It’s appropriate that Daniel and Henrik Sedin’s final home game was on a Thursday, as the entire night felt like a throwback.
The crowd looked and sounded like a 2011 playoff crowd. Daniel and Henrik Sedin played like their 2011 selves. The Canucks skated out to U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” and Green Day’s “Holiday” played when they scored.
I half-expected to look down and see Jeff Tambellini, Keith Ballard, and Raffi Torres when I looked down on the ice. Maybe some Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga to come pouring out of the speakers too.
It was an incredible climax to the Sedins’s story, with the denouement still to come on Saturday against the Oilers. Saturday’s game will inevitably feel like a letdown after Thursday’s perfection.
The Sedins got to say goodbye to the fans and the fans got to say goodbye to the Sedins, who chanted “One more year, one more year, one more year.” Alas, this is it, and if this is all there is, it was incredible.
I witnessed Canucks history when I watched this game.
- The Sedins created a great scoring chance right on their first shift, so you could tell they were feeling it. Unfortunately, what they were feeling was the post, as Henrik found iron with his first shot of the game. “I thought it was going to be a good start if we scored there,” he said after, laughing. “It felt like we had our legs going tonight and when you get a chance that early it gets you going a little bit.”
- Daniel Sedin had a game-high 10 shot attempts: all 10 of them were on goal. None of his shots got blocked and none missed the net. He was more dialed in than TSN 1040 caller with a rotary phone.
- 10 shots on goal ties Daniel’s career-high; it’s the fourth time he’s had 10 shots on goal in a game, fifth if you count the playoffs.
- The ice was tilted in the Canucks direction pretty much all game. They dominated right from puck drop, but the Coyotes kept counter-attacking like Liverpool and scored the opening goal against the flow of play on a turnover by Nikolay Goldobin. It was particularly impressive, because with the ice tilted, Christian Fischer had to ice skate uphill, which Blade has made clear is a bad idea (NSFW).
- Jacob Markstrom did not look happy with Derrick Pouliot on that goal, turning towards him and shouting something mostly unintelligible that would likely have to be spelled with some asterisks if I put it in the blog. Let’s just say that Markstrom seemed to feel that Pouliot was a little too permissive in letting Fischer get behind him and cut to the net unimpeded. It’s like he was facing Bobby Fischer and let him get a Fool’s Mate.
- Henrik’s post and Sam Gagner’s later crossbar on a setup from the Sedins seemed to build anticipation for when the Sedins finally scored. It was an expert use of the literary device of rising action. It’s no joke when I say this felt like a storybook.
- NHL reporter Kevin Woodley (almost) called it: he joked during the first intermission that one Sedin would set up the other for a goal at the 2:33 mark of the second period, making it 22:33 into the game. It was close: instead, Daniel scored at the 33 second mark of the second. 33 to 23 to 22 at 0:33. It was even Daniel’s 22nd goal. The numerologists in the crowd were going haywire.
- It was a piece of old-school Wizardous Sedinery, the kind that results in a defence in disarray, a goaltender out of position, and a wide-open net. Henrik undressed Oliver Ekman-Larsson with a slick cut inside, found Alex Edler in the middle, and Edler went full triplet, passing out of a prime scoring position to give Daniel an open net.
- “We had a little letdown at the end of the second for about five minutes,” said Green, and you can see it pretty clearly in the gameflow chart from Natural Stat Trick. Apparently the arena operators tilted the ice too many times and it froze on them for a bit until they put in another quarter.
- The Coyotes took a two-goal lead in that five minutes, but in the spirit of Throwback Thursday, there was a sense of confidence about the outcome of this game that I don’t recall feeling since the 2010-11 season. During that season, a third-period comeback always felt inevitable. It was more surprising when they didn’t come back than when they did.
- As if the arena wasn’t lively enough, the Canucks also announced the winners of the Canucks team awards. The crowd went crazy, in particular, for the announcement of Derek Dorsett as the Unsung Hero and Brock Boeser as the Most Valuable and Most Exciting Player, but it was plenty loud for Alex Edler as the Best Defenceman, and Jacob Markstrom for most Three Star selections.
- The Canucks out-shot the Coyotes 15-0 in the third period, essentially giving Markstrom nothing to do. He came skating out of his crease multiple times, ostensibly to provide a quick up and get the offence going again, but really, I thiknk he just wanted to touch the puck to remember what it felt like.
- The Coyotes did have 10 shot attempts in the third period, but seven of those were blocked. Alex Edler had three of those blocks in one incredible defensive shift. He also blocked a backdoor pass that would have meant an open net for the Coyotes, and made two good outlet passes during that shift, only the puck kept coming back in.
- The kids got into the action in the third period, as Bo Horvat and Jake Virtanen combined to make it 3-2 just over a minute into the final frame. It was a great reminder that Virtanen can rip the puck like it was a phonebook and he was a strong man. The best part? He knocked the water bottle off the net, which is one of my favourite things in the world. He went bottle busting like Dude Perfect.
- One of the loudest ovations of the night? A Daniel Sedin shot that got saved. It wasn’t even his best scoring chance of the night that didn’t go in. But the crowd. Got. Lit. It was insane.
- Brendan Leipsic was in the zone before his goal — he broke a Coyote defender’s ankles with a dangle a couple minutes earlier — so it shouldn’t have been surprising to see him score a spinorama goal. Yet it still was. Like Cory Cotton when it’s bottle busting time, I didn’t see it coming.
- Seriously, Leipsic’s goal nearly stole the show from the Sedins. Okay, that’s an exaggeration — the Sedins were the show — but it was still one of the best goals of the season. It seemed like Trevor Murphy had erased the danger with a strong backcheck, but the danger was lurking just out sight like a velociraptor. Leipsic spun and snuck a backhand just under the blocker of Kuemper to tie the game.
- That set the stage for the perfect ending. The crowd never left their feet as the Sedins went to work on an overtime power play drawn by Michael Del Zotto. You could tell the Sedins were gassed after over a minute of power play time, even with a timeout to give them more of a breather before the faceoff. Over 21 minutes of ice time in an emotionally draining night seemed to leave the Sedins with nothing left to give. And yet, they still had something more in the tank.
- When Daniel Sedin scored with a slap shot, the building shook. Those that weren’t cheering were looking around at each other in disbelief. How is it possible that this special night could end so perfectly?
- Let’s add to the numerology: Daniel’s 23rd goal was scored at 2:33 of overtime, with assists once again from 23 and 33. Like a bad night at the poker table, it was all twos and threes in this game.
- That’s it. That’s all I can say about this game right now. I have no words left, just a lump in my throat. I’m looking forward to looking back on this game tomorrow, to try to capture the moment a little better. But, for now, this is all I can manage. It’s not enough — the Sedins meant too much and the night was too perfect — but it will have to do.
