EDMONTON – Hey, this rebuilding stuff isn’t as bad as people say.
You can score five goals against a Stanley Cup contender, then blow a three-goal lead in the third period. Then you can win in overtime because your secret weapon is a fourth-line, nine-goal scorer who has demon hands at three-on-three.
And you can have riotous fun.
“Not the way we drew it up, for sure,” Manny Malhotra said after winning Game 1 as a National Hockey League head coach, 6-5 Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers. “Obviously, a lot of really good things to be able to score five goals in a game. We don’t want to give up three in the third period; that’s something that we’ll definitely need to work on. But just the resiliency to stay with it for us was a huge factor in the game. Obviously, the joy of winning a game takes precedence right now.”
You’d probably have to go back a couple of years, possibly to the 2024 playoffs, to find a group of Canuck players as happy as these ones were Tuesday night.
The game was full of roller-coaster drops and ascents and signs of the biggest rebuild in franchise history.
Max Sasson, who was in the minors at the start of last season, was deployed against Connor McDavid and battled the best player in the world to a draw.
Sasson scored on a beautiful give-and-go with Drew O’Connor and set up Paul Cotter’s game-winner at 1:59 of overtime after the inexperienced Canucks built and then surrendered a 5-2 lead in the third period.
Cotter, signed this summer as a free agent from the New Jersey Devils to provide the Canucks more speed, physicality and versatility on their fourth line, scored the first goal of the game shorthanded (he logged only 82 seconds of penalty-kill time in 79 games last season) and the last one at three-on-three by roasting Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry in OT with a deke.
Twenty-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium wore an ‘A’ on his sweater, one of six Canucks who will be so decorated this season. And the team, outshot 35-23 and outplayed by the Oilers at the start and end of regulation, worked tenaciously and counter-punched like Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Kevin Lankinen significantly outplayed Jarry, which he’ll probably be asked to do against other goaltenders this season.
All in all, the Canucks and their fans would be ecstatic to have another 83 games like this.
“What happened happened,” Buium said of allowing the Oilers back from a 5-2 deficit with 11 minutes to go. “But if that happened last year, it could have maybe folded us and put us in a mental pretzel. I think, you know, to go out there and stick with it and stay calm and composed, I think that was great for our group.”
“I mean, that’s what makes it fun,” Cotter said of the plot twists. “First game of the season is always going to be crazy. You know, credit to us. We’d be silly to think that they were not going to make a giant push. Exceptional players over there. . . so we know what they’re capable of. Eventually they break through. But for a first game for us, I think we did a good job.”
Oiler Evan Bouchard’s five-point night, which included a hat trick, made him the game’s first star. But Cotter’s performance — two goals, two hits and nearly two minutes of penalty-kill time — was eye-opening.
“Yeah, I’m well aware of how good he is,” Sasson, who trains with Cotter outside of Detroit, said of his teammate. “I skate with him every day in the summer. He has probably the best hands on the team; I’m going to go on the record with that.”
“He said that?” Cotter asked when Sasson’s compliment was relayed. “That’s my man, that’s my dog, a fellow Michigander. To give him credit, he’s worked his butt off for years now, and now he’s matching against McDavid all game, which is a huge testament to him. I mean, amazing player, amazing person. I’m happy to give the praise right back to him.”
Considered a bubble forward when training camp opened just a couple of weeks ago, Sasson seized the opportunity Malhotra, his coach in the American Hockey League, gave him to reestablish himself as centre.
The undrafted 26-year-old’s speed and hockey IQ have allowed Malhotra to use Sasson and linemates O’Connor and Linus Karlsson in a matchup role they embrace.
“If that’s the job we’re given, I think we’re really happy for it and ready for it,” Sasson said. “I mean, obviously, (McDavid) is the best player in the world, so you know you can only shut him down so much or make it at least hard on him. That’s what we were trying to do, and thought we did a pretty good job of it. Like I said this morning, there’s a lot of heart on this team.”
McDavid had a pair of assists but no shots on goal. Former Canuck Vasily Podkolzin had seven shots, and his second goal, as the Oilers skated six-against-four, tied the game 5-5 with 41.8 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Marco Rossi, on a superb breakaway pass from Liam Ohgren, rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Elias Pettersson on the power play scored the other goals for the Canucks, who are one wild game closer to being whatever they’re going to become.
“You know, we stuck with it,” veteran defenceman Jamie Oleksiak said after logging 23:40 of ice time. “We didn’t get discouraged. Even when they had their push, I think we responded well. There’s things we can build on, but overall, this was a good place to start. You want (games) to compound and have these good days add up, and I think it’s pretty good for us so far. We’ve just got to keep building.”
May their work days all be this much fun.