Saturday October 10 - Calgary Flames 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2 (OT)
Richard Loney brought the anthem, the kids brought the flash, Daniel Sedin brought the muscle, and Brandon Sutter got victimized for the Vancouver Canucks' first loss in 3-on-3 overtime.
Here are your highlights:
It appears the Toronto Maple Leafs are not content to go along with the trend and settle games in 3-on-3 overtime. They want to go to the shootout so that Canucks fans miss out on the scene-set for the second half of the double-header.
In this case, the Canucks' tribute to late anthem singer Richard Loney didn't appear on the TV broadcast.
I was hoping maybe if they got the win, the Loney video anthem would become an ongoing thing, like how the late Kate Smith is presented in Philly. Probably not going to happen now, though.
As we expected, the Flames came out with a lot more jump after being embarrassed at the Saddledome on Wednesday. I'm not much of a Corsi person, but my eyeball test said that Calgary dominated in the puck possession category for much of the night.
In the first, I thought Calgary spent a good amount of time bearing down on Ryan Miller. Shots were 15-9 in the opening frame. After an even second period, Vancouver was outshot 12-8 in the third as the Flames picked up where they left off last season with a come-from-behind win.
Yannick Weber drew into the game after Alex Edler was a late scratch with the flu—and he was missed. It was Weber and Luca Sbisa who looked helpless on Calgary's opening goal by Dougie Hamilton, which came after Matt Bartkowski took a tripping penalty for hauling down Johnny Gaudreau 4:12 into the first period.
Without Edler, the defense pairs seemed to come out of alignment. Bartkowski and Dan Hamhuis were the duo that got crossed up on Sean Monahan's tying goal in the third period:
Officially, the Miller goal came after a Ryan Miller giveaway, which is what got the puck into the corner in the first place.
Miller played a very good game, but these third-period giveaways are becoming a bit of a trend. He had three in the third during the preseason finale last Saturday against Edmonton, then two on Wednesday in Calgary. Just one last night, but it was a game-changer.
I'm really hopeful that Miller's offseason work and his undisputed No. 1 status will set the stage for an excellent start to his season, but this pattern's a bit worrisome to me. Something to keep an eye on going forward.
But enough of the doom and gloom. Saturday's game definitely served up some positives for Canucks fans.
Let's take another look at Norris Trophy candidate Mark Giordano standing by helplessly as Bo Horvat scores Vancouver's first goal of the night on a confident power move at the edge of the crease:
Now, let's admire Jared McCann's snipe of a wrist shot for his first career goal in the NHL:
McCann seems like a pretty serious kid, which made me enjoy his celebration that much more. Looked like it was straight out of NHL 16!
Finally, Daniel Sedin gets the upper hand on Brandon Bollig in this round of their ongoing war.
He put the Canucks on the power play when took Bollig and Deryk Engelland to the penalty box after a scrum late in the second period.
Also, check out Daniel's can-opener on Bollig on this faceoff:
We saw a little bit of this from Daniel last year. Remember his battle with P.K. Subban? I love the idea that the Sedins might be entering the "take no guff from anybody" phase of their careers.
So—after watching the Canucks take three of four points from arguably their biggest current rival to start the season, how are you feeling about 2015-16 so far?
picture polls
The Canucks are practicing at Rogers Arena at 11 a.m. today before flying to SoCal.
They'll face the Anaheim Ducks, who opened their season with a 2-0 loss to San Jose, on Monday, then visit the 0-2 Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.
Hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving feasts today and tomorrow!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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