VANCOUVER – Until Friday night, Jake DeBrusk had scored as many National Hockey League goals in Vancouver as Taylor Swift.
Besides the first two months of this season, DeBrusk had played in Rogers Arena over seven years as a visiting player with the Boston Bruins. Swift, playing across the street at BC Place on Friday night, has built a moderately successful career as a singer.
But amid all those Swifties spilling on to downtown streets late at night, nobody was happier than DeBrusk, who now leads the music icon 1-0 in NHL goals here.
Twenty-five games into his seven-year, $38.5-million contract with the Vancouver Canucks, DeBrusk redirected Quinn Hughes’ shot through goalie Elvis Merzlikins’ pads as part of a five-goal surge that allowed his new team to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2 after a dreadful start by the home team.
It was the unofficial start of the DeBrusk era.
“I never got one in this building until tonight, and it feels pretty good,” DeBrusk said after the Canucks rallied from a 2-0 deficit that could have been twice as large. “It’s a kind of a greasy goal. I’m not going to lie; it wasn’t a pretty one. But I didn’t care how it went in. Just seeing it go across that line was nice.”
It was the 28-year-old winger’s 12th goal for the Canucks – after 11 on the road.
DeBrusk chose as a free agent to sign with the Canucks for seven years, potentially for the rest of his career, knowing that he had never scored a goal in Vancouver.
“I was wondering when somebody was going to ask me about that,” he told Sportsnet. “I did realize that when I signed. I was thinking to myself, ‘you know, I’ve had a couple of assists there but never actually scored.’ But it didn’t become a thing until the beginning of this season – in my head, anyways. I’m human, and it’s one of those things where it does creep in your head as time goes along. I signed here for seven years, so I gave myself seven years to try. But I thought it would be faster than this.
“It’s a little bit of a personal challenge of mine to get one in every building. I have two to go now. But I always remember my first goal in a building, so I’ll remember this one.”
For the record, DeBrusk has now scored in every NHL station except Dallas and Salt Lake City.
He was goal-less in his first nine games for the Canucks, but scored eight times in six games on the road trip that ended Tuesday in Minnesota. So he brought a lot of confidence back to Vancouver with him.
So did the Canucks. And then they played possibly their worst period of the season to start Friday’s game, falling behind 2-0 in the first 12 minutes while getting outshot 17-2 by a Blue Jackets team that had lost 6-3 the previous night in Edmonton.
You’d have never predicted it during the first period, but a handful of Canuck goalie Kevin Lankinen’s saves turned out to be massive.
“If you’re down 2-0, then you don’t want to be down by three or four,” Lankinen said. “Obviously, that was huge that we got that goal there early in the second period. In today’s NHL, the momentum shifts so quickly, so I think whether it’s 2-0 or 0-0, nothing really changes from my perspective. I’m just going to try to stop the next shot because, you never know, the next shot could be the biggest play of the game.
“Whether it’s 20 shots or two shots, it’s just my job to stay focused. Sometimes it’s nice to help the guys out; they scored five unanswered goals to help me out at the end. I think that’s how a good team works.”
The Canucks were only marginally better in the second period, but Brock Boeser snatched a goal back at 3:52 with a one-timer from the right-wing circle that was teed up by Hughes.
Somehow, Vancouver pulled into a tie with one minute remaining in the frame when Kiefer Sherwood fired into a semi-open net after Merzlikins raced 35 feet to play a loose puck – Columbus defenceman Zach Werenski could have collected it – only to have his clearance blocked by Vancouver’s Teddy Blueger.
The Canucks needed to play one good period to win a home game in which they could have been embarrassed. And at 2:17 of third period, Pius Suter rattled a shot between Merlinkins’ pad and right arm from Conor Garland’s setup, before DeBrusk scored on the power play at 10:22. Suter added another into an empty net for his 11th goal of the season, one behind DeBrusk’s team-leading 12th.
“Obviously, we’ve talked about this many times,” Boeser said after the Canucks surrendered the game’s first goal for the 15th time this season. “I think we’re all pretty aware that our starts aren’t good, and that was unacceptable again. I don’t know if it’s a lack of preparation or what, but we need to be ready to win our puck battles and playing our style of hockey, going through guys, in the first period. Luckily, we recovered and got two big points.”
Mostly because of Lankinen.
The Canucks have struggled so much at Rogers Arena, where they were 3-5-3 before Friday, there has been talk about treating home games like road games and even have players stay in hotels. DeBrusk joked with reporters Friday morning that he couldn’t afford Vancouver hotel rates with Taylor Swift in town for the weekend.
“It just seemed like Kevin gave us a massive chance today because it wasn’t looking too good after the first,” DeBrusk said. “We weren’t too happy. Obviously, Woody’s goal there (late in the second) really was huge for us, just kind of a weird play. But just to tie it up 2-2 and come in the room, we had to win a period to win a game. That’s all we were trying to do. In saying that, we’ve got to be conscious of not putting ourselves in that position. But it shows character coming back, that’s for sure.”
The subject of innumerable trade rumours over the years, and after actually asking for a move two years ago before rescinding his trade request, Boeser reached the 400-point mark as a Canuck with the second assist on DeBrusk’s goal.
“It means a lot,” Boeser said after his 497th game for Vancouver. “Just to do it with the guys in this room and the fan base, I always said how much I love playing here. So it’s obviously special.”
The popular news out of the morning skate was that goalie Thatcher Demko, who hasn’t played since injuring his knee nearly eight months ago, was fit to back up Lankinen on Friday night. Demko could make his first appearance Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, although that is an afternoon start without a morning skate to precede it. The Canucks’ next “routine” game day is Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues.
Overshadowed by confirmation of Demko’s return to the lineup was a little tidbit from coach Rick Tocchet, who was asked if J.T. Miller, on a personal leave of absence since Nov. 19, might practise with the Canucks on Saturday.
“I don’t think tomorrow, but in the near future,” Tocchet said.
Earlier in his press conference, the coach said of Miller, who has been skating during his leave for self-help reasons: “I’m not going to tell you the plan, but there’s a plan.”
