The Go-To Guy: The return of the Höglem Globetrotterssons, benchin’ buds, and takeaways from one of the most insane Canucks wins of the season

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I am surprised that I am even bringing you this article right now. No, seriously. That hockey game probably took a good five years off of my life. I mean, what can even be said about what we just saw?

Well, there was a lot to take away from this bonkers affair. You came to the right guy to break it down.

It’s Hockey Day in Canada. Every Canadian team plays at some point throughout the day, and since there are only seven teams in Canada, only 6 of them can actually go head to head. Luckily for me, this day brings one of my favourite matchup’s of the entire NHL season.

Something is in the air whenever the Toronto Maple Leafs come to town, and no, it’s not the amount of carbon emissions being put in the air from Maple Leafs fans flying into Vancouver.

Many call this “a one-sided rivalry” and it definitely was for many years. But here’s the thing, the Canucks are actually good this year, and it’s the first time since I’ve been alive where both teams are formidable foes in sequence. So yeah, I was more than amped for this game.

This is a big one every year, but this year’s matchup is different. The vibes in Rogers Arena tonight could be felt through the broadcast. Everyone knew this game was going to bring it, and oh man, it did not disappoint.

Sharp Shöötin’ Hög and the short king crew

I got to my friend’s place at 4:02 PM, and we decided to walk over to 7/11, meaning we’d be missing the first few minutes of the game. I put the game on my phone whilst we were walking back from the aforementioned convenient store giant, and my friend said, and I quote, “dude, we’re thirty seconds away, turn it off.”

Just as we were about to head inside, Nils Höglander scored off a rebound from a Quinn Hughes shot. I knew to put the game on, so I will gladly take full credit for the Canucks’ good fortune just ~3 minutes into this game.

Oh, you wanted more? Nils has got you covered again.

Nils Höglander had one of his best games of the season on Thursday vs Arizona, and he followed it up with two first period tallies in this one, with this second one being an absolute beauty. Höglander doesn’t have a lot of room to pick a corner, yet he does, an unbelievable wrist shot from someone who isn’t really known for his shooting ability. With that being his 14th of the season, Höglander has now surpassed his career-high in goals, and will most-likely snooze his way to 20.

I love it.

Toronto would eventually get their first power play of the night, but no dice. Not too long after, the Lotto Line got to work with one of their few, actually good 5v5 shifts. Yeah, it wasn’t a particularly great night for either thr-

OH MY GOD TYLER MYERS JUST DUMPED CALLE JARNKROK INTO THE CANUCKS BENCH.

Did you blink? I hope not, because shortly thereafter it’s 3-0 Vancouver!

Conor Garland had himself a night, once again. The puck finds its way to him and he makes no mistake, as Leafs goalie Martin Jones slid far to his right, leaving the the top right corner wide open for Garland… 3-0.

It was a good night for Canucks forwards under 5’9″.

The Leafs had a bit of a pushback, but the third line of Joshua-Blueger-Garland had a great shift to relieve the pressure in the final few minutes of the first period.

Ok, that was fun! How about more of that, eh?

…EH?

Swede, Swede Revenge!\

So, the 2nd period sucked. Like, it was awful.

The Leafs pushed to start, but they weren’t really generating much of anything to begin the period.

Then, disaster struck. Tyler Myers’ big, 6’8″ frame was blocking Demko’s view. William Nylander took full advantage of this, sending a harmless looking wrist shot towards the goal, but Thatcher Demko just couldn’t see it.

You may as well have had Fred Vanvleet standing behind Victor Wembanyama, it wouldn’t have made any difference!

Just about two and a half minutes later, Jake McCabe makes it 3-2… and then William Nylander gets his second of the period just 53 seconds later.

You know that Donald Trump video where he’s screaming for people to “get those lights off”? That’s the Canucks in both games vs Toronto this year. I couldn’t believe it, but it was now 3-3.

I was honestly feeling upset. This was the first game during this season where I could honestly say that. It wasn’t just the score, the Canucks were dead on arrival come the second period. That entire 2nd period was as nightmare-like as one could draw up.

With that out of the way, HERE COMES BIG Z!

Nikita Zadorov’s second period gave this team a little bit of life, he was a monster. Constantly involved, jumping in to create offence, and was just throwing hits left and right. I honestly thought he looked great all night, *THIS* is the Nikita Zadorov the league has become familiar with. Easily his best period as a Canuck.

Oh, would you look at that, he’s entering the zone.

Zadorov creates a little pressure with the Suter line out for Vancouver. They hem the Leafs in for a fair bit, then the third line jumps on.

It’s time for a game of “What Will the Third Line Do?”

Will they:

A) Score, like they always do.

There are no other questions to be asked, of course they scored.

Conor Garland gets a fortuitous bounce in front that finds its way past Martin Jones, and with just one minute to play in the 2nd period, the team that is 27-0-1 when leading after two periods has the lead.

Hints of the Kuzmenkshow and the Höglem Globetrotters complete their mission

I kind of ripped into Andrei Kuzmenko in my last post game piece, but he made an impression on me tonight.

Kuzmenko’s second half of tonight’s game was real good. He was spinning, creating chances, doing exactly what we were all accustomed to last season, and he drew a penalty to boot. It was exactly what Tocchet has been looking fo- and yeah okay now he’s not on the ice for the power play. Cool!

Oh, great, Mitch Marner ordered a pizza from Elias Pettersson. Unfortunately, he had to wait a few minutes as it was accidentally delivered to Brock Boeser’s door, but alas, it found Marner.

Brutal, brutal pass from Pettersson, and Marner is not missing that. Knotted up again.

Boeser would get a cross check in the back from Max Domi, and they actually did a *good thing*on the ensuing power play. Quinn Hughes fired a shot/pass towards the net where J.T. Miller just so happened to be! Canucks now lead 5-4

The power play got another crack, and this is just world-class stuff from J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson.

Pettersson tips in a beautiful shot/pass from Miller, and the infinity gauntlet is filled. Höglander and Pettersson scored in this one, meaning the Höglem Globetrotters made an appearance as a unit.

Deep breaths. 6-4 Canucks.

The penalty kill was razor sharp in the third, and Pettersson almost doubled up with his Globetrotters teammate with a short-handed 2-on-1 shot that pinged iron.

Some rough stuff ensued, Demko single-handedly weathered a 6-on-3 storm, and the Canucks won the wackiest hockey game they’ve played all season.

They can’t stop, they won’t stop, and they’re about to potentially add more firepower in the coming weeks. As All-Star Weekend inches closer, trade rumours continued to swirl as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman hinted at the Canucks potentially looking to add to their top six forward group.

A win is a win, and with more help on the way, this is potentially shaping up to be the most fun regular season of Canucks hockey in the organization’s 54-year history.

It feels so, so sweet.

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