Thursday October 20 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - Buffalo Sabres 1
The Vancouver Canucks improved their early-season record to 4-0-0 and are now the only unbeaten team in the NHL after a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night at Rogers Arena.
The Edmonton Oilers also have eight points, but they have played one more game and have one loss, so Vancouver is officially first overall.
Here are your highlights from Thursday night.
In addition to keeping their winning streak alive, the Canucks accomplished a couple of other firsts for the year. They scored the first goal of the game for the first time this season and converted on the power play for the first time.
Daniel Sedin's second of the year, which turned out to be the game winner, came against a Buffalo penalty kill that had been perfect so far this season.
The Canucks, who have done a great job with puck possession during this season, were also outshot for the first time. Overall, Buffalo outshot Vancouver 27-20, including 14-10 in a relatively wide open second period that saw Jannik Hansen score the only goal—the 100th of his career on a two-on-one with Brandon Sutter.
Jannik Hansen taps in the Sutter rebound to put the #Canucks up 1-0.
Once the Canucks got the lead, and with Buffalo pressuring, I was able to see a clearer defensive structure on the ice than I can recall having seen since—before Torts, I'd say? It looked different to see four guys coming back in a tight box, not giving the Buffalo skaters any room in the middle of the ice.
Whether it's an increased commitment to team defense by Willie Desjardins or the influence of new assistant coach Doug Jarvis, it's working. The Canucks have given up only a single goal in three of their four games so far.
On Thursday, the single goal maaaaybe shouldn't even have counted. It was eventually awarded to rookie Nick Baptiste, playing in just his second NHL game, after a wildly convoluted is-it-or-isn't-it sequence.
The officials originally deemed the play 'no goal' on the ice, saying it had gone in off the body of Buffalo's Nicolas Deslauriers. Then the horn went, indicating that the Situation Room in Toronto wanted to contribute its two cents. They determined, correctly, that the puck entered the net off the skate of Alex Edler—but then the Canucks challenged on the basis that Jacob Markstrom had been interfered with.
I think that was true as well—Deslauriers prevented Markstrom from being able to move his left leg across the crease.
The Canucks lost the challenge and Markstrom lost the shutout, but there was no harm done. Vancouver locked it down, allowing just two more Buffalo shots in the final 8:37 and sending the fans at Rogers Arena home with smiles on their faces once again.
I'll say it again because it's so much fun—the win leaves Vancouver alone at the top of the NHL standings!
The team's 4-0-0 record also matches the franchise best, set in 1992-93.
That season is dear to my heart—it was the first year that my family had our season tickets. We took the plunge because of Pavel Bure and the fact that the Canucks seemed like a team on the rise, so we were on the scene in time to see Bure's back-to-back 60-goal seasons and the '94 Stanley Cup run.
The four wins that kicked off the year came in a pair of back-to-backs, against the Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets. Check out the scores!
October 6, 1992 - road - Vancouver 5 - Edmonton 4
October 10, 1992 - home - Vancouver 5 - Edmonton 2
October 12, 1992 - home - Vancouver 8 - Winnipeg 1
October 16, 1992 - road - Vancouver 6 - Winnipeg 2
Bure had four goals, five points and 10 shots on goal in the 8-1 win over Winnipeg alone while some raw rookie named Teemu Selanne was held to one assist and two shots for the Jets that night.
Thanks to both the results and the style points, we were immediately thrilled to have gotten on board!
The Canucks may have only scored nine goals in total so far this year, but they have delivered all four wins on home ice—where they went 15-21-5 last season.
The 92-93 Canucks ended the year with a record of 46-29-9 for 101 points—at a time when ties were still possible, if nothing was solved after a five-minute overtime period. It was the first time in franchise history that Vancouver finished with more than 100 points.
The team went on to beat the Winnipeg Jets in six games in the first round of the playoffs before losing in six to Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings.
After such a strong first week, the Canucks are holding an optional skate at Rogers Arena this morning. We'll see whether they can take the magic with them on the road when they face those Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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