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Vancouver Canucks Troy Stecher Makes His Case In Home Win over Edmonton

September 29, 2016, 2:49 PM ET [278 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Wednesday September 28 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - Edmonton Oilers 3

The Vancouver Canucks want more offense this season. On Wednesday, they got it from five players who weren't full-time Canucks in 2015-16 as they earned their first win of the exhibition schedule at home over the Edmonton Oilers.

Here are your highlights:



Wednesday's scorers—Troy Stecher, Brendan Gaunce, Joe Labate, Anton Rodin and Erik Gudbranson.

Connor McDavid logged 23:05 of ice time to lead all Oilers, including the defensemen, but was held without a point. His loaded line, with Milan Lucic and Jordan Eberle, primarily went up against the Granlund/Etem/Dorsett checking line, but it was Ben Hutton and Erik Gudbranson who were especially effective in shutting them down. The highly-touted defense pairing did show the chemistry we'd hoped to see, and Gudbranson's big body was effective at neutralizing Lucic.

With McDavid's star set to "dim" on Wednesday, that left room for Richmond's Troy Stecher to claim First Star honours in his first game at Rogers Arena. If Stecher keeps playing like this, people won't be talking about his size for much longer—he picked up a goal and two assists, driving offense and playing an exciting, dynamic game.

Stecher opened the scoring on the power play at 12:20 of the first period, threading a shot through from the blue line. The goal probably should have been credited to Jack Skille, who tipped it in front, but there's no doubt that Stecher made the play go.




Anton Rodin does a nice Henrik Sedin impression over on the half wall on that goal, too!

Before the first period was out, Stecher had logged his second point as he slid a heady pass out of the corner to find Brendan Gaunce.




Stecher's third point also came on the power play—on what proved to be the game winner, off the stick of Anton Rodin.




And yes, you read that right—Stecher's defense partner Alex Edler also picked up three assists in his first game back on the ice after suffering the broken leg that ended his season in early March.

If the Canucks had waited until today to send Jordan Subban to Utica, the demotion would have been overshadowed by Stecher-mania. Not only has he passed Subban on the team's defensive depth chart, I'd say he just served notice to Philip Larsen that he is perfectly capable of quarterbacking a power play, without being a liability in other parts of the game.

Stecher's status as a waiver-exempt player will keep things interesting but if this is a true example of what he can do, it'll be tough for management not to keep him in the opening-night lineup.

Also impressive again on Wednesday—Brendan Gaunce. With better skating and improved vision, he's looking like an NHL player who will push to knock somebody else out of a bottom-six job.

Though the Canucks never trailed in the game, they took awhile to get going. Vancouver was outshot 13-8 in the first period but took it to the Oilers with the score tied in the third. The Canucks got the 12-5 edge in shots, capitalized on their only power play, and picked up the empty-netter while killing a late penalty for too many men on the ice.

As a result, Thatcher Demko had a relatively easy night, coming in to relieve Ryan Miller for the second half of the game. He took a penalty for illegally playing the puck outside the trapezoid—oops—and stopped eight of nine shots he faced to earn the win.

Olli Juolevi had a quiet night, playing 15:22 on a third pairing with Alex Biega. He recorded one shot and one giveaway.

Since yesterday's blog, the Canucks have announced two more rounds of cuts. On Wednesday afternoon, 11 players were assigned to the Utica Comets—most notably Cole Cassels, Marco Roy, Mackenze Stewart and Curtis Valk. Goaltender Rylan Parenteau was also returned to his junior club.

On Thursday morning, Michael Carcone and Alexis D'Aoust were both assigned to the Comets camp. Both played limited minutes against the Oilers, but Carcone—who has been mostly touted as an offensive force—led both teams with an impressive eight hits on the night. Way to try to make an impression!

No details yet on the Comets' camp, which is expected to begin next week.

Click here for a look at the Canucks' roster page, which appears to be current.

Twenty forwards, 14 defensemen and five goalies still in camp means we've got plenty more cuts to come.

The Canucks' next game is Friday in Calgary. They'll be back on the ice at Rogers Arena against the San Jose Sharks on Sunday, then the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.

Tonight, it's all on the line for Team Europe, which needs a win in the best-of-three final to stay alive at the World Cup of Hockey. The Europeans hung around in Game 1, losing to Team Canada by a score of 3-1. I'd love to see them force a deciding game against a Canadian team that is now being lauded by some as one of the greatest of all time.

Game time for Canada vs. Europe: 5 p.m. PT
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