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!
The Canucks had some solid jump early in this one, as they were all over the reeling Senators out of the gates. Elias Pettersson threw a big hit on Tim Stützle to help set the one early:
The Canucks got the game’s first power play, but the first one that actually mattered was the five minute one the Senators got after Quinn Hughes cross-checked his good friend Josh Norris into the boards.
Was this worthy of Hughes’s night ending? We see plays like this all the time, and if Norris doesn’t go down the way he did — and doesn’t hit his face on the boards, of course — there’s likely just a minor penalty. But with Norris immediately going to the room with an injury, Hughes is called for the match penalty. Norris was fine, and even returned in time for the power play.
The Canucks killed off all five minutes of the penalty but were, of course, without their best player for the rest of the night after already being without JT Miller, Brock Boeser, and of course, Thatcher Demko.
Power plays were a theme early on, as the Canucks got another one late in the first period, and their first look on the PP without Quinn Hughes went better than you may have expected:
The Canucks exited the first period up by a goal, with a tall task facing them for the final 40 minutes of the game.
Pettersson started the period with a strong shift in which he fought off Brady Tkachuk to get a shot off on Linus Ullmark, and stayed right on top of the play to draw a tripping penalty at the end of it.
That power play didn’t go as well as the last one, as the Canucks once again struggled to get set up.
The Canucks took a penalty of their own after Nils Höglander got his stick in on Stutzle’s hands. Brady Tkachuk managed to bury a loose puck to tie this one up at 1-1.
Then it was the Senators’ turn to take a penalty. The Canucks’ PK stood tall, and we got more than two minutes of 5v5 time, which meant that Max Sasson got to see the ice again! After a great pinch by Tyler Myers, Sasson made a smart play to curl back and find Teddy Blueger moving in to make it 2-1 Canucks.
Kiefer Sherwood did more to show why he belongs in the top six when he made a smart play to buy himself time and allow Jake DeBrusk to move into the zone. DeBrusk scored his second goal of the game to make it 3-1 in the blink of an eye.
The Canucks entered the third period up by a pair of goals, and Kiefer Sherwood wasted little time in making it 4-1. 
Brady Tkachuk wasted even less time in being a complete (insert whatever word you please here), taking a cross-checking penalty out of frustration during a delayed penalty, putting his team down on by two men for a full two minutes. After his teammates did well to kill the penalty off, Tkachuk stepped out of the box and dropped the gloves with Dakota Joshua.
With six minutes to go, down by three, one of Ottawa’s best scorers — and the guy who’s supposedly supposed to help keep his team grounded — takes himself out of the game. Some captain.
Tim Stützle decided to take a run at Nils Höglander before dropping the gloves with Nils:
Given what we’ve seen from Stützle in the past, let’s just be thankful he didn’t try to fake an injury to get an extra call only to hop over the boards right after.
The Sens scored two goals late, making this one interesting right to the end. All it took was for their crybaby captain to get out of their way and let them actually focus on playing hockey. 4-3 Canucks final.
Some takeaways from tonight:
-Running out of good things to say about Kiefer Sherwood. His offensive IQ and prowess continues to impress me (and everyone). This is his second four-game point streak of the season.
-Max Sasson seems comfortable waiting with the puck on his stick until options open up. He didn’t look out of place tonight and is absolutely in the mix to be a part of the Canucks’ bottom six plans.
-Just one shift of Brännström-Myers convinced me that Brännström was already a better fit in that spot than Carson Soucy. I’d like to see Brännström continue to get that kind of deployment. Soucy also seemed to benefit from the change, and so did Tyler Myers… right up until the end, when both players had gaffes that nearly let the Senators back in this one.
-Nice to see a bit of a bounce-back start for Kevin Lankinen.
-I swear I’m not just saying this cause he scored two goals, but Jake DeBrusk was noticeably faster tonight.
-Brady Tkachuk is so annoying. And not in a “wow, he must be so annoying to play against!” type of way. A “can this guy just keep his emotions in check when his team is trying to make a comeback?” type of way. I feel for Travis Green, who went from having Henrik Sedin and Bo Horvat as his first two captains to being given an emotional child as his captain in Ottawa. A great player, but legitimately one of the worst captains in the league, in my opinion.
-Shoutout to Filip Hronek. He was a big reason the Canucks were in this game after Hughes went down.
What are your thoughts on tonight’s game? Let us know in the comments section below!