Evander Kane — with some help from the linesman — got the Canucks on the board early when he caught Jonathan Quick out of position and rifled home his sixth of the season:

The Canucks got their first power play of the game eight minutes into the first, and after going 2-for-3 in New Jersey on Sunday, expectations were SKY HIGH for the Canucks’ PP. They once again looked good, but didn’t score this time. On Twitter/X, Stanchies writer Wyatt Arndt said that he feels Zeev Buium needs to be a single-digit defenceman, rather than jersey number 24. I can’t put my finger on it, but I can’t get around the feeling that he needs to be either number eight or number four.

Anyways. It was a pretty uneventful first period, as both Rangers fans and Canucks fans complained about how bad their favourite team looked.

Some more takeaways from the first:
-Trade whatever veteran you have to in order to get Aatu Räty in this lineup. A one game scratch, you can live with that. But a supposedly rebuilding team keeping a 23-year-old centre in the press box while we watch Drew O’Connor lose faceoffs instead? The one game he played higher up in the lineup, he scored two goals. Let’s go.
-Potentially bad news for Team Tank: Thatcher Demko is looking pretty sharp.

In the second, Liam Ohgren scored his first goal of the season — yes, the season, not just with the Canucks — before the period was even five minutes old. Ohgren moved in on the wing and sniped a shot five hole on Quick, who caught a piece of the shot, but not enough, as the puck trickled in past him.

The kids are alright. As I pointed out on X:

Liam Ohgren in 18 GP with Minnesota this season: 0 points
Liam Ohgren in 2 GP with Vancouver: 1 goal

Just saying.

There was quite the sequence in the back half of the second period. First, Jonathan Quick robbed an officially snakebitten Kiefer Sherwood not once but twice, kickstarting the Rangers’ breakout the other way. Led by JT Miller (who missed his first attempt), the Rangers cycled the puck around and cranked up the pressure on the Canucks, who were suddenly stuck defending in their own end. The Canucks eventually gained control and iced the puck, and after a few more sharp saves from Thatcher Demko, Liam Ohgren eventually wheeled the puck out and through the neutral zone. And wildly enough, the sequence nearly ended with a Vancouver goal as the Rangers defenceman lost his balance and fell to the ice, allowing Ohgren to move right to the front of the net on a partial breakaway. Quick turned his backhand five-hole attempt aside, though, and the game remained 2-0.

From there, the Rangers really started to pour on the pressure, and my oh my, was Thatcher Demko sharp.

The Canucks got their second power play attempt of the game late in the second, and this time, they elected to start the second unit.

Some takeaways from the second:
-As I watched Thatcher Demko’s fabulous saves in the second, I couldn’t help but think about how few big saves the Canucks have gotten from their goaltenders this season. They’ve been an awful defensive team, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like with Kevin Lankinen, basically every shot that should beat him, has. Does that make sense? Maybe not.
-Zeev Buium down on the ice after getting hit into the boards had every Canucks fan worried that the most Canuck-y thing that could happen was about to happen.

Let the record show I wrote this before the third period began. The Rangers played last night, losing 4-1 to the Anaheim Ducks. They’ve been a bit of a mess this year, and it feels a bit like their late burst in the second period would be the best effort they could muster up. And of course, Thatcher Demko was sensational and stopped them dead in their tracks.

That theory seemed like a solid one. Now, to their credit, the Canucks did a better job of defending through the neutral zone, but the Rangers seemed like they were completely out of answers for most of the third.

Naturally, the Rangers took plenty of shots as they battled to get back into this one. As the boos began for a second straight night at MSG, the Rangers got a late power play and pulled their goalie in an attempt to capitalize at 6-on-4. Little did they know, Conor Garland had plans of banking the puck to himself (instead of clearing it out of the zone) and backhanding a shot over every Rangers player and into the open net.

Some takeaways from the third:
-I know everyone is excited enough about Zeev Buium, but some of Buium’s defensive reads have flat-out stunned me at times. He certainly doesn’t look like a 20-year-old so far.

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