The Vancouver Canucks kicked off their East Coast road trip with a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils.
Zeev Buium, Liam Öhgren, and Marco Rossi were acquired on Friday in the Quinn Hughes trade, the three newcomers made their debut for Vancouver on Sunday.
Both goals scored by Vancouver were on the power play, the team had solid puck movement and Head Coach Adam Foote said it was good to see them have success on the man advantage.
“Brett [McLean] worked on it in practice yesterday with them and these guys are good power play guys, they’re pros. It’s good to see them get that early, give them a little bit of confidence,” Foote said.
“It was important to get that win; the players really fought hard for it and it’s good to see that happen right out of the gates.”
Buium had one goal and one assist, the two-point outing makes Buium the first defenceman in franchise history to record multiple points in the first period of a Canucks debut, and only the third defenceman to record multiple points in his Canucks debut overall.
Foote said Buium has confidence, which is needed to quarterback the power play, and Buium’s speed makes him an impact player.
“He uses his body well, he gets into guys I think before they expect it. He knows how to get trigger points on them where their weakness [are], he knows how to hit to be able to drop the guys he dropped. He’ll take their space away, get in their arms and let them lean on him, and it doesn’t take a lot of energy. He did a lot of impressive things for us in his first night for sure,” Foote said.
The 20-year-old defenceman talked about the level of talent on the Canucks roster and how much he enjoyed his first game with the team.
“Right when we got here yesterday, everybody welcomed us so easily – arms wide open – so it makes it a little bit easier on the ice and a little more comfortable,” Buium said. “It was nice to see our power play click there, great plays by [Conor] Garland, and Boes [Brock Boeser], Marco and Jake [DeBrusk] too. A little bit of a lucky goal, but we’ll take it."
Thatcher Demko turned aside 25 of the 26 shots he faced.
“He was outstanding. Real happy with his game, he did his job and that’s what he does,” Foote said. “He made some big saves, he seemed calm in net, he seemed real steady there, it was good to see.”
Goals
In the first period and with the Canucks on the power play, Jake DeBrusk and Conor Garland cycled the puck on the right side, Garland passing to DeBrusk net front and DeBrusk collecting his own rebound, digging the puck up over Jacob Markstrom.
