It was supposed to be a statement game from the Vancouver Canucks.
Well, maybe “statement game” is a bit much.
But it was supposed to be a feel good game from Vancouver, a team missing Quinn Hughes, a team missing Elias Pettersson, but a team not missing its inner spirit. The kind of game you’d put on early morning TV to show children a perfect example of perseverance.
It was a prime opportunity to lean into the tag line of meeting pressure with pressure, damn it.
And for the most of the night, it was. Without its MVP in Quinn Hughes, and still, without the services of Filip Hronek, a lot was being asked of a defence consisting of an assortment of tall guys and Erik Brännström.
But the thing is, they were doing it! For the majority of the night, the Canucks played a game that had people on the verge of tweeting out, “Proud of the boys effort in this one!”
And while shot generation was still very much in the Rick Tocchet sweet spot of 20 shots, no more, no less, the Canucks had even managed to score four goals. Brock Boeser had a pair. JT Miller was playing smart hockey. Corolla Garland was dropping clap bombs. Nils Höglander was a forechecking machine. Derek Forbort made an outlet pass. It felt like everything was coming together.
All they had to do was defend a three-goal lead in the third period. That was it. And while I joke about Rick Tocchet emulating Travis Green hockey more and more as his tenure continues, this game felt about as Green as it gets. Setting up shop to defend a lead, no longer offering up any pushback, only to watch victory slip from their hands. It’s a hard league to win games in, and they have a good team over there, you know. It almost makes you wonder if a Quinn Hughes in his prime is all that stands between the two coaches.
And in a game that felt like a positive example of what the team can try and accomplish without relying on Quinn Hughes to do everything, it instead turned into a shining example of what they seemingly cannot do without him.
Defend the lead? Nope.
Get the puck cleanly out of the zone? Nope.
Manage an offensive rush in overtime? Nope, nope, nope.
Now again, this was just one game, and in any world in which Vancouver plays without Quinn Hughes, there’s not much point in planning any sort of playoff run. But what we saw Saturday afternoon was many of the cracks that Quinn Hughes does such a good job of hiding, shining through in glorious, horrifying fashion.
Which, again, any team that loses its best player is going to struggle. But the Canucks’ depth on the backend, or lack thereof, continues to be a problem for this club. Being tall is a very nice feature to have, but if this team can’t figure out how to add a couple of defencemen on the back end who can move the puck under pressure, it’s hard to imagine an extended post-season run this year.
And all of this is without even bringing up the fact that Vancouver hasn’t managed to get its forward lines all going at the same time. What was supposed to be a source of power has ended up being just as inconsistent as everything else on this team.
So, while Quinn Hughes was very much missed, even when he’s on the ice, these problems persist. The team’s lack of ability to generate offence persists. The team’s inability to move the puck efficiently on the backend sans Hughes persists. Kevin Lankinen being the better choice to put in net persists.
I have been fond of saying, “It’s just one game” and “It’s still early in the season,” but we’re fast approaching the point of no return in which we just have to admit that maybe the Vancouver Canucks are not in line to have a good year ahead of them if they cannot find even a modicum of consistency.
That’s right, the team played so poorly I had to bust out the modicum hammer. If that doesn’t shame them, I don’t know what will.
Look, I know you don’t want to relive this, but contractually, you were obligated the second you clicked this article.
Let’s do this.
Best living up to its reputation
Don was very correct…for the first period, at least. I don’t know Rick Tocchet personally, but based on his coaching, I imagine when he’s told he needs to play a grindy, defensive style game, he claps his hands together in the universal sign of someone happily about to get into the mud.
Ironically, the game ended up being very anti-Rick Tocchet ideals, but for the first period? Low-event hockey was on full display.
You know what the highlight of the first five minutes was? Dakota Joshua doing a Michael Jackson moonwalk dangle in the neutral zone:
Which fair enough, that was cool as hell. Dude straight up kept sliding backwards and deked a man out, that’s a baller move no matter how you slice it. In fact, the dangles from Joshua were on display throughout the night, as he had one of his more prominent games in recent memory. I felt like his confidence in taking the puck hard to the net was as good as it’s been all season.
The problem is it still didn’t get him on the scoresheet? Look, I truly don’t know what Dakota went through or how much it impacted his gameplay on his return. He might still need time to find his groove and get back into the same player we saw last season. Four points in 21 games is the end result right now; that’s all we know.
So there will be a time when we have to wonder if that Joshua last season, the one they signed to the multi-year deal, was simply on a heater, playing on a very good third line. It’s a valid question to ask, but I also have all the time in the world this season to see how it plays out. I am more just in a curious frame of mind in seeing how his career arc plays out because his career sample size is a hard one to judge.
Best hammer down
Kiefer Sherwood slam picks Reinhardt, even on the maps that don’t make any sense for it, and you won’t convince me otherwise:
The dude just lives to truck people. He wants to charge in and take you out of the play at all times.
Vince Dunn was having a normal one until Sherwood ran in there and porked him into the Sportsnet logo.
This is how you get people chanting your name.
Best we have the Canucks at home moment
Are you telling me you’d rather watch Quinn Hughes dangle along the blue line versus seeing Vincent Desharnais stumble over the ghost of unreasonable expectations??
Matty Beniers, who I assumed was named Matthew, and I was being far too casual calling him Matty, missed on the shot, but then that is the joy of playing Seattle. They entered the contest having lost five games in a row, struggling to produce offence. Remember this as you read an article about how they came back from being down 4-1 to win a game 5-4.
