Welcome back to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
This game started with an unfortunate pass from JT Miller up the wall to Filip Hronek in the LA end that allowed Adrian Kempe and Alex Turcotte to move in on a 2-on-1 that ended with Turcotte getting a chance off that Thatcher Demko had no chance of stopping.
Alex Turcotte opens the scoring. It's 1-0 LA early in the first period.
The most frustrating part of this goal against is that the Canucks won two puck battles in the LA end, and looked like they could be building to something. All it took was one unlucky bounce off the wall and a pinch from Hronek, and it was 1-0 Kings early.
On the next shift, Elias Pettersson drew a holding penalty, giving the Canucks an early power play and a prime chance to get back in this one.
And once again, Miller wasn’t on the first unit power play. A peculiar decision at best.
The Canucks didn’t score, and then it was Derek Forbort’s turn to draw a penalty and put the Canucks on the power play. Once again, the Canucks’ power play struggled to even get set up, let alone get any quality shots off on Darcy Kuemper.
Two power play chances. Zero shots. The Rogers Arena faithful let their team hear it, as the boo birds were out early in this one. They then let out a hearty Bronx cheer as Filip Hronek floated a shot in on Kuemper. This was the Canucks’ first official shot on goal, but was taken off the board shortly after.
Then it was another tough look for JT Miller, as Miller went out to challenge at the blueline, got beat, and then didn’t make much of an effort to help out after the fact, ending in Alex Turcotte scoring his second goal of the game.
Things were bleak early on. Rick Tocchet calls his timeout.
The Canucks actually had some decent jump after the timeout, as both the Pettersson line and the fourth line of Höglander-Blueger-Sherwood spent some time in the offensive zone and got a couple of quality shots on goal. Of course, the Canucks’ most dangerous chance was the one that didn’t even count, as Jake DeBrusk moved in and rang one off the iron.
The second period started with Vincent Desharnais high-sticking Quinton Byfield, giving LA their first power play of the game. Thatcher Demko made his best stop of the night to that point when he robbed Byfield, who had what looked to be a sure goal after a cross-crease feed from Adrian Kempe.
Thatcher Demko makes a great save to keep the Canucks in this game!
Conor Garland drew a penalty, and for the Canucks’ third power play of the game, Miller was back on the first unit, with Boeser sliding down to PP2. The Canucks came as close as they’d been all night on this one, but the puck stayed out. So it didn’t really matter.
The Kings took ANOTHER penalty, as Kevin Fiala was called for slashing Brock Boeser.
With how good the Kings are at giving up nothing at 5v5, the Canucks simply had to capitalize on one of these power play chances. Instead, Boeser was called for holding 30 seconds into the power play. To four on four we went.
It was there that Quinn Hughes danced at the blueline before letting go of a shot that found its way through traffic and got the Canucks on the board.
After this goal, Rick Tocchet stared Miller down on his skate back to the bench. After a quick word with Adam Foote and Yogi Svejkovský, Tocchet delivered a message to Miller, who promptly stood up and walked to the end of the Canucks’ bench.
Miller’s next shift was skipped, but he did get one last shift to close out the second. It was certainly going to be interesting to see how much more of Miller we’d see on the night.
Miller was out for his first shift of the third, but when the Canucks got a power play early in the third, both Miller and Boeser were off of PP1.
The Kings added another, and this one was just more bad luck than anything else, as Warren Foegle was the only Kings player to see where this puck was.
-Thatcher Demko definitely needed to be better than he was in this one. The Canucks’ number one goalie is fighting it a bit these days.
-Nils Höglander had some solid jump in this game. Feels weird to give anything resembling praise after this one, but wanted to note that about Höglander.
-Not a great effort from the home side in front of the paying customers.
-This was quite an awful response to getting embarrassed 6-1 to the Winnipeg Jets.
-JT Miller finishes the night with the lowest time on ice at even strength among any Canucks skater tonight. Phil Di Giuseppe (9:42) is the only other player who logged under 10 minutes of EV TOI.
-Nearing “something major needs to be done to this team” territory.
-I hear The Stanchies are going to be fire tonight.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below! Also be sure to tune into Rink Wide Vancouver after the game. Jeff Paterson and Irfaan Gaffar have you covered for all of your post game needs just moments after the horn. Find the YouTube live stream below:
