With the Stanley Cup Playoffs essentially out of reach for the Vancouver Canucks, the remaining games in their schedule seem largely meangingless.
But that’s not the case. Saturday afternoon’s game against the Anaheim Ducks held a great deal of meaning, both for one particular player and for the franchise as a whole.
For Elias “Junior” Pettersson, Saturday was a very memorable day because he scored his first career NHL goal, finally finding the back of the net in his 22nd NHL game. As an added bonus, his goal came from the first career NHL assist for his good friend, Linus Karlsson, with a couple of other AHL call-ups on the ice with him: Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Max Sasson.
“It means a lot, a first goal,” said Pettersson. “It was fun that Karly made an assist too, so it was amazing…I really like those guys. Karly has been with me since my first day in Abbotsford, and he’s been helping me a lot.”
That goal was a special moment. It also kicked off some history for the Canucks, as it was the first of five goals in the span of four minutes and 30 seconds.
“That was awesome,” said Max Sasson. “They couldn’t even announce a goal before the next goal was scored.”
It was the fastest five goals in Canucks history.
The previous record was five minutes and 15 seconds, set way back in the 1992-93 season on goals from Petr Nedved, Dave Babych, Ryan Walter, Sergio Momesso, and Trevor Linden in a 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Just like on Saturday, all five of those goals came in the first period.
It was a swift reversal of fortunes for the Canucks, who gave up the opening goal on the very first shot of the game. After getting shut out by the Seattle Kraken in their last game, giving up the first goal 1:21 on Saturday felt like one final nail in a coffin already thoroughly secured shut. The Canucks could have even been forgiven for giving up at that point.
Instead, they came back and made history.
Well, franchise history. It’s nowhere near the record for the fastest five goals in NHL history. In fact, it ranks 26th in NHL history. , set by the 1972-73 Pittsburgh Penguins in a 10-4 win over the St. Louis Blues.
Perhaps my favourite statistical aspect of the Canucks’ five goals is that the goals, quick as they may have been, were spaced out enough that they were miles away from the franchise record for the fastest four goals in Canucks history.
The gaps between goals were 1:06, 0:46, 1:53, and 0:45. The four closest goals were 3:24 apart, which ranks 221st in NHL history and 11th in franchise history.
The fastest four goals in Canucks history came back in November, 1980, when Gerry Minor, Curt Fraser, Stan Smyl, and Bobby Schmautz scored within a minute and 23 seconds in . That’s the fourth-fastest four goals in NHL history, just three seconds behind the record.
That record, incidentally, dates back to World War II: the Boston Bruins scored four goals in a minute and 20 seconds on January 21, 1945 in a lopsided 14-3 win over the New York Rangers. That also happens to be tied for the fourth-most goals by a team in a single game.
Look, I’ll be honest: going down these rabbit holes is a lot more fun than thinking about the Canucks’ season because, despite the win, the playoffs remain a pipe dream. But sports aren’t just about wins and losses and playoffs and trophies; they’re about weird statistics, cool moments, and connecting with history.
The Canucks gave me some weird statistics, cool moments, and some history when I watched this game.
- The first shot of the game was an absolute snipe. Kiefer Sherwood and Quinn Hughes got their wires crossed, and both went to the same man, leaving Troy Terry wide open in the right faceoff circle. He rifled a ridiculous shot into the top corner on the short side past Thatcher Demko. It’s hard to blame Demko at all; it was with how casually perfect that shot was.
- That goal could have broken the Canucks. Instead, they lit up the Ducks .
- Elias “Junior” Pettersson got the game all tied up like water at the highest point on a beach. Linus Karlsson wended his way into the offensive zone, while Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Max Sasson went to the net. That opened up space for Pettersson to jump into the high slot and he one-timed Karlsson’s backhand pass over Lukas Dostal’s glove. It was the best first career goal by Elias Pettersson since .
- “I thought he really excelled today,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “Obviously, the goal is great. Footey’s been spending a lot of time with him on surfing that middle part of the ice and I saw him do it about four times really well. So he’s grasping a lot of stuff Footey’s talking bout. His gap was really good tonight too.”
