VANCOUVER – With just 81 games to go, it’s a tad early for the election desk to call this season for the Vancouver Canucks.
But if the season and the team actually prove this dramatically different than they were during the last three years of chaos, then Wednesday’s season-opening 8-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers will have been a harbinger, a snapshot — the first photo in the “after” album.
And if not, well, at least Game 1 at home was a helluva lot more fun than last season for the Canucks, who were booed off the ice in their home-opener a year ago when a dismal 5-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres kept Vancouver winless through its first six games.
That was the night three Canuck fans renounced their loyalty by discarding jerseys on the ice in the third period, team president Jim Rutherford went on national television to say, “We may very well be in a rebuild in the direction we’re going,” and coach Bruce Boudreau questioned the character of his players and said they should be as embarrassed as he was.
We’re also pretty sure aliens landed their spaceship on Level 300 and released Mike Keenan on a black unicorn.
Juxtapose those scenes – or most of them – against Wednesday, when it wasn’t jerseys littering the ice but hats after Canuck Brock Boeser scored his first hat trick in nearly four years to put Vancouver ahead 4-0 just 7:30 into the second period.
Boeser added a tap-in fourth goal in the third period, becoming the first Canuck player to land the quad since Daniel Sedin in 2004.
One day after a story about his alleged desire to be traded spawned a media firestorm, Conor Garland scored a superb opener for the Canucks.
Up seven goals, the Vancouver bench erupted in the final minute when Canuck defenceman Noah Juulsen blocked a slapshot on an Edmonton power play.
And when the game ended, fans actually stood and cheered. Had they bouquets of flowers, they’d have tossed those along with the hats on to the ice from which the Canucks were chased with boos a year ago.
It was hard to believe this was the same Canuck team, but then just maybe it isn’t.
“Now that we have the two points, yes, I can say this was big for us,” veteran defenceman Tyler Myers smiled, the Canucks having downplayed the significance of Game 1 as it approached. “It’s a big win, especially the first game at home. But we just want to carry it over on the road now and make sure the mindset doesn’t change.
“We’ve come a long way (from last year). Saying that, we know there’s a lot more to go. But we’re in a good place. Just given what’s gone on since the start of September, coming into camp and the way guys were preparing, it was nice to have tonight’s game go the way it did. We need to make sure we keep striving for a higher level.”
They’ll need an equally high level Saturday when they open a difficult five-game road trip in Edmonton, where the talented home team will be angry.
“I think we know we need to join to enjoy it tonight and then move on,” Canuck J.T. Miller said. “It’s nice to get off on the right foot after what happened last year, especially.”
Half the skaters in the Canucks’ lineup were different than Game 1 last season. Importantly, the coach, Rick Tocchet, is different, too.
Filip Hronek had a terrific night on defence alongside Quinn Hughes in a power pairing that helped Miller’s line shut out Connor McDavid at even strength. Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko is healthier and sharper than he was a year ago, although he left in the third period due to dehydration when the Canucks were up by a touchdown.
And Brock Boeser, who demanded to be traded last season then rescinded his request, is finally healthy emotionally after struggling for two years with the grave illness and death of his father.
His opening goal, a lightning release of a top-corner wrist shot, is the kind of goal rarely seen from Boeser the last few seasons.
“Just mentally — I’ve talked about it — just kind of finding that motivation again, finding that peace with everything,” Boeser explained. “It was a really good summer and I was itching to get back for a few months. I was really looking forward to this game.
“It was great, not just me personally but our whole team. We got here early (before the season), we did what the coaches wanted. . . and I’m just happy it paid off.”
Tocchet said Boeser looks quicker, but all the Canucks did on Wednesday.
The Oilers are the faster team, but the Canucks beat them to loose pucks, beat them back to the Vancouver end of the backcheck, collapsed to protect their net and made it difficult on Oiler goalies Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner.
Besides scoring four times, Boeser screened the Edmonton goalie on power-play goals by Miller and Elias Pettersson.
“You saw our structure, our staples, our system, all in play,” Garland said. “It was as good an effort as we’ve had since I’ve been here, and now it’s just about doing it again.”
And what about Garland scoring the Canucks’ first goal this season, the day after all the conjecture about him wanting out?
“There were some unfortunate distractions,” he understated. “But I definitely knew I had to have a good game with it all going on, so I was happy.”
So was Tocchet. To a degree.
“Listen, it’s one game,” he said. “Obviously, everything went in our favour and I’m proud of the guys. But this is a long haul. I said, ‘we’re not ordering rings around here.’ It’s one game. We can feel good about it but we’ve got to come back to Earth tomorrow.”
