The Canucks were doomed from the start on Sunday night.

“Because it was a back-to-back for the Canucks right?”

Nope. Because the Canucks can’t seem to string wins together, and the hockey gods have doomed the Canucks to only win one game a month on home ice.

This is the sixth straight game for the Canucks where they have alternated wins and losses.  The last time they won consecutive games was in early November when the team swung by California to play the Kings, Ducks, and Sharks.

Back-to-backs are never easy for a team to play, but when the team you’re playing is tied with the Chicago Blackhawks for the worst points percentage in the league (0.361) on home ice, it should not look like it did tonight.

Kevin Lankinen got the nod to play his old team on Sunday night after Artūrs Šilovs played on Saturday night. Lankinen surely circled this game on his calendar as one he wanted to play. There was a lot of talk about “revenge games for both Lankinen and Kiefer Sherwood as they took on their old team for the first time.

But was it the right choice? Because the storyline was there for Šilovs to get the start, too. Šilovs played incredibly well in the postseason against Nashville in the playoffs. Sure, he has struggled this season, but what better way to build up his confidence than to play him against the team that kick-started the Arty Party for Vancouver in the playoffs?

Not only that, but the Predators are very, very familiar with Lankinen’s game and weaknesses. After all, he was the Pred’s backup for two seasons.

There was no wrong answer, but once Šilovs started Saturday night against the Hawks, we knew Lankinen would get the nod for the revenge game.

Was this game Lankinen’s fault? Absolutely not. Are we going to pick on him first simply because it’s a good segue? Absolutely.

Lankinen certainly didn’t have a great game, as he made just 16 saves on 20 shots.

However, not all the goals are his fault; for example, the first goal of the game was also the first goal of Zachary L’Heureux’s career.

L’Heureux quietly got himself lost behind the net and found himself in the right place at the right time. There is only so much Lankinen can do there. Soucy has to cover either that shot, or that pass, but alas.

The second goal came from Steven Stamkos on the power play.

I am no goalie expert, and I know Steven Stamkos has one of the most lethal shots in the NHL, but it looks like Lankinen saw this the whole way and missed it.

The third goal was a Roman Josi one-timer that may have inspired Elias Pettersson.

You see that? I am foreshadowing what is to come.

Again, you have to give credit to the shooter; it was a perfectly executed shot, but Lankinen did not require a ton of lateral movement here, and he had a clean look the whole way. I feel like that was the kind of shot good ol’ Kev was saving with ease just a week or two ago.

The fourth goal, we will talk about later because I have a bone to pick with a certain someone.

Now, maybe I am being too hard on Lankinen here, but if I am, I am sure Lachlan will let me know. He at least knows what he is talking about when it comes to goalies.

Moving on before the goalie guys tie me to a hockey net like Goldberg and take one-timer practice at me.

The Canucks had their annual Hockey Fights Cancer night on Sunday, and unfortunately, Brock Boeser wasn’t able to attend the game, but at least Dakota Joshua was in the lineup after recently having beat his bout with testicular cancer!

The Canucks always do a great job with their theme nights, and letting Joshua take the ceremonial faceoff only continued that trend.

Miller, Miller, Miller.

Miller only had two shifts in the third period. I am not exaggerating when I say, the most we saw of Miller in the third, was this clip.

Miller last touched the ice with over 14 minutes remaining of game time and he only had 11:40 of ice time, only beating out Nils Höglander and Aatu Räty.

But why you ask? According to coach Tocchet, “He wasn’t one of the guys I thought could get us back in the game,”

Yikes, even with an empty net, down by a single goal, Miller didn’t get the tap. This is the treatment I get in beer league.

JT my man, you are not in good company.

A big reason he was benched was his awful defence on the penalty kill late in the second period. Watch Miller’s PK here. There is absolutely no hustle and he does not plug a single lane. I don’t think either of his skates left the ice for a single stride in the entire play.

This is some of the worst body language we’ve seen from Miller in a long time.

Miller had the old-fashioned Little Things Loui stat sheet.
0 Shots
0 Points
0 Hits
0 Blocks
11:40 TIO

Kiefer Sherwood continues to not only have the best name in hockey but win the hearts of Canucks fans. Getting the opportunity to play at the top of the lineup with Pettersson and DeBrusk is something he clearly is not taking lightly.

I am going to rapid-fire some GIFs at you here. Buckle up, folks!

Here is Sherwood making a great shot-pass to DeBrusk who nearly tipped the puck past Saros.

Here he is creating a scoring chance for DeBrusk from pure hard work.

Here he is making a nice play along the wall to create space and set up DeBrusk again. They weren’t kidding when they said DeBrusk was streaky were they?

His hard work was ultimately rewarded with his fourth goal of the season.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I don’t think anyone will let him forget his breakaway. He had two attempts and didn’t get a single shot on net. You can’t win them all, eh Kiefer?

The last clip of Sherwood I’ll show you is him drawing a penalty.

Why show that clip? Well because it’s another segue.

On the powerplay that came from Sherwood having a stick broken across his body, we got some Vintage Petey.

Pettersson receives a great pass from, who else but Corolla Garland, and his patience is on full display. The Preds all move over and plug up the shooting lane to the net. Pettersson makes a relief pass to Hughes who one-touches it back to Pettersson. Just that little puck movement was enough to open a lane to the net and we got a classic Alein one-timer.

It wasn’t just his goal. Pettersson was once again one of the Canucks best players. Pettersson seems to have found his game. He is once again using his high hockey IQ to anticipate and make plays out of nothing.

Pettersson’s defensive prowess in his own end is also back. Here, he anticipates well again, blocks a shot and makes a controlled zone exit all on his own.

The Canucks are at their best when Elias Pettersson is at his best. Wouldn’t it be nice if him and Miller could both play at their peak at the same time? Yes of course. But I gotta say, it’s great timing for Petey to delete his Twitter account because a team with a struggling Miller and a struggling Pettersson would not be any good.

And the last Petey clip is his stick going flying because I just think that it is funny.

Aatu Räty scored his first goal as a Canuck as well tonight with a tip on a shot from everyone’s favourite throw-in, Erik Brännström.

Räty has had a strong start to the season with the Canucks. He is not blowing up the score sheets, but he has played quite solid for a rookie in his 10 games this season.

You know you’re playing well when you get ice time in the final minutes of a one-goal game and relegate JT Miller to the bench.

Who saw Bumper Carson Soucy coming?

Not me, but let me tell you what, I liked it.

I bet you’ve never seen a guy punch a puck so hard he gets a penalty before either, but here we are.

That is Big Hög energy. I know Myers is the one who gets all the credit for chaos, but I do enjoy some Höglander chaos from time to time.

I miss Luke Schenn.

No analysis here, I just miss stuff like this when Schenn was in a Canucks jersey.

I’ll leave you with Quinn Hughes skating so smoothly it’ll lull you to sleep. It is an absolute treat to get to watch a player as talented as Hughes night in a night out.

I could watch Huggy skate all day.