Welcome back to Stars of the Week at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
In the name of honesty, this is not three stars of the week; it is three stars of the weekend. It is also not so much three stars of the weekend than it is three players who prevented two all-out shutouts.
A 3-1 loss with a salt-in-the-wound empty-net goal in Vegas and an excruciatingly dull 2-1 loss to Utah are not results that are quickly given a positive spin. With Quinn Hughes still out due to a reported oblique injury and an already-struggling Pettersson being a game-time decision on Saturday, clearly the team was not going to be at 100% this weekend. Very few teams around the league were, if it’s any consolation.
Several games played on Saturday had significant goal deficits in the first period or ended up being rather high-scoring affairs – 8-3 for the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3 for the Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers, just to name a few. Players were heading back to their rosters either injured, tired, and flu-ridden from representing their countries at the 4 Nations Face-Off or out of practice and tanned from their Southern Hemisphere vacations, and it showed.
For the first games back after two weeks off, it was not as bad as it could have been. Therein lies the issue since “Not as bad as it could have been” is not where you want the team to be in late February. That is a November kind of statement.

Kevin Lankinen

After he signed a five-year contract extension on Friday, Lankinen decided to get a head start and earn every last cent of it against Vegas. It doesn’t even kick in until next season!
From an incredible show out in the first period to the final buzzer of the game, Lankinen was the reason why the Canucks were able to stay in the game point blank.
Lankinen was pulled in the game’s final minutes; ergo, the 3-1 goal was beyond saving. He saved 32 of 34 shots for a .941 save percentage (SV%), and both goals allowed were high-danger chances that were frankly as squarely on the skaters as on the netminder.
Even if Lankinen is having a particularly sharp year, if he can play anywhere remotely close to this game throughout the contract term, five years at a $4.5 million average annual value (AAV) feels quite reasonable.

Jake DeBrusk

Jake DeBrusk scored the only two Canucks goals this weekend. That’s it; that’s the argument here.
I enjoy the DeBrusk – Pettersson – Sherwood line in theory. They did not play like a first-line should against Vegas, hence being demoted to the second line the next night. But my theoretical enjoyment will stick around until it becomes unsustainable to defend the line combination any longer.

Nils Höglander

Höglander put together good back-to-back games, and it’s truly a shame that the rest of the team around him either didn’t or couldn’t.
He scored on Saturday night, sort of. His goal was immediately called off without a challenge, as Teddy Blueger fell into Adin Hill in the paint, and the puck appeared to bounce off his knee into the net as he lay down like a sunbathing turtle. In all fairness, this is about as clear as goaltender interference can get, even if Blueger didn’t have many options as to where to go. It’s difficult to bring up fairness when discussing the Vegas Golden Knights, but I digress.
Even before his goal-no-goal, Höglander was having himself a solid night, which continued into the next day in Utah. He looked fast on his feet this weekend, putting in effort along the boards with no panicked dump-and-chase either. My standard criteria for three stars have been lowered so much throughout this season that now it is simply, “Wow, he was actually noticeable on the forecheck? That’s a star!”
It’s no secret that Nils Höglander hasn’t had a strong year, but neither has the team, and that’s putting it lightly. This weekend was a brief glimpse at last-season Höglander, which shows he’s still got it in him, at the very least.

Honourable Mentions

Kiefer Sherwood

Against the Golden Knights, Sherwood’s dish to DeBrusk led to the sole Canucks goal in this game on what turned out to be their best shift of the game. Sherwood also broke 300 hits that night, recording nine in the game, firmly securing the 2024-2024 NHL hits leader title. His 307 total hits are over 75 more than the runner-up, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Mathieu Olivier, who has five more games played on the season.
Sherwood continues to prove his value and is the clear frontrunner of the team’s 2024 free agency signings – three of which are no longer with the team.

Arturs Silovs

Instead of lining up for goalie taps, I firmly believe that losing teams should sometimes line up just to apologize to their goaltender. Sunday’s showing was one of those games.
Silovs has been called up from Abbotsford in Thatcher Demko’s absence. For the second time in a row, this team was bailed out by their goaltending. For the second time in a row, that was not enough to save them. The shot differential is downright depressing, and not even Silovs’ .938 SV% after stopping 30 out of 32 shots can fix the fact that the Canucks only registered 15 shots on goal. This Arty Party has become a Pity Party.
Silovs struggled so much early in the year, and wasting an excellent performance is not doing much to build his confidence. With Demko’s future still murky, the potential of Silovs and Lankinen being a long-term solution in net is no longer a zero percent chance. If that ends up being the case, draining the confidence and optimism of your netminders is not going to be sustainable. 

Dishonourable Mentions

Much like the suggestions of a worst-on-worst tournament to complement the best-on-best breaks in February, this is a great opportunity to present an Uno reverse card and list three less-than-stellar performances this weekend.

Conor Garland

This pains me significantly to say, but oh, Conor Garland. His failed coverage of Vegas’ Brandon Saad directly led to his go-ahead goal on Lankinen. He coasts in casually from the neutral zone at an evening stroll pace and leaves Saad wide open for the rebound opportunity. This isn’t a common mistake for him, so I’m not concerned, but it’s just so blatant that it’s hard to watch.

Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers

I don’t know what happened to Carson Soucy since last year. Does Carson Soucy know what’s happened to him since last year? Has anyone asked? His performance on Saturday saw him scratched in exchange for rookie Victor Mancini on Sunday.
I like Tyler Myers. He’s a veteran blueliner with a great attitude, invaluable to the Canucks for his experience and “vibe,” if you will. With his size, he can occasionally play a great shutdown game. Either that, or he’s inexplicably playing a game that is so headache-inducing that you need an extra-strength Advil. His game in Vegas was the latter. I don’t need to offer more critique. He knows the kind of game he had.
Myers and Soucy were not paired together from the get-go on Saturday and were only on the ice together briefly but failed to independently or collectively prevent a goal against almost immediately. I’ve seen enough of this pairing, probably until the end of time.
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