The Canucks homestand came to a sad, disheartening end in the form of a 4-3 loss against the visiting New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
To Vancouver’s credit, they gave it a very good effort, and any time you have a chance to win a game in the third period, you can at least look yourself in the mirror the next day and tell yourself, “it was THIS close, bro.” before posting your thirst trap picture on social media.
However, a loss is still a loss, so while we will do our best to point out the moral victories from this game, the fact remains that the Canucks have been stumbling lately.
Of course, not having Brock Boeser in the lineup plays a big part in this, and with the news of JT Miller being away from the team for the foreseeable future, it doesn’t get any easier.
But the league doesn’t care about your pity parties, it just wants results, so the Canucks will have to find a way to dig deep on this upcoming road trip. They are all very winnable games, but we also thought the game against Nashville was a layup, yet here we stand, looking as confused as Steve Simmons discovering the historical ties Britain shares with Hong Kong.
And unlike Steve, the Canucks cannot delete away their mistakes, so they will have to bear down and find a way to gut out some wins to keep pace with the Western Conference.
There might be good news on the horizon in the form of a Thatcher Demko comeback, and while Arturs Silovs certainly wasn’t the reason the Canucks lost against New York, there is a clear difference between having a guy who can go Bubble mode and steal you games versus everyone enjoying the feel-good story of the unproven AHL guy going on a bit of a heater in the playoffs.
Even with that, however, Demko remains a bit of a wild card, mostly due to the fact his injury was handled in such an odd way by the media. The injury was spoken of like it was a spell you were banned from using at Hogwarts. Like, people would say “All I can say is, this is a very very unusual time for knees in Vancouver” and “Here’s the thing,  I have never heard of this happening in any sport, and I fear the world might never be the same again” and you just kind of walked away from it all wondering if Demko had his leg replaced with Skynet technology.
All of which is to say nothing is certain for this team, but if Demko CAN return to the lineup and provide top level goaltending with Kevin giving him enough time to ease back into things, the Canucks might have a path out of the woods from this rough stretch.
So while we wait for the road trip to play out, let’s check out some gifs from the game, shall we?
Best elephant in the room
In regards to the JT Miller situation, the best approach is to avoid speculation. I think waiting to see how this all plays out is the way to go, which is why I will only write about how his absence from the lineup effects the team, and nothing more. If official news comes out, we will dive into it, but until then, it will be business as usual around here, which usually means me trying to figure out who Conor Garland’s moustache makes him look like the most (Dr. Robotnik is leading the charge).
I’ve always said sports is that delicate balance of being the most important thing in the world but also the dumbest thing in the world, and you have to respect both sides of it.
You have to respect the effort teams put into the game, and the sacrifices the players make. You have to respect the money and time and emotion the fans put into following the sport.
But when life shows up knocking at your door, you have to remember it is just a game. Give players, fans, coaches, whomever time to breathe and figure their shit out when they need to. Respect them by giving them their space.
So JT Miller will hopefully take all the time he needs and find his way back to the team, and until then, we wish him all the best.
Best uprising in a non Muse way
Quinn Hughes is in bloom
The blue line transitions will resume
They’ll try to push penalties that keep us all dumbed down
And hope that Quinn will never see the goalie around
So come on
OK, that’s enough of that. Here is Quinn Hughes opening the scoring in a very Quinn Hughes-type way:
You think Luke Hughes can do that? I actually don’t know if he can. Maybe he’s got that juice in him, but I do know Quinn can pull this off, and not since Dave Babych patrolled the blue line for the Winnipeg Jets have we seen such scoring prowess from the back end.
If you’re wondering what the object hanging up in the rafters is, it’s Jacob Trouba’s shin pad and jock strap. I do applaud Jacob for trying to block the shooting lane instead of trying to blast Quinn with an elbow to the head, so kudos to him for making some baby steps towards not murdering other players.
It’s also great board work from Kiefer and DeBrusk, as they tie up the puck long enough for Elias to do the sneaky Brock Boeser scrum work of just slipping in and snaking the puck out of a pile of bodies. Before JT Miller left, people were debating the effect Brock’s absence had on JT’s play, and I have to say it probably has a significant impact. Boeser can get a bit of guff for “not being tough enough” but that’s because he’s a cerebral player. He doesn’t need to dive into a scrum and out-work someone, he prefers to out-think them, which he is very very good at.
