“Not making the playoffs would be a big disaster for us, individually and collectively,” said Bruce Boudreau heading into the Vancouver Canucks’ 2022-23 season.
By the end of the season, not only did the Canucks miss the playoffs but also Boudreau was fired, the Canucks’ captain was traded, and the team was rocked by off-ice scandals: the team’s owner was accused of child abuse by his own children, a fired staff member filed a human rights complaint, and they likely have an incoming grievance from Tanner Pearson if complications from multiple wrist surgeries end his career. Those latter three things have nothing to do with missing the playoffs but were still part of the individual and collective big disaster that was this season.
A season that set sail with so much hope was dashed to pieces on the rocks of reality. But then those pieces were reassembled back into a team that played pretty well down the stretch, giving Canucks fans reason to hope again. But has the team actually changed? Will the Canucks’ strong play down the stretch follow them into next season, giving them the strong start they need to get back to the playoffs?
If the Ship of Theseus is not fully rebuilt but only partially retooled, then is it still the Ship of Theseus? Or is it just a Frankensteinian creation of new and rotted wood that will sink like a stone as soon as it hits a single wave?
As the philosophers in Semisonic once said, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end,” so the Canucks’ game against the Arizona Coyotes wasn’t the end, but merely an end. Now the Canucks have to hope that a new beginning will come from it, one whose end will be a happier one.
I hummed a few bars of “Closing Time” to myself as I watched this game.
- I sincerely hope that Patrik Allvin’s retooling plan works and next season’s Canucks are a better team because this season was hard to watch. I should know, because I watched every single game. And not just in the background or turning it off if the score got out of hand, but intently, because I had to write about every single game. I enjoy my job but it’s a lot more enjoyable when the Canucks are good.
- The season started with the Canucks giving up a three-goal lead, so it’s only right that it ended with the Canucks giving up a three-goal lead. There could be no better bookends to this clustercuss of a season, though at least the Canucks actually won this game after giving up the three-goal lead, even if that ultimately hurt their odds in the draft lottery ever-so-slightly, dropping them from the 10th to 11th-best odds. There’s just no winning with this team.
- The other thing that remained the same from game 1 to game 82 was the digital board ads, which were glitchy at the start of the season and glitchy at the end. Absurdly, the NHL was actually nominated for a Sports Emmy for their “Digitally Enhanced Dasher Boards” as one of five nominees for the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award.
@passittobulis The #NHL has been nominated for an Emmy — the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award — for the incredibly aggravating and glitchy digital board ads that are still glitching out in game 82 of the #Canucks season. #emmys #vancouvercanucks #arizonacoyotes #sportsnet ♬ original sound - passittobulis
- The Canucks were first on the board after coincidental minor penalties created a 4-on-4 situation. Quinn Hughes took advantage of the extra space, dancing around the offensive zone like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for nearly an entire shift before firing a pass to an open Elias Pettersson, who tucked the puck in with a quick move to the backhand.
- The Coyotes were quick to respond, with the gloriously-bearded Liam O’Brien batting in an airborne rebound a minute later to make it 1-1. It’s tough to assign blame on this one. Maybe Nils Åman shouldn’t have double-teamed Jack McBain in the corner, maybe Dakota Joshua could’ve hustled more to get in Michael Kesselring’s shooting lane, and maybe Cole McWard should’ve boxed out O’Brien instead of watching the puck. Or maybe it’s Maybelline.
- The Canucks rattled off three quick goals, starting with a power play goal from the second unit. Anthony Beauvillier orbited the offensive zone like a gas giant, drawing the entire penalty kill down below the hashmarks with his massive gravity well, leaving room for Conor Garland to set up for a one-timer from the right faceoff dot to make it 2-1.
- Like the Lock-Picking Lawyer facing a seemingly impossible-to-open safe, the first unit made opening up look easy on the 3-1 goal. Literally everyone was involved in some way: J.T. Miller sent a cross-seam pass to Phil Di Giuseppe, who delivered the puck to Quinn Hughes at the point. As one penalty killer went to Hughes, Elias Pettersson cut through the slot to draw another penalty killer away from the left side, leaving Miller with all the room he needed for a quick catch-and-release wrist shot past a Brock Boeser screen.
