The Canucks were struggling to establish their forecheck early on. Leevi Meriläinen had to be sharp on a few occasions. Things went from not great to bad — note we didn’t say from bad to worse — when Arshdeep Bains found himself filling in on the first line for Brock Boeser, who needed to head to the dressing room after taking a shot off his foot.

First, Bains gave away the puck from inside the Sharks’ zone, then grabbed onto Collin Graf and was called for holding, giving the Sharks the first power play of the game.

As expected, Macklin Celebrini put on a bit of a show on the ensuing power play, and also as expected, so did Leevi Meriläinen, as the Canucks successfully killed this one off. Almost immediately after Bains stepped out of the box, Michael Misa was called for cross-checking, giving the Canucks their first power play of the game. They didn’t score, but what followed was far more impressive than any power play goal we’ve seen this season.

Elias forward Pettersson made some serious magic happen to create a goal for the Canucks. First, Pettersson hustled to strip the Sharks of the puck as they were trying to exit their own end. After stealing the puck, Pettersson fought off two Sharks as he skated to the side boards. Then he wristed the puck toward the goal, and Yaroslav Askarov kicked out the shot attempt right to Drew O’Connor, who buried the rebound to open the scoring.

Also a shoutout to Jamie Oleksiak for stepping up and killing the Sharks’ breakout attempt, which allowed this play to happen in the first place. 1-0 Canucks.

The Canucks got a late power play chance, and the highlight from that (other than everyone eagerly watching to see if Lekkerimäki would get a chance to shoot) was Meriläinen making a huge save off of Kiefer Sherwood, who found himself on a shorthanded breakaway. That one will be in The Stanchies later on.

Canucks in front after 20 minutes of play.

Some takeaways from the first:
-A few solid plays for Tom Willander in the first period. He’s been getting his flowers lately, and for good reason.
-Celebrini has to be the most fun player in the league to watch on a nightly basis. Connor McDavid might be the only other player I’m willing to argue for.
-EP40 is playing with some serious confidence. Harman Dayal did a great deep dive into Pettersson’s start to the season on Wednesday’s episode of West Coast Conversation. Watch it by clicking here.

Jake DeBrusk came close to pushing the Canucks’ lead to two after Zeev Buium sprang him and Elias Pettersson in on a 2-on-1. DeBrusk elected to shoot, but his attempt rang off the crossbar.

The Canucks’ PK was busy again, as Zeev Buium was nabbed for cross-checking eight minutes into the frame. There, Meriläinen was once again the Canucks’ best PKer. The Canucks were clearly fired up by how well Meriläinen was playing while shorthanded and wanted to see more of it, because Liam Öhgren took another penalty with just over three minutes left in the second when he tripped up Adam Gaudette in the neutral zone.

The Sharks’ PP was once again getting some quality looks, but once again, Meriläinen kept answering the call of duty, making save after save. Öhgren stepped out of the box and quickly made up for his mistake, cutting to the middle and ripping a shot glove side on Yaroslav Askarov to somehow push the Canucks’ lead to two.

While the first felt a lot like the two teams taking turns sustaining pressure on each other, most of the second period was the two sides both playing hard and limiting one another through the neutral zone. At 5v5, it was another solid period for the Canucks, and after 40 minutes, they were up by two goals and were outshooting the Sharks.

Some takeaways from the second:
-Good old three minute shift for Tom Willander in that period. That’s a whole new level of exhaustion.
-Strong 40 minutes for the road side.
-Meriläinen has really established himself as the Canucks’ clear-cut number one goaltender, and it’s not particularly close right now.

It was a very choppy start to the third for both sides, and the Sharks got a great chance to chip away at the Canucks’ lead seven minutes in when Jonathan Lekkerimäki was called for interfering with Macklin Celebrini. To this point, the Sharks’ PP was 0-for-4 on the night.

And after this one, they were 1-for-5. After an initial clear from some solid work from Drew O’Connor and Elias Pettersson, the Sharks regained the zone, found Will Smith, and Smith stepped into a wrister that beat Meriläinen cleanly, with Ivar Stenberg providing some traffic in front.

Will Smith wasn’t done there, either. After Macklin Celebrini feathered a nifty touch pass to the net-front after an errant point shot, Smith quickly released a shot that beat Meriläinen cleanly.

And just 11 seconds later, the Sharks pulled ahead. Kiefer Sherwood worked his way through the neutral zone and into the Canucks’ end, dished off to Mason Marchment, and Marchment’s shot off the rush beat Meriläinen under the glove.

The Canucks had a chance to come back in this one when Michael Kesselring cross-checked Jake DeBrusk and allowed the Canucks to go 6-on-4. Also: loved Brock Boeser grabbing Kesselring by the collar when Kesselring tried to push EP40 around after the whistle.

At 6-on-4, I would have liked to have seen the Canucks seek out Lekkerimäki a bit more than they did. I mean, this is a guy who was practically scoring at will and taking the hockey equivalent of half-court Steph Curry step-back threes on Tuesday night.

Alas, the Canucks couldn’t find the goal they were looking for, and lost this one 3-2.

Some takeaways from the third:
-I know he made the glaring mistake(s) in the first period, but Arshdeep Bains turned in some solid shifts in this third period and in this game.
-Thought that was two games in a row where Jamie Oleksiak had a strong game. He and Willander were once again solid as a pairing.
-Will Smith (4th overall in 2023) with a good reminder of just how many high draft picks you need to accumulate the amount of talent to come out of a rebuild and enter a contention window. And Michael Misa (2nd overall in 2025) was another good reminder of that fact as well.

What’s your instant reaction to this game? Let us know in the comments section below! And be sure to tune into Rink Wide Vancouver LIVE after the game on the Rink Wide Vancouver YouTube channel!