Wednesday October 8: Vancouver Canucks 4 at Calgary Flames 2
After losing their last five season-openers, the Vancouver Canucks kicked off the Willie Desjardins era with a 4-2 win over Calgary on Wednesday at the Saddledome. Here are your highlights:
It's just one game, but it certainly feels like the dark cloud over the team is lifting.
The first sign came midway through the first period, when the Canucks opened the scoring just eight seconds into their first power play of the year. Instead of suffering a broken foot in the first game, Alex Burrows scored his first goal—something that didn't happen until March last year.
It's also worth noting that he did it by tipping a Dan Hamhuis shot from the blue line. Hamhuis averaged 1:50 of power-play time per game last season, but managed just three assists all year with the man advantage. This is another very good sign.
Instead of sitting out with a suspension like he did last year, Zack Kassian also got his season off to a good start with a heads-up marker in the second period. He finished the game with a solid 12:27 of ice time and was a plus-one.
Then—we saw two uncertain calls both go the Canucks' way. Radim Vrbata managed to keep the shaft of his stick below the crossbar when he displayed outstanding hand-eye coordination in tapping home a Henrik Sedin shot. Later, the twins managed to get a too-many-men call reversed by referee Tim Peel, who was in the spotlight all night thanks to his shiny new Ref Cam.
Apparently we should have expected Vrbata's goal to count. Elias Sports Bureau
reports that Vrbata has now scored 13 goals in opening-day games through his career, the most of any active player. He's two ahead of Jaromir Jagr. Furthermore, "Vrbata, who has scored more opening day goals than Wayne Gretzky did in his NHL career (nine), has scored six goals over his last three season openers."
I was super-skeptical of the Vrbata signing back in July, but so far he has delivered exactly as advertised. Colour me impressed so far.
The Canucks' night was capped off with an empty-net goal by Henrik Sedin that has the national press gushing with superlatives, despite the fact that it was scored well past their bedtimes.
Since when does Henrik collect these sorts of accolades?
For the moment, the Canucks are second overall in the NHL (but still second in the Pacific, behind the San Jose Sharks), while Henrik, Chris Tanev and Brad Richardson are tied for the league lead with two points apiece.
The only dark cloud on Wednesday was Alex Edler, who was the goat on both Calgary goals and looks determined to get an early start on that league-worst plus/minus ranking again.
But even this has a strange silver lining. Take it away, Blake Price:
Willie must have seen something he liked from Edler, who led all Canucks skaters with 22:24 of ice time. Will Edler's 2014-15 season be defined by the good things that he does most of the time or the egregiously bad things he does that lead directly to goals?
Despite the uncertainty surrounding his shoulder injury, Kevin Bieksa did draw into the lineup and played just over 20 minutes, mostly with Ryan Stanton at five-on-five. The pair had a solid night, both finishing plus-two.
Sean Monahan also ended up playing for Calgary and picked up an assist on the Flames' second goal.
It's not time to plan the parade route just yet, but it was a good start for Willie Desjardins and the new-look Canucks. I'll wait for another day to fuss about the fact that we're getting killed in the face-off circle.
The Rogers Era Begins
On balance, I thought the Rogers team did a pretty good job of marking their national broadcast debut with some flash. I'll still mute the talking heads in the studio between periods, just as I've always done, but the production looked terrific and innovations like the Ref Cam provided a new perspective and got people talking.
I also signed up for GameCentre Live last night at the early-bird price of $179.99 plus tax, which is available until October 13. The site was down for awhile during the early game, so I suspect they did some pretty good business.
I've always enjoyed watching out-of-market games but here's the great thing that's changed this year: it looks like there are no blackouts. So, I'll be able to stream Canucks games and other televised games on my computer or my phone, which wasn't possible in the past. The stream runs about a minute behind the TV broadcast, but the picture quality is fantastic. For me, it will be well worth the investment.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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