I Watched This Preseason Game: Nils Höglander shines as Canucks ground the Jets

For the first time in nearly 19 months, there were fans back in Rogers Arena for a Vancouver Canucks game. 

Sure, it was at only 50% capacity and there were no ticket sales, with all seats going to season ticket holders, but there were real fans. No cardboard cutouts, no piped-in fake crowd noise, no awkward silence — just real crowd noise, with all its natural ebbs and flows.

It seemed like the fans had even forgotten what to do at times. When Al Murdoch announced the Canucks’ third goal, it was followed by the now-customary “Woo!” but only a scattered few responded with a “Woo!” of their own. But then those “Woo”s were echoed by more and more fans until it seemed like the whole crowd was “Woo”ing their hearts out in cacophonous celebration.

It made a difference to the players too.

“You guys actually have no idea how much better it is, honest to god,” said Bo Horvat. “It brings more life to the building, it brings more life to the team, me especially — I love playing in front of people and I think it brings the best out in me.”

“It's just a relief to have people back in the stands,” he added.

Will Lockwood couldn’t agree more, as he brought the crowd alive with several big hits. He had five hits during the game and was happy to get a reaction.

“Absolutely. That’s something I’ve missed for a while now,” said Lockwood. “Last year, I played that game all year and didn't really get the crowd noise behind it. t was nice to get a hit there — I think it was my first or second shift — and hear the crowd get on their feet and get excited.”

The Canucks responded to the support with a strong game that was far more dominant than the 3-2 score would suggest. Shots on goal were 33-18 for the Canucks and they crushed the puck possession battle at even strength, with shot attempts 43-22 for the Canucks at 5-on-5.

“A much better game than last game all the way around,” said head coach Travis Green. “Passed the puck better, skated harder, it was a good hockey game, I liked our game tonight.”

Like the fans in the arena, I watched this game.

• Nils Höglander, back with last season’s linemates Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson, had an outstanding game. He played with an incredible amount of energy, creating havoc on the forecheck and driving to the inside of the ice at every opportunity. He was instrumental in two of the Canucks’ three goals, drew a penalty, and was a monster in puck possession — the Canucks out-attempted the Jets 16-to-3 when Höglander was on the ice at 5-on-5. The Jets had no answer for the pint-sized powerhouse.
   
• “Nils is fun to play with,” said Horvat. “He's got lots of speed, works hard in the corners, and comes up with a lot of pucks, so it’s fun to play with him.”
   
• Höglander didn’t get an assist on the opening goal but his speed played a key role. Kyle “The Other” Burroughs sent a puck the length of the ice that should’ve been an icing, but Höglander got on his hörse and was going to beat Logan Stanley to the puck. That forced goaltender Mikhail Berdin to come out and play the puck. Like that damn smile on 13 Reasons Why, that’s where the trouble began.
   
• As Berdin played the puck, Pearson shouted out, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!” which is the universal hockey language for, “Give me the puck, please.” Berdin obliged, blindly backhanding the puck to Pearson on the boards. Pearson threw the puck in front to Horvat, whose shot squeaked through Berdin and trickled over the line.
   
• One way you know Canucks hockey is back: they took a truly terrible too-many-men penalty, with six players not just on the ice, but actively playing in the offensive zone. Feels like home. 
   
• Conor Garland, on the third line with Phil Di Giuseppe and Justin Dowling, gave some checking line energy in this one, getting under the skin of his opponents with his chippy play. The highlight of his game was a stiff check on the 6’4” Jonathan Kovacevic, sitting the much larger Jet flat on his keister. 

• Vasily Podkolzin’s quiet preseason continued in this game, as he still looks uncertain of himself. He’s shown flashes of NHL-caliber play and the tools are clearly all there — what seems to be lacking is confidence and a full knowledge of how to play the Canucks’ system. The two could be connected. He still has some runway left in the preseason but there’s an argument to be made that starting in the AHL might do him some good.
   
• “We played him again in a different role tonight than I had in the past to see how it looked,” said Green of Podkolzin, “and we'll continue to play him down the stretch here until we have to make a decision. But he's been all right.”
   
• Jack Rathbone was a standout early in the preseason, but this was a much rougher game for him. He still did a lot of good things — some nice plays defensively and a fantastic shot for a tip on the power play that Höglander nearly directed in — but the puck kept hopping off his stick and he had some ugly giveaways. The good still outweighs the bad with Rathbone but it’s a good reminder that he’s still a rookie and he will make rookie mistakes.

• At the other end of experience on the blue line is Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who had a very strong game, particularly on the power play, where he rang a shot off the post. There were a couple shaky moments defensively with Tucker Poolman, but that may just be a lack of familiarity with each other as defence partners than anything else and, overall, they transitioned the puck up ice very well.
   
• An interesting battle has developed with Travis Hamonic’s status still up in the air: spare defenceman on the right side. Kyle Burroughs and Madison Bowey both had decent games and could be up for the role, with both getting time on the penalty kill.
   
• Bowey also picked up a primary assist. At 4-on-4, he aggressively moved down low in the offensive zone. J.T. Miller, who was covering for Bowey at the point, found him with a nifty saucer pass. Bowey spotted Nic Petan in the middle and set up him for a quick shot that beat Berdin.  
   
• Petan got some penalty killing time, as the Canucks seemed to test the waters on what kind of role he could play. With Brandon Sutter still out and no word on when he might return, that opens up the fourth-line centre role and Petan could battle with Justin Dowling and Matthew Highmore for that spot, which comes with penalty killing duty.
   
• The Horvat line connected again for the third goal. Höglander again got in quickly on the forecheck, forcing a turnover to Horvat, who drove to the net. Horvat tried a buttonhook pass back to Höglander but, when it didn’t work, Höglander still forced the puck out front and it bounced to Tanner Pearson for the finish. 
   
• The Jets got one more goal to make it 3-2 — a bullet top corner off a faceoff win — but Mikey DiPietro stoned them the rest of the way, making 7 saves on 8 shots after coming in for Jaroslav Halak in the third period. DiPietro made difficult saves look easy and seemed very calm, composed, and ready to play NHL minutes.  

• Finally, from what the players were saying on the ice, it seems Brad Hunt’s nickname is “Hunty.” That may seem very bland, as player-given nicknames so often are, but it’s secretly hilarious if you’re at all familiar with the drag scene, where “hunty” is a term of endearment.