My experience at Vancouver Canucks game vs. Boston Bruins

The Vancouver Canucks beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 in Overtime! There were goals from Brandon Sutter and Bo Horvat with the overtime winner!

Following a long six-game road trip, the Vancouver Canucks beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 in overtime in their second home game of the season. I had the privilege to be at this game  because I won a pair of tickets from a contest from Rogers. Overall, it was a great game to be at despite the number of Bruins jerseys. Here are my thoughts on  Saturday Night’s game.

Bo Horvat feasted on the Bruins

Bo Horvat scored the overtime winner from a feed from Brock Boeser on the backhand to seal the win for the Canucks. However, that wasn’t the only thing he did. He laid out a big hit on Joakim Nordstrom and then Noel Accaiari tried to stick up for his teammate with a fight. Horvat threw some good punches, including a few uppercuts before they both fell to the ice.

Other than the fight, Bo looked good with and without the puck. With the puck, he looked as fast, calm and more poised than ever. Seeing him handle the puck with one stick while a Bruins player tried to check him was a treat to see. Without the puck, he knew where to position himself and how to strip the puck away from the opponents.

Jacob Markstrom was sharp as nails

Jacob Markstrom sat the last four games in favour on Anders Nillson. He was back between the pipes tonight and he looked solid, stopping 30 out of 31 shots. The only shot that beat him was the Nordstrom wrister in the third from the top of the circle. He made some saves on David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Chris Wagner and Zdeno Chara. Some time off and practice with goalie coach Ian Clark really paid off.

Troy Stecher was immense

The Richmond native sure had a great game. Troy Stecher prevented the puck from going over the line at the last second when I thought it trickled in. He was breaking up plays, blocking shots and stealing the puck away from the Bruins players.  Stecher looked quick with the puck and tried to create scoring chances by passing it to the forwards in the slot or down low when he wasn’t generating chances of his own. He is a hard working defenceman who seems to be getting better.

The Canucks look faster

On TV, I have noticed the Canucks seem more faster than last year. In person, they looked quite fast, especially in the first. The youth in the Canucks sure made this team speedy. Pettersson will be back soon and in a few years time, this team could be even faster.

2011 still hurts

There were a plethora of Bruins jerseys at Rogers Arena on Saturday. Some of them were rubbing in 2011.  Many Canucks fans are still sour over 2011 and made it known. The boos were loud when the Bruins made it onto the ice. They were even louder when the Brad Marchand touched the puck. Only a few players on the Bruins still remain from the 2011 team but it still hurts. A lot. Some fans before and after the game were talking about how we should’ve won game 7 and how history would have been different. Yup, it still hurts.

Thoughts On My Experience at The Game

I saw on Facebook that the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers were teaming up to give 100 pairs of tickets to Saturday’s Game against Boston. I entered my name and email (that’s all you had to do) and didn’t have high expectations because I never win contests or giveaways. On Friday afternoon, I received and email that I won and could not believe it! I texted my friend Chris to see if he wanted to go and he was on top of the moon when he read my text.

Believe it or not, this was only my second Canucks game I have seen live  The first was on December 13, 2013 against the Edmonton Oilers where the Canucks beat them 4-0. That was almost five years ago. I could never really afford tickets because they are so expensive, so I ‘m happy I won the contest.

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Rogers never told me where our seats were and I couldn’t believe they were in the lower bowl behind the net where the Canucks shot twice.  After checking out our seats, I bought a Pavel Bure T-Shirt and a Henrik Sedin bobble head at the Team Store. I was in section 111 so the store was just a few steps away.

Bruins fans sure made their presence known as one man for the entire first period chanted LET’S GO BRUINS and it was a shame no one tried to shut him up. The same thing happened in the third when an entire suite did the same thing.

I would say that the atmosphere was pretty good. It was loud when the Canucks were in the offensive zone and in on the rush; even louder when there were big hits, Markstrom glove saves and of course Horvat fighting Accalari.

It was cool to see Sutter score on his knees up close and it felt like the building erupted when that happened. Rogers Arena was at its loudest when Horvat scored the OT winner. My entire section went wild, I even high-fived and hugged the random guys sitting next to me.

The Bruins fans were at the loudest when Nordstrom scored. After that, I was so nervous. I was already frustrated since the third began because of the sloppy plays. I thought the Canucks played well in the first and maybe a little bit in the second. In the third, they weren’t playing with much energy as the Bruins were outshotting them. The defence couldn’t even break out of their own zone and they were losing some board battes.

It wsa fun to boo Brad Marchand every time he touched the puck and it was even sweeter to see him cough up the puck to Boeser in Overtime. We all still hate him and his nose.

I hope to go to more games in the future and if I do this season, hope to see Pettersson on the ice wearing the jersey I eventually want to get.

Next Up For the Vancouver Canucks

Alex Ovechkin and the defending Stanley Cup Champions come to town on Monday. Puck drop is at 7:00.