Elias Pettersson is cut from the same cloth, and as we’ve seen his game round back into form, you are seeing more and more of those smart slick plays where he just sort of watches a board battle play out before he darts in and grabs the puck and finds an open guy.
And I guess credit to Fil Hronek for giving the puck to Hughes, but that feels like the easiest job on the night. As a person who knows the joys of handing the project off to the more skilled co-worker, I applaud and respect this move. And you might think “hold off on that snark sir, this is a Blue Sky world now, leave that filth on Twitter where it belongs” but I mean that as a compliment. There is something to be said about knowing to give the puck to the superstar and then just getting out of the way.
A good example of this was late in the game Quinn Hughes got the puck behind the net, but Kiefer Sherwood came barreling in and took the puck and then iced it with a bad pass:
Look, I love me some Jack Bauer Kiefer Sherwood, and he had himself a game on Tuesday night, but that’s clearly a situation where your only role is to give Quinn Hughes the puck while you hum a Foo Fighters song under your breath.
It’s why Quadrelli knows to hand me the water bottle after a game and just watch me type. We have a system for a reason.
Best to be fair
Did Silovs have a good game? That depends what level you’re holding him to.
Are you asking him to be a number one goaltender who can win a playoff series like he did last season when the team was super dialled in?
Or are you just hoping he gives you a fighting chance as the backup goalie?
If you’re just happy the backup gave your team a chance to win, then Silovs was absolutely fine Tuesday night. He had some big saves, probably had a couple of goals he’d want back, but overall he was perfectly acceptable.
And in his defense on the first goal, this wasn’t just a random point shot finding it’s way into the net, it was a vicious tip of the deft variety:
Mika Zibanejad makes a tremendous deflection on that shot, and while we can probably argue Silovs being too aggressive and floating out of his crease on the shot, I am willing to give the Rangers forward full kudos for making a great play.
That being said, that is one of those plays where your mind does wander and being to ponder if Demko might have had a fonder attempt over yonder to not squander the lead.
Best heavy is the head
The Canucks best line on the night was by far the Elias Pettersson/Jake DeBrusk/Kiefer Sherwood line, even if Jake was kind of carried by the other two. It was the Dawson Creek line on the night, with Pacey and Dawson doing the heavy lifting while Jack would jump into a scene every once in a while just to remind you he was around.
And they were a good line because of solid old school hockey effort? Sherwood would just hustle his ass off, while Elias tried to carry and distribute the puck, while Jake would bring the good vibes:
Sherwood gets the initial shot on net, then follows it up to get the rebound, forcing a big save out of Igor Shesterkin, followed up by Quinn Hughes getting the puck back down low to DeBrusk, who fended off the defender to find Sherwood once again for another shot on net.
That’s the kind of shift where you can tap the leg of your buddy once you get back to the bench, the universal sign for “hey man, we did our job out there, let’s keep it up”.
Best run the numbers
To be honest, I don’t quite know what Natural Stat Trick counts as high danger chances. Sometimes I will watch a game and assume a goalie stopped twenty  high danger chances and I find out they deemed it to only be three. I don’t know if they need to see a fear in a goalies eye or smell the stink of their anxiety for it to count as highly dangerous, so all I can do is trust the numbers.
So while Silovs was only credit with 7 high danger chance saves, I have to assume this was one of them:
The Rangers are a very good team, and one that can cut through the GOTI with speed, but it felt like the Canucks made things a bit easy on them at times.
And part of that is, yeah, the defensive depth just isn’t there right now. With Ian Cole and Nikita Zadorov gone, and with the struggles of Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy to start the season, you’re seeing the Noah Juulsen’s of the world struggle. Juulsen just sort of ends up chasing his man and loses the race, and as a result, gives up a rush chance to the Rangers, forcing Silovs to make a big stop.
It’s kind of been a trend this season, with the Canucks defense seemingly chasing the play, rather then sitting back and guarding their zones.
Best the struggle is real
And again, not to pick on Noah Juulsen, but you’re seeing him make plays that are very much the kind of decisions I would make in beer league. And nobody should ever copy me in beer league:
He is getting a bit of pressure and instead of making a safe play along the boards, he tries to flip it through the middle like a young Geno Smith. The end result? The Rangers create yet another scoring chance off of a turnover from the Canucks back end.