- Garland got some good luck to get his second goal of the game. Kyle Burroughs sent a slap pass towards the slot and Garland got his stick on it, but not quite enough to direct it into the net. It was, however, enough for Garland to direct the puck off his own ankle and into the net, which is basically the same thing but with more bruising.
- The Coyotes got on the comeback trail before the end of the first period, turning a defensive zone faceoff with 23 seconds left in the period into their second goal of the game. Akito Hirose did well to knock down a stretch pass as the Coyotes attempted a quick breakout, but then Hirose took too long to move the puck and lost it. That led to a shot off the rush for Nick Schmaltz and Nils Åman got caught puck-watching and never picked up Travis Boyd in the slot, who finished off a pass from Clayton Keller into the open net.
- Former Canuck and current Arizona resident Eddie Lack had a message for John Tortorella during the first intermission regarding starting him over Roberto Luongo in the Heritage Classic, which directly led to Luongo getting traded to the Florida Panthers. “I don’t know what Torts was thinking but Torts, if you’re listening, that was a bad call!”
- Collin Delia has the best winning percentage of any Canucks goaltender this season but he had a tough time on the Coyotes’ third goal. He appeared to try to push McBain in front, but only managed to push himself back into his own net just as a shot was coming. O’Brien tipped the puck and Delia, backsliding like a deconstructing evangelical, could only reach out his stick to provide a ramp for the puck into the back of the net.
- The Canucks massively struggled in the second period, managing just one shot on goal, which didn’t come until over 12 minutes into the period. They were lucky to only concede one goal, though Victor “SodaStream” Soderstrom also hit a post on a great chance, with Andrei Kuzmenko responding with a crossbar late in the period.
- Kyle Burroughs may be a pending unrestricted free agent, but you have to think the Canucks will want to bring him back as a seventh defenceman again. his willingness to drop the gloves with 6’5” behemoth Josh Brown in response to him hanging a knee on Nils Åman certainly doesn’t hurt his popularity with his teammates and he’s also the primary post-game DJ, dropping the virtual needle on all sorts of classic rock hits. Every team needs a guy like that.
- Elias Pettersson doesn’t make many mistakes but he made a doozy late in the third period. With space to move the puck out of the defensive zone, he instead turned back and coughed up the puck to Barrett Hayton. He endeavoured to make up for his error, blocking one shot, then aggressively chasing down the puck, but Schmaltz, with J.T. Miller staring at him, moved in and rifled the puck past a screened Delia to tie the game.
- That set up overtime and some individual brilliance by Garland for his first-career hattrick, getting it against his former team. Garland zoomed into the zone, faked a shot, then curled back to the point. As he looped around, he got a step on J.J. Moser, then went into power-forward mode, driving to the net with one hand on his stick, using the other to fend off Moser’s check. Then he took the puck to his backhand and, like John Garrett taking any meal and adding ketchup, he elevated it.
- Garland getting his first career hattrick is one of those "little, small victories" that Rick Tocchet talked about after Elias Pettersson hit 100 points. It's been nice to have a few individual achievements to cheer for this season amidst all of the struggles. Counter Quinn Hughes reaching 69 assists this season among those victories — more than any Canuck in franchise history not named Henrik Sedin.
- This was Garrett’s final broadcast as the colour commentator for the Canucks’ regional broadcasts. A clearly emotional John Shorthouse put it best: “You leave us right at the top of your game, and whoever doesn’t recognize it now will in hindsight.”
- Thank you, Cheech. You made even unwatchable hockey enjoyable. Watching the games won’t be the same without you on the broadcast.
- This is, of course, the final I Watched This Game of the 2022-23 season. Thanks for sticking with this season with me. I greatly appreciate all of you who regularly read these recaps and I also appreciate those who just pop in from time to time. I hope I was able to make this Canucks season a little bit more fun and interesting for you.
