Saturday November 2 Vancouver Canucks 4 - Toronto Maple Leafs 0
Saturday was a very special night at Rogers Arena. Let's start with the highlights from canucks.com:
Pavel Bure's ceremony was terrific, and the Canucks followed it up with a 4-0 shutout of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Though Bure has been retired for more than a decade, he's just a year older than Jaromir Jagr. Part of me was hoping after the festivities wrapped up last night, would head back into the room and lace 'em up so we could see some of those dazzling moves again in person. Thankfully, today's Canucks had enough rocket fuel to get the job done on their own.
Throughout the game, fans at Rogers Arena were treated to video tributes and live interviews from Bure's old teammates.
The most interesting interview came from Markus Naslund. Now general manager of Modo in Sweden, he congratulated the Sedins on their contract extensions but lamented that they wouldn't be coming home to play for him anytime soon.
The best video tribute was a surprising piece from former referee Don Koharski. He talked us through this Bure penalty shot from February 2, 1998, against Damian Rhodes of the Ottawa Senators:
Koharski explained how Pavel told him he was going five-hole, then scored exactly as he had planned: an interesting look into the little-seen on-ice relationships between players and officials.
As for the game itself, it was a spirited affair. I'll talk about it in more depth on Monday, but here are just a few of the key incidents.
- Despite the long ceremony, the Canucks came out flying. They had 11 shots on goal and a 1-0 lead before Phil Kessel recorded the first shot for Toronto at the 8:43 mark of the first period.
- Vancouver quickly capitalized on its first power play of the night, scoring just eight seconds after Nazem Kadri went off for holding. The Canucks spent a total of 14:08 with the man advantage but still went just 1-for-9, including a full two-minute 5-on-3 chance. The first unit spent the full two minutes on the ice a couple of times, but in the later stages of the game John Tortorella did start mixing up his groups. I expect we'll start to see some new wrinkles with the man advantage during the road trip next week.
- After the game, Tortorella remarked that Alex Burrows was "starting to show his personality." I assume he was talking about this incident with Phil Kessel, fantastically captured by Pass It to Bulis. It's well worth a click.
I can see why teams get frustrated with Burrows, but to me, this is hilarious. Burrows had no trouble dealing with Kessel when he initiated the fight, and the incident definitely slowed any momentum that the Leafs might have been building, neutralizing the Leafs' best player.
- Overall, Burrows looked good on Saturday on a second line with Mike Santorelli and Chris Higgins, who may have played his best game of the season.
- The great surprise was the third line of Zack Kassian, Brad Richardson and Darren Archibald, who were plus-2 on the night. Archibald appears to have quickly gained the trust of John Tortorella and had another strong game.
- Dave Bolland's injury caused by Kassian's skate is a nasty one. I never want to see a player get hurt like that, but the incident certainly carried some irony after all the vitriol that Bolland has directed Vancouver's way since his days in Chicago. It's agreed all around that the injury was accidental, but I'm sure that doesn't make the idea of surgery in Vancouver and a long recovery any more palatable to Bolland or the Leafs, who suddenly find themselves very thin at centre.
- James Reimer limited the damage for the Leafs with some tremendous saves, especially in the first period, while Roberto Luongo was steady in his second shutout of the season, despite not seeing much action. It's November now—we should see Luongo's numbers start to improve as he builds his case to start for Team Canada.
- Luongo debuted a fantastic new Johnny Canuck mask in honour of Movember, which will be auctioned off for charity at the end of the month. Click here for photos and the full story.
- Lost in so many bigger storylines, West Vancouver's Morgan Rielly made his professional debut in Vancouver for the Leafs. The rookie didn't get a very warm welcome home: he was minus-3 in 14 minutes of ice time.
Even with the win, the Canucks sit in fourth place in the Pacific Division behind the red-hot Coyotes, Ducks and Sharks—all of whom they'll face on the road over the next week.
Saturday was a terrific night, and a successful test against one of the league's hottest teams. I'll be back tomorrow to talk more about the fallout from the game, the Sedins' contracts, and look forward at the games ahead.
For more, you can check out our Pacific Buzz podcast, recorded Sunday morning.
Follow me on Twitter @pool88.
Pacific Buzz(with Carol Schram(VAN), Matt Henderson(EDM) and Jason Lewis(LA) Recorded 11/03/13