The best summary of the Canucks defensive game lately is it feels like watching Ron in season one of Jersey Shore, where you can clearly see the cracks in the foundation and you’re just kind of waiting for the epic collapse down the line in season two.
I had a long paragraph about Marcus Pettersson maybe being the Deena of the group, but we have to move on.
Best sure, I guess
Dakota Joshua got his first point of the season Tuesday night, but he also got a hooking penalty on this play:
And ok, I get it. The league likes to call a penalty half the time when a player puts his stick near another man’s stick nowadays. But I also hate this as a rule because if you watch the replay, all Dakota is doing is the simple stick lift. He doesn’t even connect on any thumbs or fingers, he makes a pretty solid attempt on the shaft (be a grown up, don’t giggle). I don’t even know how that is hooking if the end result is the other guy’s stick slightly raises in the air.
Again, I get that the league can call this a penalty, so you have to be careful. But it’s also something that happens like 50 times in a game where it doesn’t get called.
EA Sports has dedicated a button to the stick lift, we can’t make a mockery of this move by calling it hooking when it’s done properly.
The resulting power play than led to Chris Kreider trying to be a fancy little guy with the between the legs shot attempt:
I won’t lie, part of me is concerned that Hronek seems more intent on blocking a passing lane instead of trying to remove Krieder from the crease. There just seems to be no desperation there, which either means he thinks very highly of Silovs ability to make a save, or once again he’s stealing my beer league defensive move of “Ok let’s just see how this plays out”, which again, and I cannot stress this enough, shouldn’t be used.
Best full Woody
Kiefer Sherwood brought his A game Tuesday night, as he once again registered double digits in hits in a game, finishing the night with ten.
My favourite of the night? The one on Ryan Lindgren in which Lindgren beats him in the puck battle, so Kiefer just goes full CTU and tosses him to the ice:
There is just something very video game like about that to me. Sure, you might have lost the round of Warzone, but at least you spam reported the guy for cheating and got him shadow banned.
Moral victories are real, damn it.
Best loose as a goose
Make no mistake about it, the Rangers were the better team on the night, as the Canucks struggles to defend the GOTI was on display for all to see.
First you have Carson Soucy pinching, for reasons unknown to me, which leaves Danton Heinen and Jonathan Lekkerimaki in the position of trying to cycle along the boards while also defending the point, which fails when Danton stumbles:
The Canucks luckily defended the odd man rush well, but that was kind of the story of the night, with Vancouver looking very prone to the counter attack.
I know moving your feet has been a mantra of Rick Tocchet this season, but I also think Carson Soucy making that pinch there is a risky gambit, especially for a guy that isn’t the fastest skater in the world, and isn’t exactly known for his offense. Which has kind of been the story with Soucy this season, where instead of being the reliable stay at home defenseman who calms down his giraffe friend, he’s been just as chaotic as Myers at times.
That being said, even when Quinn Hughes was on the ice, the Rangers were still generating chances.
On this play, the Rangers pull off what Vancouver is always seemingly trying to do, which is a long outlet pass that gets in behind the defense:
Hughes skates back hard and plays this one pretty well, but Alex Lafrenière is a sneaky skilled dude so he floats out wide looking for the Draisaitl angle on net, and almost scores on it.
Quinn was not so lucky minutes later when once again the Rangers used a long outlet pass to get in behind the defense, this time at the expense of Hughes himself:
That’s a fantastic pass from Kaapo Kakko to Will Cuylle, and I think it speaks very much to the skill of the Rangers that they were able to make Quinn Hughes look silly, something that rarely happens nowadays.
The Canucks kept pace with the Rangers until the third period, but it did feel like a prize fight in which the better boxer slowly took over by landing shot after shot until they could hit the spinning back kick to the liver.
Best moral victories
For real, the one major moral victory out of this game was Elias Pettersson stepped up in JT Miller’s absence and continued to be a top line player for the Canucks. He and Conor Garland got the most ice-time of any forwards, and Elias picked up his second assist of the night on this brilliant sauce job over to Sherwood:
Kiefer does a great job of cutting off the Carson Soucy rim job (don’t you dare giggle) and getting the puck over to Elias.
