The Canucks had their legs to start this one, and after the debacle against the Islanders on Thursday night led to Rick Tocchet sending a fairly stern message, it was good to see the Canucks moving the puck with poise and getting a solid forecheck started. They were defending well, which felt like a strong focus.

Noah Juulsen apparently missed the memo, and the end result was *checks notes* Ilya Mikheyev opening the scoring.

I mean, what is that? 1-0 Hawks. Not as apparent as Juulsen’s miscue but also important to the play, JT Miller was late to his neutral zone assignment and then coasted on the backcheck. He needs to be better than that.

Not to be outdone, the Myers-Soucy pairing turned in two poor shifts back-to-back. The first one ended with Craig Smith hitting the post after a bad decision from Tyler Myers in the neutral zone led to an odd man rush. The next shift, it was another odd-man rush against.

After a good start, the Canucks were quickly looking similar to how they looked on Thursday night against the Islanders. The biggest thing that stands out to me is that when the defence can’t break the puck out with poise, it often means the Canucks are left defending. When that’s the case and the Cancuks eventually gain the line, rather than chipping the puck deep and chasing it, they chip the puck in and go for a line change because they’re at the end of their shift.

The end result is a lot of defending and not getting any sort of forecheck going. The final 10-15 minutes of the first period was flat-out tough to watch after a solid start. And it wasn’t just Juulsen or the Soucy-Myers pairing either, although they were certainly the most glaring weak links early on. But even Filip Hronek took a hooking penalty late in the first that came at the end of a shift spent in the defensive zone that started after he threw a blind breakout pass that ended up being a turnover in the neutral zone.

It was sloppy hockey, and the Canucks entered the second down by a goal as a result.

The Canucks came out pushing to start the second frame, with the Pettersson line turning in a couple of nice hardworking shifts. Erik Brännström made a nifty move from below the goal line and didn’t give up on the play, leading to Wyatt Kaiser taking a penalty to give the Canucks their first power play of the game.

JT Miller made a strong play on the right wall to keep the play alive before rifling a pass down low to Pettersson, who deflected the puck off of Connor Murphy and into the back of the Hawks’ net to make it 1-1. 

That’s Pettersson’s fourth goal in his last six games, for those keeping track at home (and for the regular commenters who have been awfully quiet as of late).

Tyler Bertuzzi turned in an absolute mess of a shift for the Hawks that ended with him taking a penalty and giving the Canucks another power play chance. They didn’t score, but boy oh boy, did Jonathan Lekkerimäki look good in the bumper spot. We’ll leave the GIFs of this sequence for Wyatt to deliver in tonight’s edition of The Stanchies.

The Canucks looked much better in the second period than they did to finish out the first period. And it’s a good thing, too, because if they didn’t, Rick Tocchet’s head may have exploded on the bench.

A bit lost in all the shuffle was that Arturs Silovs was actually playing pretty well. This was certainly Silovs’ best start of the season, which of course was a low bar to clear, but Silovs held up his end of the bargain tonight.

Erik Brännström gave the Canucks their first lead of the night when he blasted home a slap shot past Anton Soderblom to make it 2-1 Canucks.

The Hawks tried to make a late push, but the Canucks held down the fort and added two empty netters to take home the 4-1 win. 

Some takeaways from tonight:

-I already love the look of the Canucks’ power play with Lekkerimäki in the bumper spot and Pettersson at the net front.
-The familiar trio of Dakota Joshua-Teddy Blueger-Conor Garland looked strong tonight, and looked like they have a solid base to build off of.
-Liked what I saw from Kiefer Sherwood on Pettersson and DeBrusk’s wing. Sherwood didn’t look out of place offensively and was, of course, throwing his weight around on the forecheck.
-Nils Höglander seemed to have a bit of a bounce back game, but I’m not sure how much of that is due to the Canucks playing the Blackhawks tonight.
-A solid night for Erik Brännström, and not just because he scored. He also stepped up and threw a big hit in the neutral zone, and made smart defensive decisions all night long. The first career game-winning goal is cool too, of course.
-Good for Arturs Silovs to put together a competitive start after starting his season with three losses where he just wasn’t very good.
-Seeing Connor Bedard look that sad made me sad. He should demand a trade to Vancouver and come have fun playing hockey.

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 after the game!