For the Canucks, Winning is the Best Revenge for Jake Walman's Griddy
The Vancouver Canucks saw their game end last Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings with their opponent 'hitting the Griddy.' The tables turned during Thursday's rematch.
Over the last week, the great debate in the hockey world has been about whether Ridly Greig was being disrespectful with his slapshot empty-netter and whether Morgan Rielly was showing some much-needed emotion or going way too far when he laid on the lumber.
Barring a miracle run by the Ottawa Senators, the Battle of Ontario rivalry has been laid to rest for another year: Ottawa won't face the Toronto Maple Leafs again until next season. But after Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman celebrated his overtime penalty-shot winner against the Canucks by hitting the Griddy at Little Caesars Arena last Saturday, Vancouver had a chance to exact some revenge while the memory was still fresh in their minds.
Heading into Thursday's game, The Hockey News' Canucks site contributor Max Miller ran through the discourse, including a suggestion by Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman that both teams would have been warned not to let their emotions run too hot.
After the morning skate, Vancouver defenseman Ian Cole calmly pointed out that the best way to avoid having to deal with the Griddy is simply to avoid getting scored on.
That was the Canucks' approach when the puck dropped. They jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, allowed the NHL's sixth-best offense just 28 shots on goal, then leaned on goaltender Thatcher Demko as the Wings made a third-period push.
"We're still trying to establish home-ice here and be a hard place to play," said Nikita Zadorov, whose insurance goal late in the second period was his first as a Canuck as he returned from a two-game suspension.
The intimidating 248-pound blueliner also stepped in to defend teammate Nils Hoglander from some shenanigans by Walman during the third period — and couldn't resist adding insult to injury with a little Griddy action himself.
Walman wasn't just held off the scoresheet — he finished the night at minus-3 along with teammates Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. And as the Wings try to lock down their first playoff berth since 2016, they're now 0-2-0 and have been outscored 12-5 since last Saturday's celebration heard round the hockey world.
At the Red Wings' practice in Detroit on Monday, Walman explained to reporter Sean Shapiro of Shap Shots that he means no disrespect.
"I’m not doing it to show offy or anything like. To interact with people to reach people, it’s just a game," he said. “So those sore losers out there that don’t like it, maybe they can start to realize that this is bigger than just a little dance on the ice. This is like for kids, this is like for kids who want to score and grow up wanting to be a hockey player, and I think that’s pretty cool.”
Retribution is a touchy subject around the Canucks because, at times, it has gone terribly wrong.
With the 20th anniversary of the Todd Bertuzzi/Steve Moore incident coming up next month, local broadcaster Scott Rintoul released an excellent podcast series last year that dove into all the details of an event that had so many negative outcomes.
At the other end of the spectrum, some Canucks fans still lament Alain Vigneault's ‘turn the other cheek’ philosophy during the Sedin era, which ultimately saw the team get manhandled by the Boston Bruins in the 2011 Stanley Cup final.
Last Saturday, Walman's celebration capped off a game where emotions ran high — especially for a matinee affair between two teams from opposite conferences with no particular axe to grind with each other.
Zadorov's second-period headshot on Lucas Raymond earned him a match penalty and his suspension — and he took full accountability on Thursday, saying, "It was a bad hit."
Late in the second on Saturday, a brouhaha broke out, with the main event becoming a fight between Vancouver's 6-foot-1, 225-pound Cole and Detroit's 5-foot-8, 180-pound Alex DeBrincat.
The emotions didn't quite get back to that level on Thursday, but the bad blood was still there.
The Canucks did well to walk the tightrope and engage without ever putting the end result in jeopardy. These experiences will help make them battle-ready when playoffs begin in April.