Pettersson, now showing the confidence of a man who no longer doom scrolls on his phone all night, then feathered in a perfect pass over to Kiefer, who then made a nice shot to tie the game up.
Fun fact: Sherwood is one point behind Steve Stamkos on the season.
If you want a visual representation of what you’ve read so far, here you go:
Like I said, Quinn Hughes got roughed up a bit by the Rangers, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that Erik Brannstrom is holding his own and excelling despite having to try and keep Noah Juulsen afloat.
Best he’s not wrong
Best Alex Burrows Theorem
Find a skilled player that had to change his game to a 200 foot grinder style to make it into the NHL, and then play him with a top level player. 60% of the time, it works every time.
It’s how Dan Cleary carved out a career, and there is something to be said about having those guys that can play third line grind roles but also not look out of place with your skilled guys.
Best more numbers MOAR
Garland’s line picked up their game later, but I regret to inform you that Nils Höglander didn’t score but instead did this…
Best stare down
Soft interference has been called more and more lately against the Canucks, but the pig man didn’t even try and make this subtle or soft. This felt like rock hard interference:
The look from Rick at the end is the kind of look my dog gives me when I tell him we’re going to go for a walk at night during a wind storm.
The Rangers didn’t score on the ensuing power play, but it did give me one of the best moments of the hockey season in the form of the Chaos Giraffe and Fil Hronek trying to figure out how to get Silovs blocker back to him:
It just has a very three stooges feel to it with both guys batting the blocker back and forth and then Myers just opining to the ref that the play wasn’t blown down.
It also led to Silovs making a glove save with his bare hand held behind his back, so while the Arty Party might not have started in earnest yet, he is already well in the lead for the most bad ass save of the season.
That is until Kevin takes his jock strap out and squares up to a slap shot.
Silovs has raised the bar, that’s all I am saying.
Best open season
Elias Pettersson got rocked by Sam Carrick and Braden Schneider on the same shift, which drew a penalty, but not much of a reaction from the Canucks:
As I stated when Boeser got hurt, I am not one of those people who need revenge on every big hit, but it has now been Boeser, Hughes and Pettersson who have been nailed with a big hit and nothing was done about it. Give me that instigator at this point the next time someone takes a run at your top player.
I know Ray Ferraro tried to say Sherwood pushed Carrick into Pettersson (which he did a little bit) but Carrick’s arms don’t shoot out and shove EP40’s legs out from under him because of that. It was a targeted hit in a dangerous position on one of your top players, it feels like you need a response to that.
Though I also understand it’s a game against a top team, so turning the other cheek and trying to win in true 2011 fashion is a viable strategy as long as Colin Campbell isn’t writing angry e-mails to the officials.
Best new hotness
I don’t know what’s going on with Soucy:
Part of this is bad luck, with the puck bouncing off of his feet right into the crease like that, but his game just seems so slow. Bad luck is one thing, but when you’re constantly on the ice for goals against, it has to make you wonder what you’re doing wrong.
His stick isn’t active, he doesn’t have a ton of urgency in what he does out there, and he just ends up looking very non-threatening on the ice. He just sort of puts out his stick and barely impedes Kaako flying through the slot.
His body language is that of a tired guy showing up to a 9-5 job just trying to feed his family. Honourable, but you just wish he had that spark in him that would get him to chase his true dreams of being a playwright.
Best reliable ride
Quinn Hughes does Quinn Hughes things while Conor Garland does Corolla Garland things:
Kudos to Pius Suter going hard to the net to set the screen, but also huge kudos to Garland for that shot.
Much like game 7 against the Oilers last year, Garland’s effort level was noticeable as he was one of the best players on either side as the game wore on.
Whether that was in the form of solid defense, or protecting the puck in the offensive zone, or this goal right here, Garland stepped up on a night in which star power was sorely needed.
Plus that moustache alone is worthy of an article all its own.
Best what are we even doing here
Garland would later draw a penalty but it was negated because Hronek let Trochek skate into his back:
Yes, that was called a penalty for elbowing, I assume mostly because Hronek does indeed own an elboow. I don’t know how you call a penalty there, I’m not quite sure how Hronek is delivering an illegal in this situation, or why lowering your face into the back of someone gives them a penalty, but here we are. It feels very much on par with the other team using Tyler Motte’s stick to hit themselves in the face to draw a penalty.
