Is there any better time for NHL hockey than 10:00AM on a Monday?

Of course there is, but that didn’t stop fans of the Vancouver Canucks from dragging themselves out of bed for this earlier-than-matinee New Year’s Eve matchup. The most dedicated among the fanbase were likely still coming down from the disappointment of watching Kevin Bieksa and Team Canada lose the Spengler Cup in a 3:00AM shootout, and there was some reason to believe that the game between the Canucks and the Devils would also result in a letdown—as Vancouver entered the day winless in their last seven against New Jersey.

As always, Jeff Paterson had the lineup notes on Twitter. :

There were no changes to the Canucks’ lineup, but a few to the lines themselves—most notably, Nikolay Goldobin remaining stapled to the fourth line while Antoine Roussel took his place aside Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.

The goaltending matchup featured Anders Nilsson and Mackenzie Blackwood. Those hoping to see former Canuck Cory Schneider would be disappointed to learn he was on the IR with yet another injury—and doubly disappointed to learn that he’s gone more than a calendar year without an NHL win.

 

The Roussel-Pettersson-Boeser line started for Vancouver, with Boeser suiting up for the 100^th game of his career. He celebrated the occasion with a deft soccer-pass to Pettersson in the neutral zone, but nothing else came of their first shift.

After a understandably tentative start from both teams, the first real action of the game came just before the five-minute mark, with Will Butcher taking a hooking penalty to grant the Canucks their first powerplay of the game. The opportunity didn’t produce much more than a handful of shots, leaving the Canucks with a 7-2 shot advantage heading into the first TV timeout.

Coming out of that commercial break, the fans at home got a glimpse of young John Shorthouse on Sports Page—and it was glorious.

 

The speedy Miles Wood broke free on a semi-breakaway for the Devils’ first legitimate scoring chance of the game, but a combination of Nilsson and a backchecking Troy Stecher prevented him from converting on it.

On the next shift, another nice example of neutral zone play by Boeser resulted in a turnover and a quick chance for Pettersson, but Blackwood once again proved equal to the task and kicked the puck into the corner.

The Devils opened up the scoring just over 12 minutes into the period. Rookie Brett Seney put an innocuous-looking shot on net and the enormous Brian Boyle broke free from the check of Nikolay Goldobin to sweep in a juicy rebound. It wasn’t a play that boded well for Goldobin’s chances of escaping the fourth line anytime soon.

 

Pettersson absorbed perhaps the stiffest legal check of his career on the next shift when Devils captain Andy Greene caught him with his head down crossing the blueline. As the entire fanbase collectively held their breath, however, Pettersson bounced right back to his feet and got back in the play immediately.

The hit seemed to spark a fire in Pettersson and his linemates as he, Boeser, and the newly-added Loui Eriksson got the puck deep on their next opportunity and proceeded to bang and crash behind the net. All three players engaged in physical puck battles on the shift, and Boeser in particular threw his weight around like never before. It was a great example of the team’s best players—and Eriksson—leading by example and trying to inspire the rest of the squad.

The Devils received their first powerplay opportunity of the game with just under three minutes remaining in the period after Bo Horvat took a tripping penalty. Once again, the fleet-footed freshman Seney was involved. The New Jersey powerplay operated like a well-tuned machine and set up Wood for a clean shot off the half-wall—and it was clean all the way, beating Nilsson on his blocker side for the 2-0 lead.

At period’s end, Vancouver had a 12-7 advantage in shots, but it didn’t make much of a difference on the scoreboard.

 

The second period opened up with a literal bang, as Antoine Roussel decked Travis Zajac away from the puck—and somehow managed to escape without a penalty. The tone seemed to be set for a more physical middle frame.

A few minutes later Anders Nilsson made his best save of the game on a cross-ice play from the Devils, adroitly leaping across his crease to get a pad on the puck. Twitter didn’t seem to notice.

The Baertschi-Granlund-Leivo line put together the Canucks’ best stint of sustained pressure yet near the seven-minute mark of the period, with Sven Baertschi nearly setting up Josh Leivo for an easy goal. In general, Baertschi continued to make smart plays in the offensive zone, and it really seemed like an inevitability that he’d end up back in the top-six before the game’s conclusion.

The Canucks picked up their second powerplay of the game when Damon Severson tripped Elias Pettersson—and the Sportsnet cameras picked up Pettersson having an interesting-looking conversation with Andy Greene after the whistle. There’s been a lot of pushback in Pettersson’s game of late, and this could be another example of it—or it could be Pettersson simply saying “That was a solid hit, pal.”

Either way, their brief chat was more exciting than anything the Canucks accomplished on the powerplay. At the very least, after Pettersson’s defensive play in overtime last game, the fanbase appears to be much more comfortable with him covering the point:

 

In a reverse of their fortunes from the previous few games, Vancouver continued to drastically outshoot their opponents but generated little in the way of actual scoring chances. On the other hand, they also effectively shut down the Devils—preventing them from taking a shot on net for a consecutive ten minutes at one point. This looked like a all-new, all-different Canucks team, but unfortunately it was also a Canucks team that remained down by two goals.

