Vancouver Canucks: Top 3 Jake Virtanen moments from 2018/19
As we continue to look back at the 2018/19 season, one player led a revolution in Vancouver. Jake Virtanen had Vancouver Canucks fans all riled up at times this season – we look back at his top three moments from the season just ended.
Shotgun Jake is a movement that will take some time to die, and is one that I suspect Vancouver Canucks fans will still be talking about in 20 years’ time. Jake Virtanen began the 2018/19 season amid a frenzy of excitement, with eight goals through his first 20 games along with a couple of assists making us all feel like Jake had finally “figured it out”.
Sadly for Jake — and for us — that feeling did not stay with us throughout the season. With just seven goals and eight assists in 50 games after that, the 2018/19 season was one that showed a lot of promise, but has left Canucks fans still wanting more. Will we ever get to see Virtanen become a top-six power forward, or is he destined to be a Raffi Torres-type contributor from the third line?
As The Canucks Way looks back at the 2018/19 season, today we look at the top three moments from Virtanen’s season. No surprises what number one will be.
1: The birth of a movement
After TSN 1040’s Jason Brough made the bold prediction that Virtanen would score 20 goals this season, Canucks fans were also excited at the prospect that this season could finally be the one where Jake breaks out and proves his offensive prowess. With the added proviso that for every goal he scored, Brough and his co-host Mike Halford would shotgun a can of beer, this set the scene nicely for the new season.
Jake'll hit 20 goals next year. He's starting to realize what a force he can be.
— Jason Brough 🙁 (@SadClubCommish) April 6, 2018
Jake must have been fully aware of this “bet”, because in the very first game of the season he scored a goal, helping the Vancouver Canucks to a 5-2 victory over the eventual Western Conference Champions, the Calgary Flames. Cue Brough, Halford, and seemingly half of Vancouver downing beer gleefully in response.
This was the exact kind of support that Virtanen needed to begin the season. It would be so easy for Vancouver Canucks fans to criticise Jake’s then-lack of scoring, and to scapegoat him in much the same way that the likes of Loui Eriksson and Erik Gudbranson have been. Canucks fans know they have a good thing with Jake, and a quick Twitter search will find you thousands – thousands – of videos of people screaming “Shotgun Jake” and providing the local ale & stout economy with a nice boost.
It was a hugely positive way to begin the season, and one we all enjoyed immensely.
2: Doubling up the Blackhawks
In opening up the 2018/19 season with two goals in the team’s first four games, it was really beginning to look like the beginning of a new era for Virtanen. Cue an eight-game scoreless streak, before Jake potted his third goal of the season against the Minnesota Wild on October 29th.
Jake clearly liked the taste of that, as he went on to have one of his best games as a Vancouver Canuck, leading the Canucks to a 4-2 home win over our old rivals the Chicago Blackhawks. He twice levelled the game for the Canucks; the first was a sheer beauty, with the Blackhawks misplacing the puck and Jake picking the loose puck up in the neutral zone before streaking in to put it past Corey Crawford.
His second came from a curious combination – assists for Erik Gudbranson and Markus Granlund – and saw Jake put the finish on a nice play from Granlund, having taken a long pass from Gudbranson and swivelled past his man at the Blackhawks’ blue line before playing the puck wide to Jake. The look on Jake’s face when that second goal went in was so exciting to see – he knew what that meant, both to him and to Canucks fans.
3: No time for the blues
The standard Jake Virtanen goal is one of a sudden rush, lightning acceleration, blazing speed, and a quick shot taking the opposition goalie by surprise. The Vancouver Canucks took on the St Louis Blued on December 20th riding a 5-1-1 record over the previous seven games, having won just one of the previous 13 games before that. This was the period of the season where the Canucks turned their season round in an ultimately vain attempt to challenge for a playoff spot.
On this occasion, Jake subverted expectations by wiring a laser of a shot from the point past Jake Allen in the Blues’ net, putting the team’s fourth goal on the board en route to a 5-1 scoreline. It was Virtanen’s 11th goal of the season, in just his 38th game, and the assist he also picked up gave him a stat line of 11-7-18. At this stage, he was still on track for 20 goals.
In his final 32 games of the 2018/19 season, Virtanen picked up just 4-3-7. Like Nikolay Goldobin before him, Jake has suffered from a lack of consistency – both in his own performances, and in having regular linemates. The chance to create some permanent chemistry would surely pay huge dividends for both player and team, and Jake showed us enough offensively this season to justify a bigger role next year.
Season report card: Bo Horvat. dark. Next
This was a season of what could have been for Jake Virtanen. We continue to hope for an offensive breakout – which may never come – but there is no denying Jake can be an electrifying presence in the lineup. Let’s hope for a big summer from the Canucks’ 6th overall draft pick from the 2014 Entry Draft and to plenty more Shotgun Jake moments next season.