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5-1 Canucks victory over the Flames

The Canucks charged out of the gate in their first game of the year to defeat the team that crushed them in last year's playoffs.

By westy99
Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Good start to the year for the Nucks. They needed to come out with some energy against their main rival and I think the injection of youth was noticeable and contagious.

This is my first game recap and it is a little unorthodox…so bear with me and critique.

Before the game:

I’ve been looking at NM all day…and Twitter. I am so hyped to see game one with all these changes in the offseason. I really hope for good things this year and yet wouldn’t be surprised if they shit the bed. I got home after a long day, showered, put the kid to bed and got my cup of tea. Fuck you! I got work early tomorrow and the time difference kills me.

Pre game: Doug Armstrong rips apart our defense. I feel sad for a second. Fuck you Doug Armstrong. Fitz and the Tantrums brings me back to a happy place. It’s a brand new year with the youth everyone was screaming for last year. I hope Sbisa plays well tonight so I don’t have to wade through a lot of pizza tweets. This intro took longer than some of the games last year.

First Period.

Good start..get Ferland off the ice.


McCann/Hansen/AMFB had the first good shift of the game. Good pressure. Second PP unit actually had chances…weird to see that. You know what else is weird…number 9 coming back on defense. I am not used to seeing that number in the defensive zone. It’s Prust…not Kass…it’s Prust not Kass. Miller handling the puck is almost Luongo like. Prust and Bollig seemed slow motion. I was tired watching them. Sbisa passed out to Miller….poor choice…lots of tweets.

The Sedins tried some magic.

I noticed the Canucks have have had a few guys skate the puck up along the boards and gain the zone and then just dump it into the corner with no help around them. So Jannik Hansen decides to skate down the right side and shoot instead. Good choice….great goal.

The game kind of got into a nice flow…back and forth with no real chances and then out of nowhere….Brandon Sutter scores. I know, that was not supposed to happen. Oh..and then Sbisa took a penalty. Bad Luca.

Of note on that first goal, Ben Hutton got his first NHL point on a great cross ice pass. But he didn’t receive a plus on the play as he left the ice before the goal was scored.

Second Period

The Canucks are able to kill the rest of Sbisa’s penalty. I noticed that one of the next 5vs5 shifts that Sbisa is out there with the 4th line. I wonder if that is one of the reason’s his poor CF%. Defensemen who play with 3rd and 4th line forwards are more than likely to have worse Corsi numbers I would think. Once I typed the last sentence Calgary scored due to Sbisa not getting the puck out along the boards and then Horvat and Sven did a poor job of not picking up their men. Sbisa took the beating on Twitter.

Horvat took a welcoming nudge in the boards from Dougie Hamilton to put the Nucks on the PP. Alex Burrows decided that the PP was ineffective so he took a goalie interference penalty to make things more interesting. Canucks killed that penalty. I think that was the plan….take penalties during PP’s so the PK is less than two minutes and the Nucks can pad their PK stats. Well-played Nucks.

On a shift where the Sedins were on the ice, I saw the value of Sutter (besides his goal scoring). Daniel gave away the puck and the Flames skated out of their zone and they made the Sedins look old, but Sutter was able to catch the puck carrier and get the puck back. The rest of the period was moving along nicely…well except Hamhuis thinking he was Sbisa handing the puck over at the blueline…there I go picking on Luca. The period was clearly in Calgary’s favor but in the last 15 second’s the Canucks scramble in the Flames end and Hamhuis gets the puck and just fires it towards the net…not the boards…the net, and Daniel tips it in. Yeah!

Third Period

The Sedins came out firing, the second line came out firing, hell, and even the fourth line had their own little rush. The Flames were trying to take more chances and the Nucks turned things around on them quickly. Miller made a great save on David Jones, as Jones was able to just walk over the blueline and shoot. And just as quickly the Canucks went back the other way. Burrows received a pass from Jared McCann in the neutral zone and threw it at the net, where it was politely tipped by Wideman into his own net.

Dougie Hamilton had a tough night in his debut. He pulled Jared McCann to give the Canucks another powerplay. Watching the Sedins and Sutter on the PP, it seems that they might have some chemistry. Sutter just needs to remember to keep his stick on the ice. The third had nice flow to it and a little douchebaggery when both teams 4th lines got into a little scrum around Miller after a save.

And with 3:29 left in the third Henrik got rewarded for actually shooting the puck as he snuck one by Ramo on the short side.

Since this is my first recap for NM, I’m picking my own three stars.

3rd star – Chris Tanev

Tanev had an assist on Daniel’s goal, was a +4, led the team’s Corsi numbers, blocked 3 shots and was as solid as a fucking rock.

2nd Star – Ryan Miller

You know how good Miller was tonight? People on twitter actually said he had a good game. He stopped 29 of 30 shots and controlled his rebounds really well.

1st star - Daniel Sedin

A one goal and two assist night. He was so good that he got his bro to shoot and score. Daniel created the most opportunities and had 7 shots of his own.

All the stats are found here for the game. Game highlights found here.

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