The Vancouver Millionaires may have won a Stanley Cup in 1915, but they didn’t have to play against Pavel Datsyuk.

The dazzling Russian went to town on the Canucks, who dressed like Millionaires and played the second half of the game like the old guys at your local country club.

Datsyuk won faceoffs, picked pockets and set up two goals. The Canucks just melted watching him. The Canucks turned one of their best starts of the season to one of their worst finishes.

The defence was helpless. The goaltending was suspect. And the coaching? Well, Jason Garrison didn’t see the ice on a 5-on-3. That’s on a power play which hasn’t scored in a month. Maybe Alain Vigneault wants to keep the streak alive.

Alex Burrows scored a goal just six seconds into the game, a Canucks record. But it was all downhill from there in a 5-2 loss to Detroit.

David Booth got hurt and never returned. The power play did nothing again. This despite a 1:21 two-man advantage in the third period. Did we mention Garrison had the second-most power-play goals among NHL defencemen last year?

If there’s a player out there who cans stop Datsyuk, it’s not Dan Hamhuis. At least it wasn’t Saturday.

Datsyuk didn’t quite skate circles around Hamhuis, but it was close. Datsyuk did whatever he wanted. Hamhuis probably would have been more effective if he stayed home and watched Datsyuk on Hockey Night in Canada.

Datsyuk first strutted by Hamhuis 6:08 into the first period, creating space and all the time in the world. With it, he wired a puck from a sharp angle off of Justin Abdelkader’s skate. For most players, you wouldn’t think it was on purpose. For Datsyuk, you were pretty sure it was.

With the game tied at one, the Canucks were actually dominating. They had eight scoring chances in the first period and outshot the Wings 16-6.

But the game was tied at one midway through the first when Henrik deftly set up Burrows with a backhander that sliced through the slot. On it, Jimmy Howard made one of the most dramatic saves you’ll see this season, using his arm like a windmill to glove Burrows’ one-timer.

The fact Detroit escaped the first in a 1-1 tie did not bode well for Vancouver. The Wings push-back was inevitable, and it came late in the second and lasted into the third.

Before it, Vancouver blew a chance to take a 2-1 lead at the 7:15 mark of the second. After a Henrik Zetterberg tripping penalty, the Canucks power play was actually buzzing and creating chances. But Brendan Smith cross-checked Alex Burrows in front of the net and Burrows stick got up, leading to a questionable high-sticking call on Burrows.

With the Canucks forward in the penalty box, Max Lapierre was called for a penalty and the Wings had a 1:10 5-on-3. The Wings, however, with the worst road power play in the league, couldn’t even generate a shot on net.

When the Burrows penalty ended, he was sprung free for a breakaway, but the puck bobbled on him and he never got control of it, failing to get a shot on net.

Less than seven minutes later, Datsyuk danced by Hamhuis again setting up Johan Franzen behind the net. His pass out front was nearly stolen by Burrows but again he couldn’t get a handle on the puck and it drifted to Henrik Zetterberg who snapped one by Roberto Luongo.

The Canucks had one chance to get back into the game. When Smith hooked Jannik Hansen as the Dane had position on a partial breakaway. Hansen got a penalty shot opportunity.

Howard charged out at Hansen cutting off his angle and instead of using his speed to force Howard into a retreat, Hansen slowly trotted in on net and snapped his shot off the post.