Tuesday October 13 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Los Angeles Kings 0
If the first week of the season is any indication, Canucks fans are in for a very fun year of hockey. Vancouver returns from its first California road trip of the season with a 3-0-1 record—in first place in the Western Conference and second overall in the league.
Here are the highlights from Tuesday's 3-0 shutout win over the Los Angeles Kings:
The Canucks' 17 blocked shots on Tuesday night exceeded the 15 pucks that were saved by Ryan Miller for his first goose-egg of the new season. That's a nice way to neutralize a disheartened Kings team that may or may not be playing to get the coach fired here in the early going.
I guess we need to get used to Brandon Prust's first-period fights. Prust leads the league with three fighting majors and 25 penalty minutes—and the only game where he didn't fight was last Saturday's overtime loss to Calgary.
It should be mentioned, though—Prust's tilt on Monday doesn't look like it was his idea. We don't see the fight start in the live video but when they show the replay, it seems pretty clear that Andy Andreoff is the player who's issuing the invitation.
Prust is featured in a chapter of Bob McKenzie's excellent book, Hockey Confidential, which is well worth reading. When asked if he has concerns about the post-hockey issues that affect fighters, Prust says his strategy when he fights is to avoid being hit in the head.
When I first read that remark, I thought he was trying to rationalize how he earns a living but after watching his first three fights as a Canuck, I can see it. His fights may not be the long-armed haymaker-fests of old, but they do seem to be having a positive impact on the team.
Prust's ice time has increased with every game he has played, reaching a season high of 14:26 last night. By the end of the first period, he had moved up in the depth chart, playing most of the game on the second line with Bo Horvat and Radim Vrbata, but his assist on Adam Cracknell's game-opening goal came on a shift after a power play, when he was reunited with Cracknell and Jannik Hansen.
By the way, that assist also extends Prust's point streak to three straight games, tying him for second place in team scoring with Daniel Sedin and Alex Burrows. The guy can do it all!
Prust's partner in crime, Derek Dorsett, is second overall on the NHL's penalty list with 17 minutes. He picked up his first point of the season last night on an empty netter after an unselfish feed from Jannik Hansen.
The Canucks do lead the NHL with 64 penalty minutes through four games, but rank third in penalty minutes per game behind two teams that have played less: L.A. and Calgary.
As for rookie Jake Virtanen—yes, he subbed in for Jared McCann on Monday night. I have no problem with the two swapping out for each other, since the nine-game meter only runs when the junior-eligible players are actually in the lineup.
I'm more than happy to see McCann take a game off to recharge his batteries after a strong showing in his first three games. Also, I think using just one rookie forward at a time gives Willie the best opportunity to keep those players in largely positive situations that work for them.
Virtanen didn't play much in the second half of the game, but his 9:18 of ice time wasn't the lowest on the team. That honour goes to Sven Baertschi, who played just 9:09 and didn't see the ice once in the third period.
The Canucks had to kill three penalties in third period, all while defending a relatively tight 2-0 lead, so I can understand Willie's logic in leaning on dependable defensive players like Jannik Hansen, Alex Burrows, Brandon Sutter, Brandon Prust and Bo Horvat.
Virtanen did get one shift in the third—the last one of the game, after Dorsett's empty-netter sealed the outcome.
Jake put the emphasis on keeping it simple in his postgame comments. And trying to act cool, like he's been here before. He's not showing any of that Ben Hutton-like exuberance:
Nice to see his face is almost back to normal after that crazy preseason goal.
I hadn't realized that Virtanen can play left wing as well as the right side. That's good to know—it could open up some options for him. On Tuesday, he played on a third line with Brandon Sutter and Derek Dorsett, finishing the night with a shot, a block and three hits. Virtanen also drew Matt Greene into a penalty just after the Canucks made the score 1-0 in the second period.
He got into the game early with a hit on Tanner Pearson and also laid the body on Drew Doughty near the end of the first period.
After a job well done in Cali, the Canucks will enjoy a day off in the Vancouver sunshine on Wednesday before getting back on ice to prepare to host the St. Louis Blues on Friday night at Rogers Arena.
To wrap things up today—as a DJ, I wholeheartedly endorse this announcement:
I was listening to Green Day's "Holiday" while I was out for my run on the weekend, musing on what a great goal song it was, but how Green Day's now completely out of fashion.
The idea of letting each player have his own custom goal song is genius—it's like players' walk-up songs in baseball, adds some variety to the mix and dials into the personality of the players a little bit.
The new songs will be debuting on Friday night. Hope they score lots so we can hear 'em!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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