Vancouver Canucks: Top 5 Radim Vrbata Goals as a Canuck

Honourable Mentions

Kicking off out honourable mentions is one of Vrbata’s first goals as a Canuck. This blast from just off the faceoffs showed how potent the Canucks’ powerplay would be for the rest of the season with Vrbata playing the shooter for the first powerplay unit with the Sedins. What a rocket of the shot there!

This second goal makes the honourable mentions not for its flashiness but for Vrbata’s scoring cleverness. He fakes as if going around the net for a backhanded wrap-around to the glove side of Antti Niemi and halts behind the net to use his reach and tuck it in short side, blocker side. Nice give-and-go with nick Bonino and great awareness to bank the puck off of Niemi.

Isn’t that look on Niemi’s face just priceless? Anyhow, for our third goal on our honourable mentions list is his game-winner against the Winnipeg Jets last season. Great speed to deke out the netminder and not being tempted to go to his go-to backhand shot. Interesting to note that the netminder is catching with his right and nice job by Vrbata to take advantage of it.

And this final goal is from last year’s playoffs. See what the Sedins can do! Just get to the front of the net, go with speed, shake off the defenceman, and have your stick at the right place. A true scorer’s tip to extend the Canucks’s lead to three. Watching these makes me sad — why wouldn’t he make such moves this year!

Whether it be for the good of the Canucks’ and their point totals or for the sake of his own trade value, it saddens me to see Vrbata disappear all of a sudden.

Next: Best of Radim Vrbata #5: Remember me?