The only good thing that resulted in this was Conor Garland officially notifying the league he’s entering his Dr. Robotnik Era:
Best push it real good
Jake DeBrusk would then send a hail mary pass to Sherwood’s general vicinity, which is like a QB tossing it somewhere in the direction of their favourite receiver because they just assume they can catch it:
That little stick drag to get around Zac Jones, causing him to lose his “k”, that’s the sign of a very skilled player.
Which once again finds me asking, how did the Nashville Predators let this guy go?
Best on shaky terms
Unfortunately for Vancouver, New York is a very good third period team, so the fun times of the second period faded as the Rangers began piling up the scoring chances in the final frame:
We’ve seen Vancouver do this to teams, where they just know they are the more skilled team so all they have to do is out-work the other guys and the odds are they’ll emerge with the victory.
I think the effort level was very much there from Vancouver, and it was a gutsy effort, but at the end of the day they just lost to the better team. Won’t be the first time and it won’t be the last time.
Best Quinn-ing at life
Conor Garland’s puck protection involves dangling in and around the boards until you quit in frustration, while Quinn Hughes’ puck protection involves skating forever until you give up on life:
Even on a night in which Quinn Hughes didn’t have the defensive night we’re used to, he is still very much the most important player on this team.
Best going out on your shield
Hronek loses Lafrenière behind him, that’s no big deal, right?
Once again I will choose to believe he just has a very large belief in Silov’s ability to make a huge save as long as it’s not a point shot, so there’s no need to do much other than point your stick at Alex to let Silovs know the stranger danger situation he is in.
Best doing it with style
You know how you get a Selke vote?
Active stick. Always have an active stick:
This is how Garland makes his lack of size a non-issue. Active sticks at all times.
Best toy soldiers
The Rangers winning goal? A result of several errors:
The errors:
  • Elias Pettersson almost steals the puck to turn it the other way, but he eventually gets spun around and allows Krieder a lane to the net
  • Tyler Myers going for a big hit in the corner instead of playing zone defense, which gave Krieder permission to skate into the empty lane
  • Carson Soucy once again just sort of existing. Doesn’t do anything wrong but doesn’t do anything right, I think that’s my main issue with him right now, which is something your second pairing d-man can’t afford to be doing. His main job is to control the Chaos Giraffe and clean up after him.
  • Silovs doesn’t come up with the big save, but that’s the smallest of issues. Sure, you’d love him to keep making all of the saves, but I think the bar on him is firmly at “back up goalie” right now, so it’s hard to blame a goalie for not being Thatcher Demko.
Best special teams failure
The Canucks went 0/3 on the power play, including one in the dying minutes of the third period. There weren’t any notable shots, and in fact the most interesting thing was Shesterkin trying to put on a figure four leg lock on Garland:
How is Hronek getting a penalty for having a back, while the Ranger’s goalie is allowed to literally hold onto the leg of Conor for several seconds with no call?
Let me make it clear, the Canucks probably wouldn’t scored on the two man advantage, but it’s the principle of it all.
Best rage against the dying of the light
I think it’s way too harsh to hand out the Mikheyev label, but I will say that DeBrusk lined this shot up and still went full bread basket:
Boston fans said DeBrusk was a streaky player, so we’re still trying to figure out how he works over here.
I think he has three modes:
  • The mode where plays an entire game and you didn’t realize he dressed for the game
  • the mode where his underlying numbers are really good but you still didn’t realize he dressed for the game
  • the mode where he plays like a power forward and makes you believe in him not only as a hockey player, but as a human
Worst song choice
With the goalie pulled and a face off in the opponent’s end, surely we can pump the team and crowd up with a better song than Last Resort.
The song is a banger, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not exactly a song to hype yourself up to in order to try and make the comeback.
I don’t even have a clip to show you because the comeback was so deflated by Papa Roach that they didn’t even generate a good look on net.
All of which leads us to the road trip and seeing if this team can find another gear.
At least it was a fun game?
Best so close
Best jersey Botch
Ah yes, I remember the great season Sukmeov had in 1990. What a year, what a player.
What are people doing here.
All season long, we’ve seen this guy pop up in this bastardized jersey. We need to know more.
Is he a troll? Is he just super committed to a bit? Did he lose a bet? I truly don’t understand this.
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