CanucksArmy post game: Canucks WIN a point against Panthers in Spencer Martin’s untimely season debut

For the first time since December 14th, Rogers Arena erupted into a “Bruce there it is” chant. It was enough to make a grown man cry.

Shortly after the goal, Florida had one last grade-A chance of their own after Tippett tried to take a swing at a bouncing puck in front and hammer home a garbage goal.

Fully extended in the splits trying to make himself as big as possible, Martin made the save and to the tune of one last raucous applause to end the period, the Canucks left the ice up by a goal.

“I wasn’t as amped up as much as I thought I’d be, given how much it meant to me to get a start,” said Martin. “I felt incredibly blessed, just to know how hard it is to get to this level… It’s hard to put into one answer.”

The Canucks came out to start the second and evened up the shot total at 12 apiece in the first four minutes after leaving the first period down 11-8 in shots.

Lucas Carlsson took a cross-checking penalty after a hardworking shift from the Sheldon Dries line to send the Canucks back to their second power play of the game.

Almost instantly, the Canucks found Tanner Pearson all alone near the half wall with time and space to walk in and rifle a shot. Pearson’s shot beat Spencer Knight but rang off the post before Florida corralled the puck and sent it down the ice.

The rest of the power play looked exactly how you’d expect a power play made up of a bunch of guys who haven’t really played on the power play together would look.

Elias Pettersson turned in a strong shift and sprung Höglander in on a partial breakaway in on Knight. Höglander made a move to the forehand but couldn’t beat Knight blocker side.

Höglander had a couple more grade-A chances on Knight, but the Florida netminder appeared to have his number in this one.

Spencer Martin continued to make some key saves as the second period went on, and the Canucks did a relatively good job at keeping chances to the outside.

Matthew Highmore was sprung up ice and made a mad dash around Radko Gudas after chipping the puck in deep. Seeing Highmore was going to get around him, Gudas put the grab on Highmore and was called for holding to send the Canucks back on the power play.

The best chance of the man advantage was a one-timer from Boeser, but Knight managed to steer the puck away from danger as the penalty expired.

Martin made a big save off of Carter Verhaeghe and the momentum swung in the Canucks’ favour after the energy line of Tyler Motte, Juho Lammikko, and Matthew Highmore hopped over the boards.

The trio managed to keep the puck in deep and generated two or three quality chances. The shift was capped off by Motte landing a thunderous hit on Anthony Duclair after the Panthers’ forward finally managed to break the puck out of the zone for his team.