For the #ShotgunJake contingent, a Jake Virtanen goal during a Saturday game is a blessing. Of course, when that game is at 10 a.m. Pacific time, it’s a bit of an obstacle. But the timing didn’t do much to stop Vancouverites punching a hole in a beer and slurping it down.

By the time Virtanen strolled down the wing, using his speed to blow past Zach Bogosian—just over a minute after Loui Eriksson scored to tie the game—the Canucks were looking like strong candidates to add another two points to their Pacific Division lead.

That outlook improved shortly into the third period, when Erik Gudbranson (who is improbably on a five-game point streak—dare you to pick him up in your hockey pool) threw one in from the point that got by Sabres’ tender Carter Hutton.

Unfortunately, the Canucks couldn’t hold on to the two-goal lead, as the team surrendered tallies from Jeff Skinner and North Vancouver native Sam Reinhart with less than three minutes left in the third period.

The Sabres completed the victory, scoring twice on Jacob Markstrom in the shootout while only Markus Granlund could get one by Hutton in the skills contest.

Here’s what else we saw in the Canucks’ 4-3 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres.

Three that impressed

1. Jack Eichel

We don’t watch too many Buffalo Sabres games (can you blame us?), but however overlooked the second-overall pick in the 2015 draft gets compared to other young stars in the NHL, he’s still really, really good.

Eichel didn’t register any points in this one (he did score in the shootout), but he was all over the ice creating chances for the Sabres. The phenom left the game for a bit after an awkward collision, but he didn’t miss a beat, throwing five shots on net and generally looking dangerous every time he was out there. He’s already got 19 points in 17 games on the season and his line with Jeff Skinner and Jason Pominville tortured the Canucks. 

2. Antoine Roussel

This one doubled as Roussel’s coming-out party. The Frenchman was very noticeable, playing a large portion of the night on Bo Horvat’s line and not looking out of place at all. He did register a minus-2 rating (quite the feat when he also had two assists and none of the goals were scored on special teams), but fans had to be impressed by the effort and offensive touch they saw from the offseason addition. When he wasn’t with Horvat, he spent the game setting up forwards like Tyler Motte and Granlund, to no avail.

3. Adam Gaudette

Still without a goal at the NHL level, we remain impressed by the rookie’s play thus far. Gaudette was largely pinned to centring a line with Darren Archibald and Brendan Leipsic (who just hasn’t been very effective this season after a great end to last year). In spite of those linemates, Gaudette was generating chances with strong play in the neutral and offensive zones.

While he may be buried behind Horvat and Pettersson for years to come, he has the makings of a very solid third-line centre with offensive capabilities.

Three that didn’t

1. Chris Tanev
2. Derrick Pouliot

The two were paired for most of the game and were victimized often, registering a minus-2 rating and making a couple tough reads that ended up costing the Canucks the game. Tanev, in particular, was late in chasing down Sam Reinhart on the latter's game-tying goal. The pair was on the ice for both the Sabres’ third period tallies. Not a great look.

3. Tyler Motte

Despite receiving the lowest amount of ice time of any player in the game, Motte was quite active—albeit for the wrong reasons. He was late on Nathan Beaulieu’s pinch in the first and was stopped on the doorstep a couple of times after great set-ups.

Notable

- The Canucks seem to have no trouble scoring—even without Brock Boeser. The team has only been under three goals once in the past six games, and the goals are finally coming from all over the roster.

- Between Ben Hutton’s power play prowess and Erik Gudbranson’s shocking five-game point streak, it’s pretty obvious what Vancouver’s first pairing is, at least right now with Alex Edler out.

- So far, Antoine Roussel is winning the free agent acquisition game, as Jay Beagle has been on the shelf and Tim Schaller has been on-and-off. Roussel showed an offensive touch today, and proved he’s not out of place on Horvat’s line.

- Loui Eriksson now has a four-game point streak of his own (on which he’s racked up seven points). Of course, he’s also playing on Horvat’s line, but it looks like putting Virtanen with Pettersson and Nikolay Goldobin is the best option for everyone involved.

- Speaking of Goldobin, is there anyone on the roster more divisive right now? Two turnovers on the power play must have had Travis Green fuming, yet immediately after he made a genius cross-ice pass to Pettersson. He has a special amount of skill and we’re firmly on the side that wants to see more. We’ll take the defensive lapses for glimpses of brilliance.

- And, in another segue, there was brilliance to be had in this one, especially late.

https://twitter.com/Hockey_Robinson/status/1061359710106832897

Quotable

“Thought it was a little bit sloppy by both teams…It was a little bit of a mucker there for awhile.” – Travis Green

“We missed Boes there for sure.” – Green again, on the Canucks’ inability to capitalize on two overtime power plays.

“They were coming, they were pressing, they found some holes. That top line is good, they’re creative.” – Erik Gudbranson on how the Sabres fought back.

“We played solid for 55 minutes and couldn’t close it out.” – Bo Horvat

"It was kind of an up-and-down game and I think everyone kind of stuck with it late.” – Sam Reinhart