Vancouver Canucks @ Buffalo Sabres: My First Ever Canucks Game
This past Tuesday, October 19th, I had the privilege of going to Buffalo, NY, to watch my beloved Canucks play the Buffalo Sabres. For as long as I've been a Canucks fan, I always found it odd that I've seen the team play in person. Where I live, the hometown New Jersey Devils are an hour away, the New York Rangers and New York Islanders are about an hour-and-a-half, and the Philadelphia Flyers are the same distance away in the opposite direction. And yet, the opportunity has always alluded me until recently. I go to school in Olean, NY, which is an hour-and-a-half south of Buffalo. As much as I would've loved to have gone to see the Canucks play in Buffalo last year, it wouldn't have worked out. The NHL made makeshift divisions the previous year because of COVID-19 to prevent the teams' travel. The Canucks were put in the Scotia Northern Division with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames, and the Edmonton Oilers. For all of you who are not savvy with geography, all of those teams are in Canada. The Canucks could only play in Canada and not come to the United States. But this year, things were back to normal, and the Canucks could play a regular 82 game schedule without any restrictions. This means I finally had the chance to see them for the first time and get some sense of normality back.
As I walked into Key Bank Center, a sense of excitement came over me--I felt like a kid again as I climbed the escalator up to the 300th level. I know what your thinking, '300 level seats? That must suck.'--oh, but they didn't. We were right behind the goalie on the left side of the ice, which means we got an excellent view of the ice and the back of the net--how cool is that? The arena wasn't packed at all--it was about at 38 percent capacity, according to ESPN.com--which is not good. My friends and I got to our seats, and I looked out on the ice and saw that Thatcher Demko was in net for the Canucks, and I was directly behind him--wow! Demko wasn't the only familiar player I noticed. I saw defensemen Tyler Myers, Oliver-Ekman Larsson, Luke Schenn, and Jack Rathbone—Quinn Hughes was nursing an injury, so unfortunately he didn’t play. In front of them, there was Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser--who was cleared off of IR and playing his first game of the season--, Connor Garland, Nils Hoglander, Tanner Pearson, Vasily Podkolzin, and of course, my favorite NHL player of all time, Bo Horvat. I couldn't believe that I was a mere couple hundred feet away from them.
A few moments into the game, I got to witness my first ever live Canucks goal, and my favorite player scored it. 5:57 into the 1st period, Tanner Pearson, Connor Garland, and Bo Horvat rushed up the ice into the offensive zone on the opposite side of the rink from where I was sitting. Pearson passed the puck up to Garland--who was behind the net--, and then Garland passed the puck to the Canucks' team captain, Bo Horvat. Bo beat Sabres' goalie Craig Anderson in the corner for the game's first goal and his first of the season. I was stunned. Bo Horvat has been my favorite player ever since I've been watching hockey. To see him score a goal live is a moment I will never forget.
The seats my friends and I had for the game!
About three minutes later, the Sabres got on the board with a goal from forwarding right wing Kyle Okposo--trust me, that won't be the last time the Sabres will beat Demko. There was a sizeable time when the Canucks and Sabres were locked in at a 1-1 tie, but that would soon be broken. At 16:01 left in the 1st period, J.T Miller passed the puck to his teammate, Luke Schenn, at the blueline. Schenn ripped the puck directly at Craig Anderson, and a tip-in from newly acquired Canuck Justin Dowling got past the veteran goalie to score the Canucks second, and sadly the last goal of the night for my favorite club.
The 2nd period was mostly uneventful. Vancouver was blessed with a power-play after Okposo committed a hooking penalty on the marvelous Brock Boeser. However, in typical Canucks fashion, they blew the two-minute man advantage and struggled to keep the goal in the offensive zone--not what you want from your club's special teams. The scary penalty for the Canucks came when Tanner Pearson was sent to the penalty box for a high stick on Buffalo defenseman Jacob Bryson. For those who don't know, a high stick that doesn't draw blood but still hits the opponent results in a four-minute minor--in other words, they had double the time to score with the Canucks down one player. By some miracle, the Canucks' penalty kill stayed diligent and kept the Sabres from scoring on the four-minute minor. But, winger Zemgus Girgensons got a shot past Thatcher Demko with only 17:37 left in the second period to tie it up 2-2 going into the third period. The Canucks had an abysmal period. They spent most of the game in the defensive zone and didn't get any good looks on Anderson until late in the period, and Anderson swallowed all of their shots. They needed to have a strong outing in the third if they wanted to win this game--and that didn't happen.
3:33 into the third period, Sabres winger Jeff Skinner had a highlight-reel worthy goal to put Buffalo up 3-2. Demko was able to clean up the last barrage of Buffalo shots, but Skinner shot the puck past Demko while he was falling to ice--I have to admit it was a great goal. It sucked that Vancouver was down 3-2, but most of the third period was left to be played. Surely we would score another goal.
Twenty-three seconds after Skinner put the Sabres us 3-2, Tage Thompson got his second goal of the season on similar circumstances as Skinner's goal. Demko was being volleyed with shots and couldn't fend off Thompson sneaking the puck past his pad for the Sabres' fourth goal of the game--an absolute brutal turn of events for Vancouver. Over 14 minutes passed, and my Canucks were down 4-2. The final nail in the coffin came when the Canucks failed to score on another power play and pulled Thatcher Demko after failing to produce a goal on special teams. Poor puck handling turned the puck over to Rasmus Asplund, who shot the puck down the ice into the empty net for the game's final score.
That wasn't the result I wanted, but I should learn to expect horrible things from the Canucks at this point. I've been a fan of this team ever since I can remember, and they were never really any good--except for 2011, but we don't speak of that season. After this loss, the Canucks are an ugly 1-2-1 to start the 2021 season—not ideal. The Sabres on paper are worse than us, so it hurt that we couldn't win, but at the end of the day, the 'Nucks have 78 games left to play--there's plenty of time for these guys to gel together and get their feet under them. There are a lot of new additions to the organization that has been playing very well, but Buffalo was the better team that night. The Sabres played with chemistry and resourcefulness--it's challenging to win games when your opponent is dialed in.
I'm glad I was able to go to the game and see the Canucks play, however. Not only was it the first time I've seen the Canucks live, but it was the first time I've seen any of my favorite sports teams live. Going to live games are entirely different than watching on the TV, and as a fan, it was great to be a part of that. To feel like a kid watching the Canucks play right in front of me. Every little thing they did--no matter how big or small--fired me up. It took me a while, but I could finally support my team indirectly through the radio, TV, or buying their merchandise. Hopefully, I'll be able to see them in a couple of months when they play the Devils in New Ark, NJ--and I hope to feel like a kid again when I go to that game too!