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Canucks blast Kings for first win of season, name Horvat captain

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J.T. Miller finishes with a career-high four points, as the Canucks rout the Kings on home ice in an 8-2 demolition during Vancouver's home opener.

The Vancouver Canucks checked a lot of boxes against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.

Bo Horvat was named captain, becoming the first player to wear the “C” in Vancouver since Henrik Sedin in 2017-18. That would have already been a solid way to celebrate the Canucks’ home opener, but Horvat & Co. did it one better, getting the team’s first win of the season by blowing out the Kings 8-2.

There were some other bullet points that should make the Canucks happy:


  • The addition of J.T. Miller looked great. He scored a goal and three assists on Wednesday, giving him five points in his first three games with the Canucks. This was the first four-point night of Miller’s career. Brandon Sutter had quite an evening, too,
  • Quinn Hughes looked like an immediate threat for Vancouver, scoring the first goal of his NHL career, and also got an assist.


  • Hughes wasn’t the only Canucks defenseman to fill the net. Christopher Tanev connected on a great sequence by Hughes and Brock Boeser, while Alexander Edler poured it on to really get the score out of hand in the third period.
  • Fourteen different Canucks players generated at least one point in this drubbing.
  • Jacob Markstrom quietly had a strong season in 2018-19, by quite a few measures, so it’s promising to see him sharp. While he allowed a couple goals, Markstrom made 37 saves on Wednesday. Good goaltending could make the ultimate difference for a Canucks club that spent a lot of money to get better during the offseason.
  • It wasn’t such a great night for Jonathan Quick, obviously. The veteran goalie allowed eight goals for the first time in his career.

MORE:
Pro Hockey Talk’s Stanley Cup picks.
Your 2019-20 NHL on NBC TV schedule

James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.