Vancouver Canucks: Three Best Preseason Surprises

There’s always a dark horse that comes galloping to the forefront and this time his name was Sergei Shirokov. Right from training camp he stood out from the rest of the prospects, but when I thought he might get lost in the main camp, he instead continued on making himself noticeable. Even during the drills he was scoring or setting up his line mates. The talent was obvious and you could see that he had a legitimate shot at making the club. Tom Larscheid, colour man for the TEAM 1040 radio broadcasts, compared him to Pavel Bure, but I wouldn’t go that far. Shirokov has good acceleration, but Bure was truly explosive and aptly nick named “The Russian Rocket” by Larschied. What Shirokov has, is the ability to pick up the open man on the ice, crisp on the tape passes, always seems to find the vacant spot, has gifted hands, and this talented Russian can motor. Although he only played four games, before he injured a knee against the Sharks (game three), he led the Canucks in pre season ...