The Vancouver Canucks entered tonight’s contest looking for the Pennsylvanian sweep at home. With the dismantled Philadelphia Flyers not far in the Canucks rearview, they hoped to replicate that success against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

These aren’t your fathers Penguins though, and the Canucks were facing a relatively new look squad. Beyond the personnel changes, this is a club that has struggled to produce offensively and is relying heavily on their goaltender. It’s a stark contrast from the Pens we’ve become accustomed to this last decade, to be sure.

From puck drop to final whistle, it was beaten into our heads that the Penguins had flipped the script – transitioning from an offensive to defensive team. While it’s true that the goals are fewer and further between than usual, they’ve actually bled shot-attempts at a bottom-three rate for the entirety of the season. All the same, our benevolent broadcasters were vindicated early, as the Canucks struggled to mount much, if anything offensively through the opening frame.

In general though, that was the Penguins best period of play. They stifled the Canucks in the neutral zone and exposed them early with the stretch pass on numerous occasions. The Pens were eventually rewarded for their ability to stretch the rink, as one such incursion led to the offensive zone pressure that landed the Pens their first goal. On a Brian Dumoulin point shot, the snakebitten David Perron shook the monkey off his back with a deflection goal mere feet in front of Ryan Miller.

Considering the uninspiring push by the Canucks afterwards, one couldn’t help but wonder if we were entering #manageyourlosses territory by the tenth minute of play. The hometown team seemed to be catching their groove as the first frame inched to a close, though. There was a hope as we entered the intermission, however faint.

The second frame did much to vindicate these feelings early, as the Canucks launched an onslaught of Grade-A chances at Marc-Andre Fleury’s net. A bit of bad luck and a lights out performance from Fleury kept Vancouver at bay, but there was no questioning the effort. An extra inch here or there on several of their chances and the final score might reflect a little more favourably on the hometown team.

While the Canucks entered the third period with every sign of a team on the verge of bursting the well, they weren’t rewarded early. In fact, they were on the wrong end of a pair of goals, including a shorthanded tally by Eric Fehr; a goal which will go a long way towards keeping Yannick Weber from this lineup when the defencemen are all healthy, I am sure.

The game appeared to be slipping from Vancouver’s grasp at this point, but they managed a fairly substantial push to end the game. It started with a fire drill goal, originally credited to Matt Bartkowski, but eventually switched to Daniel Sedin – jury is still out, where I’m concerned. 

Things got especially interesting moments later, when the Honey Badger (Jannik Hansen) launched a wrist shot over Fluery’s shoulder to get the Canucks within a goal. That was as close as the Canucks would get though, as Fleury closed the door on the onslaught of chances that followed. 

Well, you can’t win them all. On the encouraging end of the ledger, Miller has continued to play lights out hockey and one can’t help but applaud the Canucks late push. On the other, they gave up a shorthanded goal and failed to capitalize on any number of ten-bell scoring chances.

There’s a two-day layoff until the next game, which will air on Hockey Night in Canada. The Canucks will be kicking off a seven-game road trip against the Buffalo Sabres. Catch you then!