Canucks Game Recap: Troy Stecher? Troy Stecher!

Coming home after losing back to back games AND a few players to the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, the Canucks must have been looking forward to the next three games at home where they’ve been 4-0 to start the season.

With Chris Tanev being one of the teams losses in the California Crunch (patent pending), fans were back on the Troy Stecher bandwagon after hearing he was called up from the Utica Comets along with Right Winger Jayson Megna.

While Megna was shuffled between the third and fourth lines, Troy Stecher had the second highest time on ice for Canucks (22:35) on the top pairing with preseason line mate Alex Edler (22:37). He looked confident in his first NHL game, made some great passing plays in both ends of the ice and didn’t hesitate to lead a few rushes in the offensive zone.

It’s interesting to see how young our blueline has become. Our top 4 of Troy Stecher (22), Ben Hutton (23), Erik Gudbranson (24) , only has one player over 25 (Alex Edler, 30). I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Erik Gudbranson is only a year older than Ben Hutton.

With all the hype going into this game, the Vancouver Canucks couldn’t rise to the occasion. The recent line juggling of Guy Boucher and the Ottawa Senators paid dividends and Ryan Dzingel seems to be securing his spot on the second line with Derrick Brassard and Bobby Ryan after a two goal night. For the first time this season, the Vancouver Canucks were shut out by the Ottawa Senators in a 3-0 loss (their first at home this season).

First Period

The Vancouver Canucks Canucks are still struggling to find a way to score in the first period. The only goal scored in the opening frame was from Bo Horvat’s goal against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

Luca Sbisa took a number of steps backward today after surprisingly solid start to the season. Channeling the Sbisa we’ve known and “loved” in the past, he made a number of questionable plays in the defensive end and served up a couple deep dish pizzas to a team desperate for a turnaround on offence.

The Ottawa Senators seized their opportunity when the Canucks made a bad line change, and attacked with an odd man rush on the open side of the ice. Ryan Dzingel put Ottawa on the board with a goal off the rebound after Derrick Brassard got a shot past Alex Edler.

We were also treated to this dazzling display of speed and skill from future captain Bo Horvat.

Troy Stecher ended the period with 7:58 in ice time. He showed off his offensive capabilities and looked very comfortable in his debut.

Second Period

The Vancouver Canucks came out swinging in the middle frame. Both the first and second lines got a lot of good chances on net and were keeping the Senators on their heels. However, Loui Eriksson still seems to be struggling to find chemistry with the team. He still seems to have issues knowing where his line mates will be and had trouble passing the puck at times. I’m still hopeful that he’s simply adapting to a new system after the World Cup limited his training camp and pre-season on a new team.

Vancouver worked hard in the middle period to stay in the game but still couldn’t find a way to get the puck past Craig Anderson.

But all was not lost! Troy Stecher gave fans something to talk about after ending the second period leading his team in ice time.

Third Period

Ryan Miller seemed looked to start the third period on a strong footing after a nice save against a wide open Mike Hoffman to start the period. However, only a few minutes later Ryan Dzingel grabbed his second goal of the night (4th this season) after Luca Sbisa decided to turn his back on the guy he was supposed to be covering.

Troy Stecher played very well in the third period, making a lot of nice passes and joining the rush with ease. At one point, he decided to simply BE the rush.

The Canucks really turned up the intensity near the end of the game and had couple of solid scoring chances to show for it. The only problem was they still couldn’t to find the back of the net.

Hoping to generate a chance, Willie Desjardins pulled Ryan Miller with two minute left. While Vancouver had a few chances with the extra man, they never had a chance to set up a prolonged attack once Jean-Gabriel Pageau potted the empty netter to secure the 3-0 lead.

Despite the loss, Troy Stecher brought a new level of energy to our blueline and plenty of hope for the future. Here he is speaking with the media following his NHL debut.