, “That’s the mentality” — treat it like it’s a tie game.
- He’s just a silly little guy.
- Unfortunately, it soon was a tie game, as Elias Pettersson got sent to the sin bin for hooking and the Red Wings struck on the power play. Raymond’s shot rebounded to Michael Rasmussen on top of the crease, where Tyler Myers was taking neither his stick nor the body. I would like to remind Myers that he is 6’8” and 229 lbs.
- Oddly, the Canucks challenged the goal for goaltender interference, a gambit with a low chance of success. Rasmussen bumped Lankinen a little but he was able to recover to make a save before Rasmussen scored. Unsurprisingly, the goal stood and the Red Wings got another power play for delay of game, which stalled their momentum for a good chunk of the third period.
- While the Red Wings didn’t score on that power play, Noah Juulsen might have preferred that the Canucks didn’t challenge the goal. He picked up a few new bruises, as he blocked three shots in a 13-second span: one off his back, one off his stick, and one off the family Juuls.
- The Red Wings then took the lead with a goal off the rush. There are a few of fingers to point — Brock Boeser got caught flat-footed in the neutral zone and Vincent Desharnais was in a poor position to defend the odd-man rush — but the finger that Tocchet is likely to point is at Nils Höglander, who stopped skating on the backcheck. If he had kept his feet moving, he could have been on Berggren to prevent him from setting up Vladimir Tarasenko cross-ice, who beat an in-motion Lankinen to make it 4-3.
- Brännström came up big in the final minutes to tie the game for the Canucks. DeBrusk sent a hard pass to Pettersson at the side of the net but he couldn’t get a shot off. Before anyone could lament him failing to get a shot, Petterson sent a beautiful backhand saucer pass to Brännström at the top of the left faceoff circle and he blasted a one-timer past Husso to send the game into overtime.
- With Suter and DeBrusk both at nine goals heading into overtime, it was a battle to see who would take sole possession of the goalscoring lead. Suter had the early opportunity when Hughes sent him in on a breakaway but his backhand deke couldn’t beat Husso through the five-hole. Remember, Pius, your name rhymes with “shooter,” not “deker.” Always shoot.
- DeBrusk completed the hat trick after Hughes sent Pettersson into the Red Wings’ zone down the right side. Pettersson cut into the middle and dropped the puck to the overlapping DeBrusk, who wristed a picture-perfect shot off the post and in. Like a properly prepared Corona, DeBrusk’s shot was sublime.
- The overtime victory gave Lankinen ten straight wins on the road to start the season, which is an esoteric NHL record that I’m sure everyone will forget about in a week or so until some random goaltender in the future has a similar hot streak. Don’t get me wrong, it’s neat, but it’s trivia rather than a real record that actually matters. I mean, as much as any of this really matters, but let’s not slip into nihilism.
- Actually, I’ve done an about-face on this one. None of this hockey stuff really matters, so why not celebrate every weird little achievement that comes along? Heck yeah, Lankinen, you rule! Find the joy in it, why not? Heck, take this into your everyday life. Did you make yourself a real breakfast every day this week instead of grabbing a Nutri-Grain bar to eat in the car on your way to work? That’s probably a franchise record of some sort. Celebrate it with a chocolate bar or a bag of Skittles. Go on, you deserve it!
