The club’s record may read 2-1 on the NHL standings page, but three out of three games of Canucks hockey so far this season have been an absolute blast. Let’s see if they can go four for four…

No changes to the Canucks’ lineup from Saturday night’s win over the Calgary Flames.

Rossi-Pettersson-Karlsson
Öhgren-Cotter-Boeser
Bains-Sasson-Lekkerimäki
O’Connor-Räty-Gallagher

Buium-Hronek
Oleksiak-Willander
Pettersson-Schenn

Lankinen

Elias Pettersson has been feeling it early on this season, and his first shift of this game was a memorable one. Pettersson threw a hit (increasing his NHL lead with each hit he throws), then stickhandled away from an aggressive Vegas forecheck, drawing a slashing penalty from Mark Stone. Canucks to the power play early.

Now, the Canucks’ power play has had plenty of issues early in the new season, mostly getting through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone. But on this one, they chipped the puck in, worked to win the puck battle down low, and shocker, got set up! On their first sequence, EP40 elected to pass when he likely should have shot, and on the Canucks’ second sequence, Pettersson didn’t think anything but shot, winding up to take a slapper that represented the Canucks’ best chance of the man advantage.

Shortly after, Jamie Oleksiak was called for cross-checking, giving Vegas their first power play chance of the game. Here, the Vegas power play looked downright impressive. Their passing was crisp and their chances were dangerous. Thankfully for the Canucks, Kevin Lankinen was even more impressive. Lankinen made a number of five-alarm saves, and the Canucks managed to kill this one off. Aatu Räty seemingly enjoyed the show Lankinen was putting on, because less than a minute after the successful penalty kill, Räty took an interference penalty. On this one, the Canucks nearly scored a shorthanded goal when Max Sasson and Drew O’Connor — two of the Canucks’ fastest skaters — moved in on a 2-on-1 against Mitch Marner. Sasson slid the puck over to O’Connor, but Adin Hill stood tall in the Vegas goal.

The Canucks were pushing the pace, and after taking a while to get their legs under them on Saturday night against the Flames, the Canucks absolutely started on time in this one.

The Canucks got their second power play chance of the game after Max Sasson made a nice feed to Arshdeep Bains right in the slot, as Tomas Hertl was called for hooking Bains. Pettersson won the offensive zone draw, and the Canucks’ first power play unit cycled the puck around. Pettersson made a nice pass to Filip Hronek at the point, and Hronek fired a hard pass to Paul Cotter, who filling in for Jake DeBrusk at the net-front on PP1, directed the puck past Hill to open the scoring.

Solid opening 20 for the home side.

Some takeaways from the first:
-Well, the entertainment value has certainly been there to begin the new season.
-It’s fun to watch Elias Pettersson play like this again.
-I know we joked about Paul Cotter becoming the next Kiefer Sherwood, but…
-Six points for Elias Pettersson so far. He had eight in all of October last season. Shoutout to @jeffnals on Twitter/X for reminding me of that fact.

One thing from the first period that I didn’t mention was Brendan Gallagher’s ice time. There was tons of special teams, which obviously limited his ice time, but it’s also been a struggle for him early on, so we likely won’t see Manny Malhotra rushing to find Gallagher more minutes. The slashing penalty he took in the opening minutes of the second period likely won’t help. The Canucks managed to kill that one off as well, and stayed protecting their one goal lead.

On top of a successful PK, another thing that continued into the second was Elias Pettersson feeling himself. With Pettersson on the ice, the puck was rarely in the Canucks’ end. He was shooting, hitting, and blocking shots. I almost forgot what it was like to watch Pettersson play like this. Nobody knows how long this will last, but man, does it make Canucks hockey fun to watch.

Vegas got on the board with 11 minutes left in the second, as Mitch Marner benefited from an unfortunate bounce and rifled a wrister past Lankinen.

The Canucks were downright playing with fire in the second, as with six minutes left in the frame, they gave Vegas their fourth power play chance of the night. Tom Willander tripped up his man and sat in the box as the shot counter read 22-8 in favour of Vegas. Six of those shots had come on the power play. Like I said, playing with fire. And this time, they got burned.

The Golden Knights cycled the puck around, got their shots off, and after a rebound and quick pass, Victor Olofsson struck to give Vegas their first lead of the night.

Just over three minutes after the power play marker, Jonathan Lekkerimäki evened things up with his second goal of the season and third point of the young season.

Vegas retook the lead just 34 seconds later when Marc Gatcomb

Some takeaways from the second:
-Back-to-back solid performances by Canucks goaltenders on consecutive nights.
-Nice for Lekkerimäki to see a couple go in early on this season.

Luke Schenn took an interference penalty nearly identical to the one he took last night against Calgary, as he got beat in the neutral zone and had to interfere with his man to prevent a breakaway. The Canucks didn’t have to kill off the full two minutes, as Jack Eichel was called for hooking Elias Junior Pettersson behind the Canucks’ net. The two sides played 4-on-4 for 37 seconds, and then the Canucks’ 1-for-2 power play got a little over a minute to go to work.

They managed to get set up, but the Canucks’ power play didn’t record a shot on goal.

Back to 5v5 as they tried to find a late one. Liam Öhgren had a decent cut to the middle and shot on goal after Zeev Buium made a nice play in neutral ice to get his teammate the puck. Paul Cotter had a bid for his fifth goal of the season when he broke in on the left side on the rush, but Hill turned his shot away.

The Canucks found some serious energy in the third; with four minutes left and the home side looking for a goal, the shots were 8-2 in favour of the Canucks.

With 2:12 remaining, the Canucks pulled their goaltender and sent Paul Cotter out there. Filip Hronek had a huge shot block to keep the Canucks’ hopes alive, and the Canucks took a timeout with 17 seconds remaining. It didn’t work out, however, as Adin Hill made one final save off of Elias Pettersson right before the final horn.

3-2 final.

Some more takeaways from the third:
-Another fun one from Rogers Arena where the home team never gave up.
-Tom Willander took a huge forearm to the face courtesy of Jeremy Lauzon and left the game after being slow to get up. It was good to see him come back so soon.
-Good start for Kevin Lankinen tonight.
-Canucks’ best period was the third, and that’s impressive when they started this game well and played less than 24 hours ago.

What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!

Be sure to check out Rink Wide Vancouver LIVE on the Daily Faceoff Vancouver YouTube channel after the game!