Jake DeBrusk made a strong move towards the net on the opening shift of the game, forcing Simon Edvinsson to take a penalty and put the Canucks on the power play early in this one. On the power play, Elias Pettersson, Tom Willander, and Brock Boeser teamed up on a couple of good looks, but the Canucks’ first man-advantage opportunity of the night was ultimately an unsuccessful one.

Back at 5v5, the Canucks continued to put the pressure on the Red Wings, and five minutes into this one, the Canucks had spent minimal time in their own end and were outshooting the home side 3-0. It was a nice start for them.

Elias Junior Pettersson made a nice play at the Detroit blue line to keep the puck in the offensive end for his team, leading to a great scoring chance for Kiefer Sherwood, whose shot was turned aside by John Gibson. The Wings quickly went the other way with a 2-on-1 of their own, but Kevin Lankinen got a piece of Dylan Larkin’s attempt with his glove, keeping the game scoreless.

The Wings got their first power play chance of the night when Marcus Pettersson tripped up Dylan Larkin. The Canucks killed that one off, but late in the period, Zeev Buium and David Kampf took penalties in rapid succession to give Detroit an extended two-man advantage, and they wasted little time in converting, as Patrick Kane surprised Lankinen with a quick short side shot to open the scoring:

Some takeaways from the first:
-Really liking the look of the Buium-Hronek pairing. When he was originally acquired from the Minnesota Wild, I remember thinking Buium would immediately replace Quinn Hughes on the top pairing and on PP1. And while he did immediately step in and quarterback the Canucks’ first power play unit, it took longer for him to get regular reps next to Hronek, but I’ve liked the look of those together. Hronek has been so good this year, so who better for Buium to learn from?
-I don’t think we talk enough about how disappointing Marcus Pettersson has been this season. Way, way too many minor penalties and downright abysmal play with the puck on his stick. That trade and the subsequent extension look like a big mistake.
-Kevin Lankinen made some good saves, but holy smokes the Wings missed the net on more than one prime scoring opportunities in that opening period.

The Wings picked up where they left off, and didn’t take long to push their lead to two. After Elias Pettersson fanned on a shot attempt, Detroit went the other way and scored after an odd-man rush:

Not sure how much the clip does it justice, but this was an absolutely abysmal defensive effort from EP40. Rarely see that from him.

The Canucks got another power play chance shortly after the Sandin-Pellikka goal, and on this one, Jake DeBrusk made good on his chance to get the Canucks on the board.

Nice play by Zeev Buium at the line in the leadup to this goal. 2-1. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the Wings to answer. Detroit cycled the puck around and broke the Canucks’ defensive system so badly that both Kiefer Sherwood and Tyler Myers (for some reason) were both at the point while the puck was worked down low. Not much chance for Lankinen on this one.

The Canucks mustered up a strong push to close out the second, but ultimately, they got outscored, outshot, and outworked in the middle frame.

Some takeaways from the second period:
-Prime’s Coast to Coast league whiparound show is truly a gift. If you’ve got an Amazon Prime subscription (which you’ll want for Monday’s game), you already have access to it.
-It’s hard to watch this team’s veterans go through the motions while not really knowing if the Canucks plan to actually get rid of any of them. Is this a rebuild or isn’t it? And if the answer is no, then what’s the actual plan?
-Liking what I’m seeing from Nils Höglander. Time to get him onto Pettersson’s wing. Enough with this fourth line/healthy scratch nonsense. (I wrote this line before the Canucks put Höglander-Pettersson-Boeser together for the final two shifts of the period.

The Canucks entered the third down by a pair of goals, and it stayed that way thanks to Kevin Lankinen making a huge save off of Dylan Larkin early in the frame. The Canucks nearly pulled within one just before the 10-minute mark, when Aatu Räty let fly with a wrister from the point that Drew O’Connor deflected, but John Gibson got just enough of it to hold the shot out.

They kept working hard and kept getting the puck up ice and into the Detroit end, but it felt like the plays died right before the Canucks were actually able to create a scoring chance off of them. It was back-and-forth action for much of the third, and from an entertainment perspective, you couldn’t really complain. 

With just under five minutes remaining, the Canucks pulled Thatcher Demko and sent out an extra attacker. And Patrick Kane promptly scored the 500th goal of his NHL career. The Wings spilled out over the boards to celebrate, further prolonging the end of this game.

Lucas Raymond added another Detroit goal to make it 5-1. 

Some takeaways from the third:
-Really liked what Aatu Räty and Drew O’Connor managed to do on a line together. Would love to see Räty keep getting chances.
-Another strong game for Kiefer Sherwood. Friday would be a great day to pull the trigger on a trade.
-This team is a directionless disaster.

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