The Canadian Division has pundits and advertisers in this country licking their chops. it’s socially distanced, masked, and sanitized, of course, but make no mistake: thar be choplickin’ in them thar office towers. Thanks to COVID-19, the Great White North is guaranteed a team in the Stanley Cup semi-finals. Not many people have the Canucks making hay this year — of course, Sportsnet is positively salivating at the possibility of their beloved Leafs in the final four — but on opening night, at least, they made a pretty good case for themselves.

Vancouver and Edmonton have some of the most dynamic young players in the league. They both had lethal power plays last year, but with JT Miller on the sidelines with a possible Covid exposure, you had to give the edge to the dirty rotten stinkin’ Oilers coming into the game. In many ways, this felt like a pre-season game. There were jelly legs, there were gaffes, and there were lapses at both ends.

But there was also Tanner Pearson finding Bo Horvat to open the scoring. Adam Larsson missed his assignment and gave the captain so much room he was able to open a Covid screening clinic between the face off dots before going blocker on Mikko Koskinen. Hey Dave Tippett, do you even defense, bro?

There was Adam Gaudette causing a stink and chipping in with some secondary scoring when the top line was still finding their stride. It is always satisfying to see the Oilers go from swagger to slump in a couple of minutes’ time.

There was also Brayden Holtby, keeping Connor McDavid and his ridiculous hands off the score sheet. This is a guy who has averaged two points a game in season openers since he came into the NHL, and he went bagel against the Canucks this night. I don’t need Holtby in the Vezina conversation to enjoy this season — and frankly with the way the Oilers burned him high glove twice tonight that likely isn’t in the cards anyway — but damnation was it fun to see 97 dipsy doodle through three or four players but not rack up a half dozen points in the process.

And there was Quinn Hughes, too, looking positively mortal for 40 minutes, then laying two spectacular plays upon us — both resulting in wicked Brock Boeser wristers in the back of the net. After a little shake and bake along the blue line, Hughes got dumped on his ass and pinned by Kailer Yamamoto. After a few players overskated the puck, Hughes, seated and facing in the opposite direction, backhanded a blind pass to Boeser, who was quarantining in the Oiler slot. Like, seriously, Edmonton, twice in this game you left white shirts embarrassingly alone with your goaltender.

Oh, there was Nils Höglander busting his butt all night long and getting rewarded with his first NHL goal. If this kid plays half this well half the time, methinks Horvat has finally got a decent winger. The Sportsnet panel was so excited about him after the game I’m pretty sure they think he’s a Leaf.

Thankfully, there was not a defensive scramble every five minutes. Nate Schmidt, Tyler Myers, Alex Edler, and Travis Hamonic all provided solid defending. Olli Juolevi took a few shots for the giveaway that got the Oil on the board, but in all the kid put in some good minutes and didn’t look out of place in the rotation. #23 screened Holtby on at least one of the Edmonton goals, but Edler gonna Edler, you know?

Last but not least, there was Harnarayan Singh making his English-language debut on the national broadcast after serving as the Punjabi announcer since 2008. Growing up in Alberta, this guy knows his hockey, even if he was much more excited for the three Oiler goals than the five put up by Vancouver. Even still, there were no Boninoboninobonino calls this night. Give him time. I’m sure he’ll give us some gold before he’s done.

In all, a mildly entertaining opener that resembled a pre-season game as much as anything else. But in a 56-game season, two points is bigger than ever. And unlike the evil plottin’ schemin’ Maple Leafs, the Canucks didn’t give a division rival a Bettman loser point to get them.