VANCOUVER — The opening of the Vancouver Canucks season was defined by chaos.
There was speed. There was mystifying disappointment. There was elation and relief. And ultimately there was Calgary Flames forward Connor Zary weaving at will through Canucks defenders and past Artūrs Šilovs to win the game in overtime.
It was a memorable if disappointing night to kick off a year that the club enters with elevated expectations and a level of ambition unseen in these parts in over a decade. So fittingly, it was a thoroughly weird contest.
Flames star Jonathan Huberdeau stole Conor Garland’s stick on a line change, its return facilitated by Sportsnet colour broadcaster Ray Ferraro. Tyler Myers lost the steel from his skate, and struggled slowly up ice out of his own zone. An on-ice official stepped in and attempted to help Myers, pushing him toward the Canucks bench, but fell comically in the effort.
That was, in every respect, one of the weirdest NHL games I’ve ever witnessed.
Credit to the Flames, they settled down after looking completely overmatched and coming unglued in the first. Impressively executed their gameplan. #Canucks looked brilliant for 20, woeful for 40.
— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) October 10, 2024
J.T. Miller collided with Kevin Rooney near the end boards, landing a clean hit with a vicious outcome that left Rooney prone on the ice for several minutes. A stretcher was wheeled onto the ice during the stoppage, but was ultimately waved off by the Flames forward and club medical personnel.
And all of that occurred in the opening 10 minutes of the first period.
By the end of that preposterous first frame, with the Canucks leading 4-1, a favourable result for the home side seemingly secured, the Canucks appeared to be on cruise control. It was a performance that should’ve left no doubt about the fact that these two teams exist in completely different weight classes.
And then in chaotic fashion, just about everything flipped.
The Canucks were caught sleeping. The Flames settled down. Calgary stormed back, took the lead before the end of regulation and ultimately spoiled what should’ve been a wildly impressive start to the Canucks’ season, winning 6-5.
Here are three takeaways from Vancouver’s memorable, disappointing opening night collapse.
Jake DeBrusk and the Canucks’ new rush hour attacking style
We’re buying high on Vancouver’s ability to attack off the rush with more intent and efficacy this season, and we saw evidence that all of the club’s work at training camp has paid off on Wednesday.
Vancouver looked fast and sharp through the neutral zone in the first period on Wednesday evening, gashing the Flames repeatedly and generating a large handful of scoring chances with vertical pressure. There were aerial passes, one of which set up a Teddy Blueger breakaway. There were aggressive defensive plays at the blue line, one of which sprung a partial Conor Garland break. The club skated hard, led by top skaters like Jake DeBrusk, Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller, who generated a number of chances off of the rush and a handful of other chances at chances, which were only an inch or two from going off.
As often as Vancouver scored last season, their priority in attack was often to manage the puck conservatively and manufacture second stick scoring opportunities off of point shots. When it worked, as it did early last season, the results were glorious. When it didn’t, as occurred in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Vancouver’s attack appeared to be entirely stuck in the mud.
What we saw early on Wednesday night looked very different. Before their late-game collapse, this was a team that looked faster and far more lethal against the grain than they did at any point last season.
It’s just one game and patience will be required. Ultimately the Canucks didn’t generate the rush five-on-five chances they required when the stakes were highest late in a third period they were trailing, even if J.T. Miller’s game-tying goal came when he was streaking with intent down the wing on a sharply executed entry.
On balance, for all that Wednesday’s result will rightly be seen as disappointing for Canucks fans, the early returns on an aspect of the game that the team identified as an area for improvement were promising.
J.T. Miller goes beast mode early in 800th career game
It was a milestone night for Vancouver’s top-line power forward, and this first half of this game was quickly a showcase for his unique skill set.
His line dominated from a two-way perspective, and was especially overwhelming in the first period. The hit he delivered to Rooney had an unfortunate and wholly unintended outcome, but served to antagonize the Flames, who briefly came unglued, taking six minor penalties in the first period, several of them the result of their response to Miller personally. Miller topped off an eventful first period by winning a spirited fight against 6-foot-5 Flames veteran Anthony Mantha, and of course, Miller set up multiple power-play goals.
That combination of snarl, skill and now — if he can build off of his defensive improvement last season — two-way value is exceedingly rare in this league. When Miller is going the way he was early on Wednesday, this Canucks team is an awful lot for their opponents to handle.
The club, however, didn’t generate a single five-on-five shot with Miller on the ice after the first period, until after they pulled their goaltender. Now, granted, his ice-time was limited because he served a major penalty for much of the second frame, but it’s still a useful rule of thumb to be mindful of: As Miller goes, so go the Canucks.
It’s a point that earned something of an exclamation mark when Miller capped off his Gordie Howe hat trick with an absolute rip on a rush slap shot that beat Dan Vladar and at least temporarily warded off an epic Canucks collapse with 1:37 to play in the third period.
Artūrs Šilovs and the book Vancouver’s opponents are writing on the club’s young starter
Before the game got away from him, Wednesday represented an incredible accomplishment for Vancouver’s 23-year-old starting goaltender.
Even if Šilovs projects to operate in a tandem with Kevin Lankinen through the first few weeks of this season, and will surely give way to Thatcher Demko whenever Vancouver’s Vezina nominee is able to return to action, to start the first game of the season for an NHL team at his age is remarkable.
NHL teams, like Vancouver’s opponent on Wednesday, often defer to the more experienced option for the season opener. Šilovs, however, has earned a lengthy look at the NHL level, something that was punctuated during the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs when he helped the club secure a series victory over the Nashville Predators and push the Edmonton Oilers to seven games in the second round.
That it was Šilovs who got the start on Wednesday speaks volumes about how he is regarded by the Canucks internally.
It was fascinating, however, to watch the Flames attack Šilovs as Wednesday’s game unfolded. It was evidence, in fact, of precisely how Vancouver’s opponents are likely to attack the young Canucks netminder in the early going this season.
Once the Flames gathered themselves after the first period and settled down and mounted their improbable comeback, Calgary began to filter their offence through shot attempts from the point, through screens and layered traffic. It was similar to the adjustment we saw from the Oilers in the playoffs last May.
This is the next stage for young goaltenders. Early success is often followed by the league gathering tape on your tendencies and identifying weaknesses. Once those areas for improvement are identified by NHL shooters, they’re likely to spam them until they stop working.
So it was that the Flames approach worked. Calgary was able to level the score in the third period on Wednesday night, the key game-tying goal coming from a MacKenzie Weegar shot through layered traffic. On the Huberdeau goal that spotted Calgary the third period lead, Canucks defenders were caught cheating up high to try and cut off the top.
The league has adjusted thoughtfully to Šilovs’ athleticism down low and has found a partial answer to challenge him. The next move now is Šilovs’.
(Photo: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images)
