Canucks Home Opener is statement win
Daniel Sedin started the year off with a bang, recording four assists in an 8-2 blowout win.
October 7th, 2017 -
Welcome to the NHL Anders Nilsson. The Canucks were apparently tired of being the butt of jokes all offseason and they showed up with a vengeance for the home opener. Jordan Eberle took a roughing penalty early and Tyler Bertuzzi capitalized on the powerplay to give Vancouver an early lead. Jared McCann scored to make it 2-0 and Hischier and Sergachev both got their first NHL points on the goal. Vancouver gave up a powerplay goal to Eberle with Tanev in the box but before the period was out Henrik had added another Canucks goal to give them a 3-1 lead going into the first intermission. After a mostly quiet second period Henrik scored his second of the game (Rasmus Andersson would collect his first NHL assist on the play, along with Daniel getting his third assist of the night) shortly before the second intermission.
Derrick Pouliot opened the third with a powerplay marker and Brandon Tanev chased Nilsson with a goal just seconds later (both Hischier and Andersson had their second assists of the night). Derrick Pouliot welcomed Ben Scrivens to the game with his second goal of the period, assisted by Bertuzzi and by Daniel (for the fourth time tonight). Taylor Hall squeaked one past Markstrom with five minutes to go and Jared McCann responded with his second of the game to bring the final score to 8-2.
Nico Hischier had three assists in his debut while also going 10/12 in the faceoff circle. McCann, Pouliot and Henrik all scored twice and Daniel had four assists. Bertuzzi had a goal, an assist and ten shots on net in his first regular season game next to the twins. The third pairing of Vlasic and Andersson was +3. Derrick Pouliot had a night, with eight hits to go along with his three shots on goal. It was a feel good win for a Canucks club that has experienced a lot of downs lately.