Tuesday November 4 - Vancouver Canucks 5 - Colorado Avalanche 2
Well, that was fun! The Vancouver Canucks bounced back from a 2-0 deficit on the road to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Tuesday night. Here are your highlights:
The loss is a nasty one for the Avs, who surrendered a two-goal lead for the second straight game. But it was great to see the Canucks come out and dominate in the third period and excellent to see Nick Bonino have another very good game. His second goal, the insurance marker that put the team up 4-2, was a perfectly-placed beauty that speaks to his soft hands and great hockey sense.
All through this early part of the season, I've been trying not to get too high on this team. After all, they started well last year too. But it was pretty sweet to look at the NHL standings after last night's game and see the Canucks in second place overall, right behind Anaheim.
Maybe the Kesler trade really was a win-win for everybody?
Even when the Canucks fell behind in the first period on Tuesday, it didn't seem like the Avalanche were walking all over them like they were a couple of weeks ago. Ryan Miller made some key saves and Vancouver got even stronger as the game went on.
When Henrik Sedin got the Canucks on the board with just four seconds left in the second period, the momentum shift was palpable. Sometimes, an intermission break can suck the air out of a comeback. On Tuesday, Vancouver had no trouble staying focused and driving the game home.
The Canucks actually outshot Colorado in all three periods, ending with a 37-22 advantage. They finished up 50-50 on faceoffs and part of the credit for that goes to young Bo Horvat, who delivered as promised. He's listed as 8-4 on the night.
It was fantastic to see the care that the team took with Horvat's experience in his first NHL game. With his family on hand to watch, he was allowed to kick off his experience with a lap by himself around the ice:
Horvat was also inserted into the starting lineup and got to take the opening faceoff against Matt Duchene, which he won. Never mind that the NHL.com
play by play lists the draw as having been taken by Henrik. I believe John + John from last night's broadcast—and just double-checked the replay on GameCentre Live. Even on the Colorado broadcast, it's clear that it's definitely Horvat, and he definitely won the draw. Easy enough, I guess, to mistake a 53 for a 33.
As we heard about Bo's performance while he was down in Utica, he can make real contributions on the ice without hitting the scoresheet. The same thing happened on Tuesday, most obviously when he was buzzing around the net on Derek Dorsett's tying goal early in the third period. He didn't end up factoring into the stat line on the play, but definitely helped to make it happen.
Horvat spent his first game playing mostly on a line with Jannik Hansen and Dorsett. Total ice time: 8:52, including 55 seconds on the penalty kill. Willie played him more as the game went on, which seems like a positive sign.
The kid fills a niche that this club can use. The question now will be how Willie Desjardins chooses to deploy his forward group on Thursday against San Jose when Alex Burrows returns from suspension. If Hovat's in, someone's going to have to come out.
Though his play is improving and he scored his first goal of the season on Tuesday, my first guess would be that Shawn Matthias will end up being the odd man out.
Speaking of scratches, Luca Sbisa took a seat on Tuesday for the first time as a Canuck, allowing Ryan Stanton to draw back into the lineup after his groin injury. Stanton played 16:52, mostly with surprise starter Kevin Bieksa. Neither player was on the ice for a single goal, for or against.
To the consternation of some, Bieksa chose to return to action without a visor after the close call with his eye during Sunday's Nashville game. I'm not sure it's the wisest choice but I can understand the logic. Bieksa has now played 550 games, and has suffered his share of freaky injuries—remember that nasty skate cut from 2007?
Players are at risk for all sorts of different issues every time they play. I'm glad the league is making visors mandatory but I can understand Bieksa's desire to keep things the same as they've always been. Hopefully it's not a decision that will come back to haunt him down the road.
To wrap today, a quick word about the great start we've seen from Nick Bonino. As the local media wrung its hands over the summer, insisting that Bonino was a beneficiary of having played with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf in Anaheim, I was saying that I liked his game—that he'd always seemed to me to be a game-breaker in his own right when the Ducks beat the Canucks.
I'm pleased to see the media tide turning in Bonino's favour. Sure, he's used in a much more offensive role than Kesler, but it's pretty great to see him with six goals and 11 points compared to Kesler's eight points in the early going this year. Maybe he's not such a bad two-way player, either? Bonino's a plus-six; Kesler's minus-two with the Ducks.
And by the way, have you seen Kesler's new profile picture? Not only has he stopped putting all that product in his hair, which is a big improvement,
he's smiling!
If you missed it, Josh Cooper
posted an interview with Kesler on Puck Daddy the other day.
He doesn't throw any shade at all on his old teammates, though I can't help but wonder why he had to move nine times during his 11 years here in Vancouver??
Just a few more days until we see how Kesler looks when he meets the Canucks face-to-face on Sunday.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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