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BEST ALMOST HAD IT

Hansen was just mad he didn’t score here.

BEST SIGN OF THE TIMES

Smiling Sam still not winning Canucks fans over.

Don’t worry, he has three years to do it in.

I believe in him.

BEST RANDOM SEGUE

BEST HOT TOPIC SHIRT

Biega 2 assists tonight, he’s going to keep Hutton in the press box. — Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) December 22, 2017

If we go with the theory that you don’t want to hurt Guddy’s value by scratching him, the Canucks have some tough choices to make on defense.

So far, Hutton has taken the Guddy bullet for now.

Put Hutton’s face behind bars on a t-shirt and the analytics community is gonna buy it.

The idea if Hutton sat one game was kind of accepted by them, to be fair.

“OK, one game, fine, but not two.”

Two? It was starting to burn a little.

“Two games, wtf is going on here.”

If he sits three games?

Watch out world, the war is gonna intensify.

The Hutton articles will double online.

Canucks Army will re-brand itself The Hutton Army.

That isn’t to say Canucks Army and other pro Hutton people are off base here.

There aren’t many Canucks d-men you would make an argument HAVE to stay in the lineup no matter what.

Sitting Hutton three games would be an odd choice given that you have other guys who could lessen the load on Hutton by sitting out a game.

The case can certainly be made that Del Zotto could do with a game off.

#Canuck D-Men Defensive Zone Transition Chart @ #SJSharks



Ugly 3rd + OT



Thought MDZ had abysmal game, especially his gap control (CF 35.9%)



Stecher was the opposite, broke up plenty of plays in neutral zone CF (59.38%)



Zone Entries + PSC coming up next. pic.twitter.com/gSK8Pm0C0L — Darryl Keeping (@dkeeping) December 22, 2017

Yes, even Troy From Richmond (even though he played well tonight) wouldn’t be an end of the world situation to sit for a game.

But it will be very interesting if Hutton keeps sitting out games.

Chalk that up again to the “finding out some insight into the mind of Travis Green.”

All eyes will be on the lineup choices next game, that is for damn sure.

BEST PRAYER

Just get Brock some points please — Ricky (@Van_city_Nucks) December 22, 2017

Ask and you shall receive.

That is the most casual looking goal we’ve seen since the last time Tommy Gun scored.

Brock Boeser sees a rebound, and instead of jamming away at it right into the goalie pads, aka Beer League 101 move, aka what I do all the time, he takes the time to flip it to his back hand and goes shelf.

In other words…

B R O C K H A R D — Boestivus (@stromb0ner) December 22, 2017

Indeed.

BEST REQUEST

If you wanted to add a picture of Jesus with Boeser’s face to the Provies I wouldn’t hate it — Irrelevant (@trevorbottt) December 22, 2017

BEST STATS

@TheStanchion this seems good? — Charmander in Cheif (@ItsBuhrice) December 22, 2017

BEST KEEPER STATS

#Canucks 5v5 Zone Entries @ #SJSharks



Boeser was skating very well tonight.



Green says he wants the team to play aggressive, yet he deployed Gaunce more than any other forward in the third period, questionable deployment to say the least.



Got that point though! pic.twitter.com/s6E7kQne0X — Darryl Keeping (@dkeeping) December 22, 2017

Just another example of how important Boeser is to this team.

He is the literal engine of the Canucks offense right now.

BEST CHECKING IN WITH DOWD

Dowd literally just checked Virtanen... — Jason (@jjhljh) December 22, 2017

Yep.

BEST STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

You have to admit, the last few games have been fun to watch.

Last year Team Tank did say the best season would be high scoring, losing affairs.

So if you’re going to play hockey, and have a team that struggles to win, at least make it fun.

And give credit to the Canucks/Boeser, they are certainly doing that.

I'm loving this fast and loose style of play. Sure it can be stressful sometimes, but it's way more exciting than last season. #Canucks — Cookie Hollyham 💋 (@Rad_NikkiYYC) December 22, 2017

This is a common sentiment amongst fans right now, and after last season, you can’t blame them.

