OTTAWA – If there is a butterfly bigger than Anders Nilsson’s, it lives in Jurassic Park and is not something you send toddlers out to catch in a jam jar.
The six-foot-seven, 240-pound goaltender, fully loaded in equipment, just about eclipses the net when he drops into his butterfly position to take away the lower three-quarters of it – plus the Western half of the continent. Nilsson was as huge figuratively and he was literally Tuesday when he posted a 3-0 win against the Ottawa Senators in his debut for the Vancouver Canucks.
“Just look at him standing here – he’s a big human being,” Canucks defenceman Michael Del Zotto marvelled. “He’s a presence when he comes in the locker room. He’s big, but he can move. He made some huge saves for us tonight. There’s not a lot of room (to shoot on him). Not much at all.”
Nilsson, a free-agent acquisition who watched six-foot-six teammate Jacob Markstrom – henceforth known as Peewee – play the Canucks’ first four games of the National Hockey League season, stopped 17 shots in the first period and another 15 over the final 40 minutes as Vancouver ended a three-game winless streak.
He is perfect as a starter: 1-0, 0.00 goals-against average, 1.00 save rate. We could wonder why he didn’t play sooner, but the cards rookie Canucks coach Travis Green is playing seem to be working.
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The ace prospect previously up his sleeve, 20-year-old winger Brock Boeser, scored one goal and set up another and now leads the Canucks in scoring with four points in three games after being healthy-scratched by Green from the first two.
The victory ended Boeser’s personal losing streak of 10 games. Including a nine-game NHL cameo at the end of last season after Boeser was airlifted in from the University of North Dakota, the winger has six goals and nine points in 12 games. But the Canucks hadn’t won any of them since Boeser’s debut, when he scored the game-winner in a 4-2 road win against his hometown Minnesota Wild last March 25.
“Someone told me that before,” Boeser said of his losing run. “I thought about that, but just put it aside and tried to focus on playing my game.
“I think there is definitely pressure. But I feel pretty good with myself. My confidence is high. But I’ve got to keep it up and keep producing for the team.”
His confidence should be high, considering the post-game praise he drew from Green.
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“I like how he has responded after he didn’t play the first two,” Green said. “He’s hungry to play. I really like the way he’s working (and) it’s not just with the puck. He’s playing a real good game away from the puck. He’s working extremely hard. If you watch him close shift to shift, it’s not just things he’s doing with the puck that I like.”
Green’s compliment is especially meaningful because Boeser’s speed and defensive game are supposed to be weak points at this formative stage of his professional career. His speed will improve. His defensive game already has.
Boeser found a loose puck to chip into the net on the Canucks’ first power play to make it 1-0 at 15:29 of the first period, then watched his quick, heavy wrist shot get deflected in by Alex Burmistrov at 16:29 of the second.
“He’s one of those guys that seems to find those scoring areas,” teammate Sam Gagner said of Boeser. “There are guys like that who just kind of show up in scoring areas with the puck on their stick. They end up having really successful careers. Brock looks like he can be one of those guys.”
Thomas Vanek, another of the six free agents signed by general manager Jim Benning last summer, capped scoring by burying a slapshot past Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson on a breakaway at 15:12 of the third period.
Green chided reporters the last couple of days for making too much of the Canucks’ 0-2-1 mini-slump. But Tuesday’s win was important on several levels, not least that they badly needed a positive result as they begin a five-game road trip.
“There are important stepping stones throughout the year that you kind of have to cross over,” Gagner said. “It’s nice to get a win in our first road game. For the most part, we played pretty solid. It was kind of a greasy road win and we found a way to bounce back after a rough first period. We just have to find a way to keep plugging along here.”
Starting Thursday, the Canucks play back-to-back games in Boston and Buffalo, so Green will have to make a decision on his goalies. Nilsson said he and Markstrom, both towering Swedes, have a “healthy” competition to see who plays.
“I’m trying not to overthink stuff,” Nilsson said. “I say sometimes being a goalie, you have one of the easiest job descriptions in the world: Just stop the puck.”
But then somebody else has to score.
