Tonight, the Canucks fell behind early and played catch up all night long. That’s the short version of it, and at this point of the season, if you want to stop reading right there, we don’t blame you. We do however encourage you to donate to the Canucks for Kids Fund Telethon if you haven’t already! You can do so by clicking here.

Now let’s give our instant reaction to this game. There were certainly some good things to talk about tonight!

Right at the forefront is the performance of JT Miller, who has looked fantastic in the second half of the season. Miller scored two goals — one shorthanded and one on the power play — and added an assist on Phil Di Giuseppe’s fourth goal of the season.

Perhaps the best part about tonight with regards to Miller was that he logged more ice time than Elias Pettersson. Any night where Pettersson isn’t the Canucks’ high-minute forward is a good night at this point. The bad news is that Quinn Hughes logged 29:35 of total ice time, which isn’t great. Baby steps though!

Miller’s efforts weren’t enough to get the team over the hump and give them the victory, but it was certainly promising to see. Aside from Miller, we should mention that Elias Pettersson now has a nine game point streak and isn’t showing any signs of stopping.

Vitali Kravtsov looked good tonight as well. He and Vasily Podkolzin’s effort levels were high, but both players still logged under 11 minutes of ice time. It’d be nice to see them get a little bit of a longer leash and perhaps the opportunity to play with either Miller or Pettersson down the final stretch of the season.

Anyway, that’s all for me tonight! What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!