The Canucks opened their season last night against the Calgary Flames, and put on a 20 minute clinic before closing up shop and heading home for the final 40. Leads of 3-0 and 4-1 were undone by some sloppy hockey and poor work in the D zone en route to a 6-5 OT loss. It’s the first game of the season, so try not to read too much into it as the team gets their feet under them.

“I’m not going to over-react to the first game,” Rick Tocchet said. And he shouldn’t. The Canucks didn't play well, and the players and the coach know that.

“There were probably enough guys who owned up to it and there’s not much for me to rip on those guys,” Tocchet said after the collapse. “They know what happened tonight. Calgary wanted it more and played faster than us and it kind of snowballed with our management of the puck.”

“We made it easy on them and they took advantage of their looks,” said alternate captain J.T. Miller.

“We didn’t win any battles and just played loose, like summer hockey. This is good for us. At the end of the day it’s Game 1 and we have to turn the page. But we have to learn and turn up the intensity.

“That was a team over there that wanted to win more than we did today and outplayed us. There’s no adjustment for will and compete. That should be there no matter what. That should never change.”

The Canucks pushed the pace in preseason and in camp this year, focusing on their rush attack and transition game. Tocc feels that maybe he concentrated on that a little too much?

“We were heavy in camp with a lot of transitional stuff and we got away from our identity,” added Tocchet. “We have to be careful here because we’re a good team without the puck.

“We didn’t protect the guts of the ice. I have to take a little of the blame because I was heavy on transition. We did D-zone drills, but not as much as last year. Players know. They need to be in certain spots. We’ll sharpen up. Our D was getting stripped of the puck.”

Lots of time to right the ship here. And there were definite positives to take away from the game.

The Canucks looked fast (for the first anyways). Miller was a beast with his Gordie Howe hattie, dragging this team again into the fight. Boeser continued his goal scoring ways from last season, picking up two on the night. Sprong scored a powerplay marker in his first game – an instant boost to the second unit. Raty was solid, winning 5 of 6 in the dot.

On the whole, it was a weird game… perfect fit for an opening night game. The Canucks have lots to work on, obviously, and the goalie situation is something to keep an eye on as the book seems to be being written about Silovs (shots from the point with traffic). The Canucks just got lazy and let up.

“That’s just an example of taking your foot off the gas pedal,” new Canuck Jake DeBrusk said. “We just let off and we let a team kind of claw their way back in. You know, give them credit, they were working for every chance they got. That's what you get in this league if you're not prepared to put a full 60 (minutes) in.”

“J.T.'s shot at the end made it nice to get a point,” DeBrusk continued. “But in saying that, I don't think we deserved one after the last 40 minutes. I think it's a good little wake-up call for us. Obviously, no disrespect to Calgary; they played a hard game. But we didn't match them at all.

“We know what team we need to be. Like you said, there's reactions to first games, but. . . that game should have been over nine times out of 10. It’s a learning lesson right away.”


The boys have a chance to turn the page with the Flyers in town on Friday night.

Until then, comments comments comments:


Quotes from the Province and Sportsnet.

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