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Vancouver Canucks start preseason with win over Kings, host Vegas Sunday |
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Saturday September 16 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Los Angeles Kings 3 (OT)
Brock Boeser once again showed off his spectacular shot when his overtime goal gave the Vancouver Canucks a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings as the 2017 NHL preseason kicked off on Saturday at Staples Center.
Because Boeser wouldn't need to clear waivers to be sent to Utica, it's possible that he could start the season in the AHL with the Utica Comets. The 20-year-old showed off his hockey smarts during last weekend's Young Stars tournament but didn't get on the scoreboard.
On Saturday, he saved the best for last with an impressive end-to-end rush during 3-on-3 overtime, capped off by a sneaky snipe through the legs of 25-year-old Swedish defense prospect Oscar Fantenberg.
Boeser led all Canucks with six shot attempts and also earned an assist on Sven Baertschi's third-period game-tying goal. Add in three hits and a plus-two ranking, and it's safe to say he did everything he could to give himself a chance to stick with the big club on opening night.
Boeser is among the group of mostly-young forwards that will hit the ice at Rogers Arena today:
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are some of the other players that showed well on Saturday:
• Jake Virtanen - led the team with five hits and scored in the second period.
With all the penalties through the first 40 minutes, Virtanen played only 5:46 through two periods—lowest on the team. But he made an impact on practically every shift, leading Travis Green to reward him with 4:55 in the third period and a slot on Bo Horvat's wing as 3-on-3 overtime began.
• Alex Biega set up Virtanen's goal with a nice play at the blue line, and reminded us not to forget about him. The savvy veteran spent the entire season with the Canucks last year after having been Travis Green's captain in Utica the year before.
• Jacob Markstrom was excellent. He had an easy start as the Canucks dominated possession early on, but Markstrom looked confident, moved well and kept rebounds to a minimum as he stopped all 19 shots he faced before ceding the net to Anders Nilsson for the second half of the game.
• Markus Granlund looks like he is fully recovered from his wrist surgery. He opened the scoring with a nice tip on the power play, 8:25 into the first period.
Granlund's now 24 and heading into a contract year. He'll make just $900,000 and will be an RFA at the end of the season, but he will have arbitration rights. Granlund has plenty of financial incentive to put together a great year. If he stays healthy, I suspect he'll be one of Vancouver's most reliable scorers.
• Michael Del Zotto led the team with 26:54 of ice time and finished the day plus-two—though I'm not sure he deserves any credit for being on the ice for Boeser's overtime winner; he replaced Troy Stecher after Stecher made the heady back-pass to Anders Nilsson to keep possession before Nilsson passed it up to Boeser.
Still, I was impressed by Del Zotto's skating and his crisp first passes—something the Canucks had trouble with last season. Del Zotto has shown flashes of greatness dating all the way back to when he was supposed to be the Next Big Thing on the New York Rangers' blue line after he was drafted—the knock on him has always been his consistency. Still, a good start in his first game in a Canucks uniform; he and Erik Gudbranson look to have playing styles that complement each other quite well.
Now, the not-so-good:
• I don't think Scottie Upshall advanced his cause to earn a contract after coming to camp on a professional tryout deal. Upshall got whistled for two penalties in the first half of the game, got credit for only two hits, and was on the ice for all three Kings goals—two at even strength and one on the penalty kill. He's going to China and will need to perform much better if he hopes to compete for a roster spot.
Ryan White was also *meh*, with two hits and one penalty.
• I don't expect to see Philip Holm competing for a roster spot when we get close to the end of camp. Travis Green gave him a reliable partner in Alex Biega and gifted him with a ton of special-teams time—he was second to Del Zotto with 22:30 of total ice time and played in all situations.
But Holm failed to register a shot on goal (he had two misses), and he looked bad on two of L.A.'s goals...losing Tanner Pearson behind the net on Dustin Brown's tying goal...
...then coughing up the puck as Anze Kopitar bore down on him for the go-ahead marker by Fantenberg.
Anders Nilsson allowed three goals on four shots when he took over the net, but I'm not going to get too worried about that. The Kings were controlling the play when he took over, so I think he was a victim of circumstance. And he did earn the W in the end—shutting the door to allow the Canucks to come back from a 3-2 deficit, which has not exactly been a strong suit in recent years.
The Canucks were outshot 13-3 in the second period but otherwise, they played the Kings pretty even. Final shots on goal were 32-20 for the Kings.
Sunday September 17 - Vegas Golden Knights at Vancouver Canucks - 2 p.m. - Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650
The Canucks get right back to work this afternoon, hosting the Vegas Golden Knights for their first-ever game.
We don't have a full Canucks lineup yet, but we do know who Vegas will be icing. The youth movement starts now!
No Fleury, no James Neal, no Luca Sbisa...just to mention a few missing names. Neal is still recovering from the broken hand he suffered in last year's playoffs.
Vegas doesn't play its first home preseason game until nine days from now, so I'm a little surprised that the team has chosen to go *so* young for its debut.
We will get to see two of their three first-round draft picks from last June, Cody Glass and Nick Suzuki.
Based on early-camp performances, the folks at SinBin Vegas advise us to keep an eye on under-the-radar forwards Tomas Hyka and Tyler Wong.
Both Vegas goalies are 18-year-olds! Dylan Ferguson is a B.C. boy who has spent the last two seasons with the Kamloops Blazers. He'll probably have a big cheering section on hand.
Thatcher Demko and Richard Bachman will be suiting up in net for the Canucks.
Today's game will have a distinct Young Stars feel on both sides. It'll be fun to watch the kids and see who stands out!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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