Torres' goal makes him the latest hero for the Canucks.
VANCOUVER — This is how it has to work, the recipe that every team to make the journey through 16 springtime wins has to follow.
The hero’s cape simply can’t land on the same shoulders every night, because if an entire team does not share it over the course of two months, the night will come where nobody wears it at all.
So one night it is Henrik Sedin with four assists in San Jose. Another it is Ryan Kesler dominating the Nashville Predators. It’s a double-OT Kevin Bieksa four-hopper to finish the San Jose Sharks one night, and then to open up the next series against Boston, it’s a Tic-Tac-Tiko goal with 18.5 seconds remaining by third-liner Raffi Torres, securing a 1-0 win in the Stanley Cup final opener.
"Finding ways to win, and sticking with it right to the end. That’s what we do," said Bieksa, in a Canucks dressing room that grows more confident every time this team discovers a new way to win a playoff game.
"The goal tonight was a pretty skilled play, and my goal last game was obviously very skilled," Bieksa said, laughing. "We’re making it happen, and eventually we’re going to wear on teams if we keep doing those things over and over.
"You don’t get to where we are right now without everybody chipping in. It’s taken everybody to get to here, and it’s going to take everybody to win it."
This was as exciting a scoreless hockey game as you’re ever going to see. But we’ve got to say, the Canucks won the game within the game.
"For two periods, I was pretty pleased," said Boston coach Claude Julien. "Obviously, in the third period they were the better team and they ended up scoring that goal.
"It got away from us."
It got away? Or Vancouver took it away?
Whichever was your take, this wasn’t one of those overtime games that’s decided on a bad bounce or a lucky goal — like the series clincher scored by Bieksa. This was a heads up play by Ryan Kesler, Jannik Hansen using the speed that made him one of the more effective Canucks in Game 1, and Torres, being that playoff lightning bolt that he has somehow managed to make a career out of.
Spec on Torres (from September 28, 2010): Canucks' pet project | Read
He is that player who won’t get you to the playoffs. But once you’re there, boy, is it nice to have Torres on your third line.
"We brought him in because he was an emotional, physical player," said Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault. "We need him to play the way he does. You know, he's a little bit sometimes outside the box, but you got to let him be who he is."
While the Bruins will come away from this game talking about all the positives — "None of you (media) guys thought we could play with (Vancouver), but we proved we can," said Milan Lucic — the Canucks come with just as many, and the 1-0 series lead as well.
Boston’s powerplay is atrocious. It came into the game at 3.8 per cent on the road (8.2 per cent overall) and proceeded to post an 0-for-6.
As a low-post goalie-screener Zdeno Chara is a disaster, unable to either tip a puck or effectively battle for loose ones, while proving to no disturbance whatsoever to Roberto Luongo, who has stopped 90 of the past 92 shots faced.
Luongo stopped 36 shots for the shutout, the first 1-0 Cup Final opener since Edmonton’s Grant Fuhr stoned the New York Islanders in 1984. Tim Thomas was even better, facing less shots (34) but forced to make more spectacular saves.
Until, of course, Kesler found Hansen, who held long enough for Torres to don the cape.
"(Hansen) got to an angle where I was starting to cut down his angle, because he was in a dangerous enough spot that I had to take that shot (away)," Thomas explained. "He made the pass to the guy cuttin’ to the net… I didn’t even know the guy cutting to the net was there."
It’s the story of Torres career. There are lots of nights when his own coach isn’t sure if he’s there.
"I think it was their fourth line that scored….?" asked David Krejci, who may want to pay closer attention to the opponent’s lineup.
On a team that was one shot away all night long, Krejci tied Nathan Horton for a team-high 5 shots on goal. In a game that was ultimately very winnable for the road team, someone in a Bruins uniform let the cape fall to the floor.
"Could have, yeah," Krejci said of being the hero. "But you don’t think about things like that. You’re sitting on the bench, you think of the next chance."
The next chance might be the last chance for Boston.
Can they play much better than this? They’d better, because a pretty fine road game went to waste in Game 1 Wednesday.
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for Sportsnet.ca
Follow me on Twitter.com @SportsnetSpec