- Filip Hronek pulled the Canucks ahead with a little help from Trevor Zegras. Teddy Blueger found Hronek at the top of the zone and his shot hit Zegras’s stick. The puck floated daintily through the air and pinged off the post and in while Dostal moved in the opposite direction, chasing a phantom puck that didn’t exist.
- The Canucks’ power play has made things look very difficult at times this season but they made it look very easy on the 3-1 goal. Jake DeBrusk was in the bumper but slid down to the front of the net, taking Radko Gudas with him. Brock Boeser slipped into the now-vacated bumper and was wide open to deflect a hard Quinn Hughes pass over Dostal’s shoulder. , it was simple, but effective.
- “We spent a lot of time with video and yesterday in practice,” said Tocchet. “Especially Brock’s goal, I was telling you after the Seattle game how frustrated I was with the power play because the middle was open, and we got it tonight…I thought they took the information, applied it tonight, good for them.”
- The power play went 2-for-2 to make it 4-1. Boeser protected the puck on a zone entry, then sent it to a wide-open Hughes, who attacked up the left side. Hughes shot low on Dostal’s left pad for a rebound, while Conor Garland choked up on his stick and went down on one knee to make sure the rebound would hit him. Sure enough, the puck went off his knee and then he poked it in .
- Dakota Joshua completed the fastest five goals in franchise history. Marcus Pettersson threw a puck vaguely in the direction of the net and Kiefer Sherwood tried to tip it more precisely in the direction of the net. Instead, Sherwood fully knocked the puck down to the ice and it landed right next to Joshua, letting him fire a quick shot past Dostal before he could recover.
- The Canucks came out of the first period with a 5-1 lead after their four-and-a-half minute outburst but they got a little bit lucky too. The Ducks hit three posts in the period, beating Demko cleanly but rocking the heavy metal like a cool uncle.
- While the Canucks have coughed up some pretty big leads this season, the 5-1 lead after the first period seemed pretty safe. Still, I can’t pretend that Zegras getting a goal a few minutes into the second period didn’t make me a little bit nervous. It was one of those bad luck goals that feels like it could start an avalanche, as a puck shot wide just happened to bounce off the boards to Zegras with a wide-open net.
- The Ducks got a great chance to get another shortly after when Pius Suter was called for slashing, but the Canucks’ penalty kill kept the puck in the offensive zone for most of the two minutes. Seriously, the puck was in the Ducks’ zone for about 1:05 of the Ducks’ power play, which technically counts as “most.”
- Marcus Pettersson did a neat thing and we here at Pass it to Bulis are all about neat things. Under pressure in the defensive zone, he put the puck back between his legs and off the boards to himself, freeing him up for a clean breakout pass. It was neat!
- Max Sasson, in his first game in over two months, put the game away for good a few minutes into the third period. He took advantage of a bobble by Oliver Kylington, stole the puck at the Canucks’ blue line, and took off for a breakaway with more speed than . He made like he was going to make a massive deke to the forehand, then cut the deke short and slid the puck five-hole immediately instead.
- “I wanted to go low blocker, that’s kind of my shot,” said Sasson. “But I remember I had a breakaway earlier in the season and I missed, so this time I thought five-hole.”
- It was a solid night for Sasson’s line with Lekkerimäki and Karlsson, as they chipped in on two goals while playing some pretty tough minutes against the Zegras and Terry lines. The early lead let Tocchet spread the minutes in the first of back-to-back games and, the youth group performed well.
- “Seeing all the guys that I’ve played a lot of games with in Abbotsford here makes us all comfortable, I think,” said Sasson. “Me, Lekky, and Karly was a line before Lekky got called up — we played probably six or seven games together in Abby. It’s really comfortable and they’re two of my really good buddies. It’s super fun playing with them.”
- Whatever this game might mean in the standings, at the very least, the Canucks gave the fans who decided to forego a sunny Saturday afternoon in the city in favour of a cold ice rink a good show.
