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!
It’s emergency call-up season! And no, I’m not just talking about myself filling in for Tyson/Lachlan/Quads on Saturday night Instant Reaction duty.
No, with injury and illness plaguing Max Sasson and Thatcher Demko, respectively, Vancouver recalled Ty Mueller, a 2023 double-overager, 4th-round draft pick, following his stellar rookie campaign down in Abbotsford.
While Nikita Tolopilo kept watch on Kevin Lankinen from the bench, Ty Mueller made his NHL debut, featuring on a line with Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser. Not bad company for the 22-year-old rookie!
Here’s how the rest of the lineup shook out:
Not long after his first NHL faceoff win, Mueller and the Canucks raced out of the d-zone and into the offensive zone for an early spurt of o-zone control, culminating in a couple of hairy moments for Filip Gustavsson. The Canucks’ pressure sparked off a bizarre “stick stuck in net” incident that left the Wild effectively playing 4v5.
Less than four minutes into the opening frame, Marcus Pettersson got Vancouver on the board with his first goal as a Canuck.
1-0 Canucks
Credit to Linus Karlsson, another Abbotsford transplant in Saturday’ss lineup, with his brilliant pause after gaining the zone, baiting in theWild’s defence and spotting MPettersson blitzing into the offensive zone down the left wing unencumbered. Since I probably won’t write anything else this season, I’ll add my two cents to say that I think Karlsson has been perfectly serviceable for Vancouver this season.
Elsewhere, Conor Garland got into some shot-for-shot action with Kirill Kaprizov, with the taller Kaprizov declining the shorter’s invitation to scrap.
The Wild’s best moment through the opening ten came off a couple of shaky moments from Lankinen off shots that NaturalStatTrick would classify as “low-danger” Oddly, they, too, benefited from an awkward “stick stuck in something” moment when the Canucks lone goalscorer had his stick jammed up in a Wildplayer’ss skate.
Karlsson had himself an excellent opening frame. He won a ton of battles and set up more than a handful of dangerous opportunities for his linemates and blueliners. Past the midway point of the opening twenty, Quinn Hughes started vibing with the puck in the offensive zone (sparked by several battles won by Karlsson). Unfortunately, the good vibes weren’t to last, as Teddy Blueger would take the game’s first penalty with a needlessly stupid interference minor that ruined Hughes’ groove.
Wild head coach John Hynes ran a five-forward power play unit, which certainly moved the puck, at the very least. The highlight of the Canucks’ PK was Garland executing two superman-dives to sweep the puck out of the d-zone and down the length of the ice. The best chance of the Wild’s power play went to Vancouver, with Kiefer Sherwood leading a 3-on-1 rush for a shot off Gustvasson’s blocker.
The Wild surged late and finished the period, having outshot Vancouver 12-6.
A sharp angle shot from Garland on Gustavsson in the opening minute of the middle frame seemed to be the only positive moment of Vancouvers through the opening four minutes. The Wild were all over Vancouver with shots on Lankinen from point-blank range.
A thunderous hit from MPettersson on Declan Chisholm drew a lengthy stoppage that seemed to disrupt the Wild’s run of pressure. Fortunately, Chisholm gathered his bearings and made his way to the bench with the help of his teammates.
A part of the delay stemmed from the ref’s decision to gather and determine whether there was intentional contact with Chisholm’s head on the play. Reason prevailed, and the game resumed. Though, it was noticeably chippier.
Upon returning to play, the Wild returned to dominating inside the Canucks’ zone. Fortunately, Mats Zuccarello needlessly swept Victor Mancini to the ice, well away from the play, gifting Vancouver their first power play opportunity. While Vancouver’s power play didn’t look great, it certainly looked better than Minnesota’s earlier attempt.
Past the midway point of a sluggish second period, Dakota Joshua drew a slashing penalty against Zach Bogosian, giving Vancouver a second power play opportunity.
Nils Höglander spent the first 40 minutes of the game in matchup duty alongside Garland and Pius Suter against Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson-Ek, and Matt Boldy. Höglander & Company held the Wild’s top line to just two shots on net in those minutes. It is worth noting that they were out-attempted two-to-one. But whatever.
A minute-and-change into the power play, Höglander continued his Hogenaissance under Tocchet, rifling a shot, tipped by Debrusk at the last second, that made it 2-0 for the home team.
2-0 Canucks
The Wild spent the remainder of the period desperately trying to land shots on Lankinen, but the Canucks’ tight defensive play made that a nigh-impossible task. The Wild finished the middle frame narrowly up in shots (7-4), despite out-attempting the Canucks 13-7.
Twenty-two seconds into the opening frame, a centring pass from Matt Boldy deflected awkwardly off of MPettersson’s stick and out to Brock Faber inside the slot for a goal that halved Vancouver’s lead.
2-1 Canucks
Not long after, a very fortunately early whistle from the rest denied Faber his second goal of the period.
Faber’s (relative to the whistle) extremely late shot into Lankinen’s net sparked a large scrum, with every player pairing off for some post-whistle shenanigans.
Five minutes into the period, Derek Forbort engaged in a scrap with Yakov Trenin, wherein the Russian threw a hard punch at the downed Forbort while the referee tried to stop the fight. Trenin received a major penalty on the play, while Forbort went to the dressing room for stitches.
Teddy Blueger took his second penalty of the night, this time for jabbing Trenin in the ass from the bench.
The ensuing non-power play saw Minnesota take over in a crushing way. The Wild ran up a gaudy shot clock through the first half of the final frame, outshooting Vancouver 7-zip.
Ty Mueller, playing just his second shift of the third period, took a holding penalty while engaged in a board battle inside the d-zone. The Wild pressed hard on the man advantage but were stifled considerably by unfortunate bounces and a litany of flubbed passes/shot attempts.
One of the Canucks’ best moments of the period came when Höglander broke up a run of suffocating pressure by leading a breakout for a dump-in. Another was Brock Boeser sending Aatu Räty in on a breakaway for a shot that sat on Gustavsson’s goal line. But that was about it.
With less than seven minutes to go, the Wild’s unrelenting pressure paid off, tying the game at two-apiece.
2-2 Tie
Credit to Ryan Hartman, batting down MPettersson’s board-and-out and setting up Marcus Foligno with a perfect pass through traffic for the equalizer.
The final seven saw both teams exchange a dozen or so icings and double-digit shot attempts. It was an absolute slog of a finale to an ugly final forty minutes from the home team.
Linus Karlsson tested Gustavsson with a shot in the final 10 seconds, but after 60 minutes of regulation, the shot clock read 32-14 for the away team. Yeesh!
Both Hynes and Tocchet had a matchup they were hunting for the overtime session. Tocchet had Hughes-Boeser-Suter (and then Garland) out early, and they dominated the first run of possession with control in the Wild zone but sadly generated just a single shot attempt. Hynes then got his Kaprizov-Zuccarello-Faber matchup out against Sherwood-Hoglander-Hronek, which went as well as expected. Shame too, because Höglander had a really solid game despite the play on the eventual game winner.
Honestly, the Canucks started quite well. That first 20 was impressive. Unfortunately, the Wild played desperate hockey over the final 45 and absolutely dominated the Canucks.
3-2 Wild
Two games left, mercifully.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below. And be sure to tune into Rink Wide Vancouver moments after the final horn!
Sponsored by bet365