Max Sasson didn’t just chip in on a wild Vancouver Canucks win Tuesday night. He ended up in the kind of matchup that makes you look twice at the box score.
In a 6-5 overtime victory over the Edmonton Oilers, the 26-year-old depth forward was given a heavy dose of Connor McDavid. Manny Malhotra didn’t hide him from the assignment, either.
The new Canucks coach leaned on Sasson’s line for plenty of those minutes, and Sasson held up. McDavid finished without a shot on goal.
That alone is enough to make the night stand out. But Sasson also delivered on the other end.
He picked up one goal and one assist, and he had a hand in the overtime winner. His third-period goal made it 4-2, coming on a nice give-and-go finished with a backhand.
Later, in overtime, he made the pass that set up the winner. Paul Cotter did the hard work by forcing the turnover and driving to the net, but Sasson made the final play that counted by spotting Cotter and getting him the puck.
For a player who posted 19 points in 66 games last season, that’s a strong night by any measure. And it leaves an obvious question hanging in the air: is Sasson just a dependable third-line centre who can handle his business, or is there more to him than that?
It’s far too early to answer that after one game. Still, this is how players start to change the conversation around them. They get a difficult assignment, don’t shrink from it, stay responsible, block a couple of shots, and still manage to contribute offensively.
Sasson wasn’t perfect, and nobody is going to be perfect against McDavid. But he did his job. He competed, he stayed in the right spots, and he helped Vancouver walk out with the win.
McDavid still finished with two assists, so nobody is calling this a total shutdown. But zero shots on goal is zero shots on goal, and that’s what makes Sasson’s night hard to ignore.
Maybe that’s the real takeaway from opening night for Vancouver. Sasson gave people a reason to pay attention, and he did it in one of the toughest matchups in hockey. If Malhotra is going to trust him with those minutes, and Sasson keeps producing like this, the Canucks may have something useful on their hands.
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Josh Samanski was recalled under emergency conditions to help fill the gap up front, giving the Oilers another temporary option while the lineup stays in flux. Edmonton also has Matt Savoie and Alec Regula on long-term injured reserve with month-to-month timelines, so Nugent-Hopkins status only sharpens the pressure on a depth chart that is already being tested in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]