VANCOUVER – Three hours and 58 minutes into their pre-season schedule, the Vancouver Canucks took their first lead on Saturday. Two minutes later, they had their first win – and the pre-season was over.

The National Hockey League’s 84-game regular season has been described as a marathon. But the new pre-season is an absolute sprint.

In a span of 10 days, from the opening of training camp in Penticton until Saturday’s 4-3 win against the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Arena, rookie Canucks coach Manny Malhotra and his new staff implemented a playing system and the ideals surrounding it, incorporated a bunch of new players, played four pre-season games, added a goalie and set the trajectory for the most ambitious rebuild in franchise history.

Imagine how much else the Canucks might learn in the 10 days that start Tuesday, when they open the regular season in Edmonton against the Oilers, before returning for a three-game homestand and then embarking on a six-game eastern road trip that includes games against the winners of the last three Stanley Cups.

“I think the guys have really picked up on the concepts,” Malhotra said after his team ended its pre-season at 1-3, scoring as many goals on Saturday as it did in the first three exhibition games. “Tonight was a great example of that — kind of a great way to cap off camp is that they put it all together. 

“The process of it, defensively, we closed plays out quickly... our breakouts from last game to tonight were again night and day cleaner. And then offensively, again, some really good rotations, but our willingness to get to the inside and create havoc around the net. Just putting all the pieces of camp together for us, we saw the visuals tonight. So it was a good way to cap off camp.”

Longest-tenured Canuck Brock........

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