Friday October 30 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Arizona Coyotes 3
The Vancouver Canucks started hot, then hung on for dear life to defeat the Arizona Coyotes and move into first place in the Pacific Division on Friday night in Glendale.
Here are your highlights:
Lots of good stuff for Canucks fans to like in this game:
• For the second time this week, Jared McCann opened the scoring with an early goal.
McCann's five goals tie him for the rookie goal-scoring lead with four other players: Connor McDavid, Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Oscar Lindberg of the New York Rangers. He has played nine games while the others have all played 11, and he also gets the lowest ice time of the bunch.
It's sounding like we may not even get an official announcement that McCann's staying with the Canucks for the season. He's part of the fabric now—and could start seeing some increased responsibility going forward:
WD all of a sudden saying it's a possibility to have McCann and maybe even Baertschi on the PP soon.
When asked if it was good to score in his ninth game, the steely McCann simply replied, "Yeah, it is. It leaves no doubts."
Guess that's settled, then.
So far this season, eight of the Canucks' 11 games have been decided by a one-goal margin. In my mind, the team simply can't afford to lose McCann's production—which is even more impressive given that he's doing it from a bottom-six spot.
As much as I have been gunning for him to stick with the team, it's very fair to say that he has exceeded my expectations so far. It's hard to believe that his health was a question mark going into the Young Stars tournament after he took that hard hit at the Team Canada Summer Summit: that gives me some confidence that, even with his not-quite-filled-out frame, he can withstand the rough going of the NHL grind.
• Twenty-one-year-old rookie Brendan Gaunce picked up his first NHL goal in just his second game, making the score 3-0 by the midway mark of the first period, driving to the net and deflecting a Chris Tanev shot off his skate.
Gaunce is cucumber-cool in his postgame scrum. He has already mastered the art of acting like he has been here before.
"It counted, that's all that matters"
Watch as Brendan Gaunce discusses his first career NHL goal vs Arizona.
https://t.co/IXoRnE9Qi5
After an active Twitter game on Thursday during during the Dallas game, Prust's feed was eerily silent on Friday. I'm hoping we'll get more Prust's-eye-view going forward during his rehab.
• Third-string goaltender Richard Bachman got the win in his first start as a Canuck, stopping 28 of 31 Coyotes shots. At just 5'10", the 28-year-old looks unusual in net compared to today's goaltending giants but he got the job done on Friday, only showing the pressure after the Coyotes pulled within one goal with 2:21 remaining in the third.
The Canucks had some good luck with another undersized "Richard B." back in the day. King Richard Brodeur guided the Canucks to their first Stanley Cup Final in 1982: he's listed at just 5'7" on HockeyDB.
• The Canucks wrap up the first month of the NHL season with a 5-2-4 record—good for first place in the Pacific Division (even if it would put them fifth in the rock-solid Central).
When all the doomsayers were projecting the Canucks to hang near the bottom of the league this season, I held out hope that Wille & Company would be able to manufacture another 101-point season out of thin air like they did last season.
The third-period collapses and lack of finish in 3-on-3 have been worrisome, but it's heartening that the team has picked up points in nine of its first 11 games—and both the outright losses, to St. Louis and Washington, were by just a single goal.
Picking up three of four points on this quick road trip makes the month's results look far more palatable.
The Canucks will spend most of November on the road—which I guess is now a good thing, given how their record is trending. They're off this weekend before hosting the Flyers and Penguins next week, then hit the road for seven games in 12 nights out East.
That'll be a great experience for the kids—their first big road trip touches down in New Jersey, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal, to pick the highlights. The ACC visit will be a big night for Ontario natives McCann, Gaunce and Ben Hutton.
• With all the emphasis on the new faces, a shout-out to a couple of the vets, who have been doing some good things:
Radim Vrbata is settling nicely back into his role with the twins. Their line generated 10 of the Canucks' 22 shots for the game, with Vrbata registering a team-leading seven of them. Since bumping his offensive slump, Vrbata has three goals and two assists in Vancouver's last five games.
Luca Sbisa was awarded the game's first-star honours on the strength of his two-assist outing. With four points in 11 games, Sbisa's already more than a third of the way to surpassing his 11-point output from last season.
The fancy-statters continue to point out that Sbisa's possession numbers aren't great. I'm heartened by the fact that the facepalm mistakes have gone way down—I see progress.
Sbisa took so much heat last year; I'm rooting for him to rise above that negativity and prove the doubters wrong.
To wrap up today—a good game down on the farm on Friday, too. The Utica Comets torched highly-touted college goaltender Matt O'Connor for six goals on their way to a 7-5 win over the Binghamton Senators. Hunter Shinkaruk and Blair Jones led the way with two goals each, and were supported by defensemen Jordan Subban (his first AHL goal), Andrey Pedan and Taylor Fedun.
Shinkaruk's now leading the Comets in scoring with six goals and seven points—demanding some attention of his own from the Canucks' brass. Good stuff!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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