As long as Boeser is getting points, and the team is scoring goals, it will go a long way with this fan base.

BEST WTF

0 third period shifts for Boucher or Burmistrov. One for Granlund — Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) December 22, 2017

OK, sure, Boucher and Burmi not getting shifts, why not.

Granlund? Ok, bit of an odd choice, but sure, maybe Green saw something in his game he didn’t like.

But it was odd to see Granlund start overtime, despite sitting on the bench so long.

The ol’ Petr Klima trick?

Either way, Boeser had his one shift, then the Sedins got their turn, and Jakey V? Never saw the ice.

Maybe he was going to come out next, but we’ll never know because Edler got stuck on the ice for the entire overtime, and Henrik did this:

Odd decision from one of the best passers in the game.

It feels like you either get an OT goal from the Twins, or you see them sucking oxygen tanks in the corner praying for the sweet release of death.

There is no in between.

Why not Jakey though?

Why not Jake?

BEST MOOSE DROPPINGS

The slow reveal of Messier’s low point total, followed up by shining light underneath it…

BEST SCENES FROM A PHONE

text of the year? #Canucks Green revealed this a-m that when team made PP changes ahead of game in LA last month, Newell Brown texted the proposed changes to Green late the night before the game. Green said he looked at the text and liked the ideas right away — Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) December 21, 2017

What I imagine the conversation looked like:

Another scene I imagine:

And yet another scene I imagine:

BEST HUNTING FOR LAST MINUTE GIFTS

From Reddit user mpl88 comes this beauty. A David Booth jersey can be yours for the low low price of $45!

I can confirm they have some really old merch in this store, some of which seems like it comes from the mid 2000s.

Do they have Taylor Pyatt shirseys? Trevor Letowski sticks? Drake Berehowsky hats??

Reddit user Luftwaffe_Blitz found this beauty there.

He also saw shirseys for Vey, Garrison and Higgins.

Sadly, no Tryamkin shirseys.

BEST RETAIL ADVICE

BEST VIEW OF THE POWER OF THE FLOW

I could watch this angle of Boeser's snipe on Price for days, so here's a GIF of it. Credit to our @TSN_Sports #Habs broadcast for getting this shot. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/hOA0y4kdeb — Grady Sas (@GradySas) December 21, 2017

Wow.

BEST SIGN BOESER IS BECOMING A THING

#Canucks Boeser, #Leafs Matthews & #NHLJets Laine Through 41 Career Games:



Boeser - 22 G, 15 A, 37 PTS

Matthews - 21 G, 16 A, 37 PTS

Laine - 21 G, 15 A, 36 PTS — Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) December 20, 2017

Being mentioned in the same tweet as Matthews by Sportsnet??

This kid is getting that sweet sweet national attention that’s so hard to come by out West.

BEST EYE ROLL

Did he roll his eyes at Millions ? pic.twitter.com/Q10wKi8uaq — M. (@MoeMesa) December 21, 2017

I went through Zapruder like levels to see if this was an eye roll, because if it was, Tkachuk’s troll game would move up a rank.

I saw no eye rolls alas. The mouth opening as if to say “oh my god I’m glad that’s over” is pretty hilarious though.

Juolevi better step up his interview shade throwing game.

BEST CHRISTMAS STORIES

Ed Willes had a great story about the Canucks remembering their favorite Christmas gifts as a child.

There are plenty of good stories in there, but The Flow’s is my favorite.

“I was ranked 120th in the world in NHL ’12 (out of literally hundreds of thousands of players). I used to take pride in it. I’d go through the whole leaderboard and challenge the best guys in the game. I beat the No. 3 guy in NHL ’13.”

Yes, it’s depressing an Xbox360 is now used in “When I was a child stories…”

But I like to imagine that no matter what form hockey takes, there’s Brock Boeser.

Working away.

Moving up the rankings.

Trying to become number one in the world.

Because that’s just what Brock does.