There's a reason why Ryan Kesler leads all Vancouver forwards in ice time this postseason.
He showed that true value and owned every second of his final shift to set up the Canucks' lone goal during Wednesday night's Game 1 victory against the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final.
Kesler made a strong play to skate through the neutral zone and jar the puck loose from Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk. Kesler said he made sure to stick his blade onside before feeding Jannik Hansen with a perfect pass in the slot. Hansen, who beat Milan Lucic into the Boston zone, then slid a puck past Zdeno Chara's reach to Raffi Torres, who redirected it into the net.
It's the type of play the Canucks have grown to demand from Kesler, a surefire Conn Smythe Trophy candidate.
"He's a workhorse, and [Kesler made] a great second-effort play on that goal," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "That’s what we expect from him, and that's what we need from him on every shift."
As the clock dwindled and the teams appeared to accept the fate of heading to overtime, Kesler made the play to cut the night short. Torres' goal came at 19:41 of the third period.
"I saw their line was changing, and I saw an opening to maybe go on the offense," Kesler said. "I just chipped it by their D, held on it for a little bit and saw Jannik. Jannik made a great heads-up play to Raffi, and Raffi buried it."
Kesler is used to similar heroics. After missing a chunk of the second period of the Canucks' series clincher against the Sharks, Kesler rebounded from an injury to score the overtime-forcing goal with 13.5 seconds remaining in regulation. He has now had back-to-back games with a monumental play in the last 20 ticks of the third period.
Kesler entered the Final with an average time on ice of 23:18 — nearly two more minutes than any other forward in the series — and he was on the ice for 24:23 in Game 1, more than any forward on either bench.
Because Kesler stayed through it until the very end, he made sure the Canucks didn't have to worry about working overtime.
"It was huge. It was just as exciting as an overtime goal," said Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo, who made 36 saves. "At one point, I thought we might be playing all night here."
