Canucks start the season with a bang

Vancouver Canucks’ Jannik Hansen, center, from Denmark, celebrates…

Earlier this week, Virtanen cracked the Vancouver Canucks opening day lineup and the common thought on the West Coast is that he’s likely done with his WHL days and looks ready to become an everyday NHLer. It was something we saw very little of outside Vancouver’s top-defence pair back in April.

“I’m going to be honest and say no, I had no idea”, Hutton said. They finished 48-29-5 in Desjardins’ first season, and in the offseason added forwards Brandon Sutter and Brandon Prust, among others.

That’s not a detriment to the Canucks, but it’s not something that works in their favor.

Sorry, this video is not available in your country/region. He’s got better every game and not thinking too much, he’s just having fun.

The Flames actually got off to a dominating start themselves, mostly fielded by their terrifying (in a good way) top line; unfortunately, after not even half a period the Canucks began to take over. It’s nearly as if the Canucks’ YouTube account has a vested interest in avoiding making Canucks players look bad.

Lack of physicality on the blue line – While the puck moving aspect may have been improved among the Canucks d-core, there are still questions that surround their toughness. Wednesday’s game was only his 83rd in the National Hockey League.

Virtanen’s face absorbed the blow while the puck was redirected off his cheekbone and over the shoulder of Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot. Over 75 games, he managed a disappointing 10 goals and 14 assists. While a variety of Flames tested Miller, Vancouver’s starting netminder stood tall.

Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Jiri Hudler return for Calgary, as do blueliners Mark Giordano, Dennis Wideman, and Kris Russell.

Fitz & The Tantrums were the musical guests, but four hours later, it was Canucks’ goaltender Ryan Miller who’d given the Flames fits and just about everybody on the Calgary side was trying hard not to throw a tantrum, after such a lacklustre performance. It can be crucial on the road to “weather the storm” early, though.

What the rookie was implying was no different than his new teammates. With LA, Edmonton, Calgary, and Dallas all getting better, the Canucks will be in tough to have a good of a season as previous year. Don’t expect that to change now that they’re on the same line though.

Just in case anyone was wondering if the Vancouver Canucks had forgotten how last season ended, the answer came Wednesday night – and it was a resounding no. Prust fought his first bout of the campaign precisely eight minutes later.

If the injury is long term, look for Miller to play both of those games.

I’m guessing that Willie will stick with this lineup for Game 2, but it’ll be interesting to see what the Flames bring to the table on Saturday. And when Vancouver’s fourth line was on the ice, they outshot the Flames at 5-on-5.