A bizarre play occurred at the five-minute mark, as Nilsson came out of his net to play the puck and then put it directly on Kyle Palmieri’s stick. Palmieri missed his shot at the empty net, then went tumbling backwards over Alex Edler’s leg and into the boards. Palmieri got up furious at Edler, but it looked like incidental contact rather than a malicious play. In any case, the dramatic crash Palmieri made when he hit the boards conveniently distracted from Nilsson’s giveaway.

With less than two minutes remaining in the period, Ben Hutton made a nice defensive play on Blake Coleman along the boards—and Coleman responded with an elbow that put the Canucks on a late powerplay.

After dueling dashes by Pavel Zacha and Horvat, the Canucks’ top unit was finally able to get set up, resulting in some fine passing but no clean shots. When the Devils took the puck up the ice upon regaining possession, Pettersson—perhaps taking exception to the results of the 2017 draft—decked Nico Hischier to the ice, inciting the New Jersey crowd.

 

Markus Granlund did little to change the minds of those demanding he be removed from the second powerplay unit when he earned a tripping call against Hischier to take the Canucks off the powerplay in the midst of a Goldobin scoring chance.

The period would end with a brief stint of four-on-four play, and with the Canucks outshooting the Devils to the tune of 21-13—but still down by two goals.

Learning just how differently the New Jersey fanbase felt about that Edler on Palmieri play than I did:

Though at least one fan saw the light after this wholesome exchange:

 

The third period started with a handful of seconds of four-on-four play, followed by a truncated New Jersey powerplay. The Devils looked disinterested with the man advantage until only 20 seconds remained—at which point Miles Wood drove the puck into the zone and dished it to Sami Vatanen, who blasted it past Anders Nilsson for the 3-0 lead.

New Jersey was now two-for-two on the powerplay.

The blowout was officially on less than two minutes later as Stefan Noesen darted into the Canucks’ zone and dropped the puck to Pavel Zacha, who hammered it past Anders Nilsson. A collision between Alex Edler and Wood had opened up some extra space on the ice—perhaps karma for Edler’s inadvertent trip of Kyle Palmieri the previous period.

At the five-minute mark of the third period, the Devils had scored two goals on five shots, and the Canucks had yet to take a shot on goal.

Erik Gudbranson injected a bit of life into the game with a massive hit on John Quenneville that sent the young forward flying, but it failed to inspire much of a shift in momentum. Antoine Roussel followed this up by knocking over Mackenzie Blackwood with his own defender and then raining down punches on a turtling Damon Severson—resulting in a two-and-ten call and his ejection from the game.

The Canucks killed the penalty without incident, but gave up a two-on-one chance just as it expired. Nilsson stretched out his pad to make a nice kick save, denying the chance with a play that definitely falls under the category of “too little, too late.”

Thereafter, coach Travis Green threw his lines into a blender, and the results were interesting, to say the least:

 

In a rare occurrence, New Jersey took a delay of game penalty for dragging their heels and farting around too much after an icing call. It was a bold move by the referee, and the luckiest break the Canucks could have asked for at this point in the game–but it didn’t even result in a shot on net.

Josh Leivo made a nice solo effort on net after the penalty expired, but was unable to convert his original shot or the rebound he gathered into a goal.

Noesen made the mistake of taking a shot after the whistle on an offside play, and he received a rough ride from Gudbranson in the corner as retribution—though he was lucky enough to escape without being on the receiving end of an uppercut. Gudbranson was sent to the dressing room, and that was the last moment of excitement for the Canucks in 2018.

 

Fans had to get up early to watch this one, and many probably wish they’d stayed in bed. There aren’t a lot of positives to take away from a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of a Taylor Hall-less New Jersey team, but it’s important to remember that the Canucks traditionally underperform in matinee matchups—and this one took place on a Monday, to boot.

After another streak of solid—but statistically “lucky”—play, the Canucks were probably due for a loss, but it’s unfortunate that it had to be such an uninspiring one. This game made for an unfortunate end to a stellar month of December, and a sour New Year’s note—though Vancouver fans certainly have a lot to look forward to in 2019, and that’s probably better to focus on right now than this one anomalous loss.

And, of course, Lil Shorty:

Gameflow from Canucks at New Jersey December 31, 2018 (Courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

 

Heatmap from Canucks at New Jersey December 31, 2018 (Courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

 

There’s still a lot to love in Pettersson’s game even when he’s not scoring. Pettersson demonstrated a rare physical element to his game, made several key defensive plays, and generated chances with his offensive creativity—as per usual. He also led the team in faceoff percentage, solidifying what has usually been considered the weakest part of his game.

Leivo didn’t receive a lot of support from his linemates today, but he managed to generate a couple of chances through his own offensive acumen. Leivo hustles hard enough to fit in on the third line and his spurts of creativity make him a dangerous checking line forward—which proves that he’s a valuable member of the team even when he’s not skating in the top-six.

Hutton played more than 20 minutes of effective hockey tonight, making smart plays with the puck and limiting shot attempts against whenever he was on the ice. Hutton may not be demonstrating his occasional dynamic offense right now, but his defensive game has come leaps-and-bounds from where it was at the beginning of the season.

 

The Canucks ring in 2019 with a visit to Ottawa on Wednesday, January 2—with a start-time of 4:00PM PST on Sportsnet Pacific and 360.