National Hockey League

Vancouver Canucks: Tryamkin Hits Right Notes Against Preds

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:06 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Jeff Godley/FanSided via The Canuck Way

The Vancouver Canucks are thin on defense with multiple regulars out. With no offense for most of tonight, Tryamkin entertained fans with his physical play.

No one expected the Vancouver Canucks to play a 7-6 or 8-7 game, like some teams have done recently.

But at least one goal through 40 minutes would have been nice.

Alas, the Nashville Predators had the only first period goal waved off. Vancouver missed several chances late in the second. It wasn’t until midway through the third that Henrik Sedin broke the tie.

Until then, without any pucks going in, fans had to turn to other sources of entertainment.

They found one in Nikita Tryamkin, who is the Canucks Player of the Game:

Nikita Tryamkin

D, Vancouver Canucks

The scoresheet claims that Tryamkin had only 5 hits, but the real number is probably twice that.

Either way, this game did not have much going for it for most of it, other than the big man’s big hits:

In his first few games this year, Tryamkin looked a bit tentative and didn’t seem to throw hits as readily. Whatever stopped him before doesn’t seem to be bothering him anymore.

And it’s not just his physical play that has improved. The young Russian is becoming an indispensable part of the defense.

Tonight, he was calm and collected in his own zone, and made some confident plays with the puck.

It is not be a great commentary on this Canucks game that their best player was a defensive defenseman in his first full season.

But Tryamkin started the year in the gym trying to get into game shape. He has come a long way in a few short weeks, and now looks like a player the Vancouver Canucks want to keep well into the future.

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