But this is life without Quinn Hughes. It’s like Mountain Jam coming up on your suggested songs, except you have no ability to skip it. You just have to ride it out and wonder how your life came to this.
So instead of Quinn Hughes sending piss missile breakout passes down the middle, a highlight of the first period was Noah Juulsen landing a hit that didn’t take him out of position:
What, you want Quinn Hughes circling the zone twice before unloading a slapshot goal? Best I can do is Brandon Tanev sending a muffin on net, ending in a scuffle in front:
The first period wasn’t pretty, is what I am saying. You were happy with the small victories.
Best stay true to yourself
It wasn’t a banner night for the defensive corps, which isn’t all too surprising due to the absence of their top two guys. It meant there was no hiding in the shadow in this one, as Desharnais was the low man with 17:18 minutes of ice time, and Carson Soucy topped the list at 22:24.
Which meant instead of seeing Quinn Hughes do Quinn Hughes things, you ended up seeing Noah Juulsen leaving the puck for an imaginary friend, leading to a three-on-one against:
Which, to be fair, being compared to Quinn Hughes is an impossible task at the best of times. The Canucks captain can do things only 1% of the league can pull off, so if you’re constantly being told, “Well, Quinn wouldn’t have made that mistake,” well, no sh*t.
That being said, this is a team that deserves critique of who they brought in to replace Ian Cole and Nikita Zadorov, and their choice to re-sign Tyler Myers. Things can always change, of course, but as it stands right now, you’re seeing a team struggling to figure out how to play Juulsen, Forbort and Desharnais in an effective manner, which only exacerbates any struggles of Soucy and Myers.
It just feels like they took a solid step back in their defensive depth this season, and the team is seeing the results of that play out as we go along.
Best small victories
Max Sasson made his way back into the lineup, and while extolling the virtues of call-ups tends to be a fool’s game at the best of times, I will happily defend Sasson and say he has impressed me the most of the Abby crew this year.
Linus Karlsson might score goals, but his lack of speed felt like a big barrier in the NHL. Arshdeep Bains has an NHL shot, but during his time here, he seemed to struggle to generate offence of any sort.
Max Sasson, though, has that NHL speed that he not only uses to chase down pucks, but he has the confidence to slow things down to try and find teammates in good positions to shoot the puck.
This clip is limited to 15 seconds, so it stops just short of the penalty he draws, but essentially, he uses his speed to chase down a puck and turn it into a zone entry, which he then follows up by being vigilant in the offensive zone so he can jump up and take advantage of a puck bobble by Seattle:
Again, the clip stops just shy of it, but the end of the video is him jumping up into the slot to steal the puck, which ends in Seattle taking a penalty to try and stop him. The fact a team even said, “Oh shoot, we better try and stop that bottom-six guy from Vancouver,” is a net positive, as not many people sat back and game-planned on how to shut down a Juho Lammikko rush to the net.
So yeah, in terms of bottom-six functionality, you have a guy with NHL speed who can create an offensive chance here and there and is getting better and better at his defensive reads as his time in the NHL continues.
To me, that is a guy I have all the time in the world for.
Even if John Shorthouse pronounced his name wrong for weeks.
Best Hughes was the problem all along
Brock Boeser opened the scoring as his hot hand/quest for a giant new contract continued:
This is very much a Rocket League goal, and I am absolutely here for it. Sometimes your teammate probably deserved the goal but guess what, where were they when it needed to be slightly tapped in past the goal line.
Brock Boeser’s blue paint game is slightly underrated to me, as it’s been overshadowed by Bumpin’ Bo Horvat, that one glorious year of Andrei Kuzmenko, and now the elite lethality of Jake DeBrusk, whose general Ned Flanders vibes belie an inner crease killer. Don’t let that make you forget that Brock Boeser can be a cerebral net front assassin when he wants to be, as he knows the dangerous spots to bide his time in.
In fact, before The Collapse, I felt that JT, Brock, and Jake were all having good games. Their pursuit of the puck felt particularly on point, as they were constantly generating turnovers and, in this case, almost converting them into a goal:
In that one clip, both JT and Brock hunt down their checks and the end result is they generate a decent scoring chance to end the period. That’s the kind of hockey Rick Tocchet loves to see. It shows they have the juice or whatever.
Best slow burn
Best Alexa, remind me about life without Quinn Hughes
This isn’t so much a clip of “har har what a dummy” but more of a “It’s incredible how Quinn Hughes handles zone exits like they’re nothing ALL GAME LONG.”:
Quinn Hughes probably cuts back on that play, then cuts back again, then cuts back one more time, then for fun cuts back a fourth time, and by the time he’s done, Yanni Gourde is sitting in a pool of his own urine, weeping at the thought of ever having to play hockey again.
But with Vincent Desharnais, yeah, sometimes you’re not going to get the puck out, and you’re going to need Jake DeBrusk to bail you out.
Best shades of Belarus
Look, I know Thatcher Demko is a guy who respects his hockey history, but this tribute to Tommy Salo seemed ill-timed:
Since it’s Tyler Myers, you know chaos is going to be involved, so it should shock you to watch as his pass ends up breaking the stick of DeBrusk.
The result of this is Seattle going on the counterattack and unleashing a shot that, by all rights, Thatcher Demko needs to stop. Instead, he flicks his glove at it, and a shot that looked harmless has now tied the game.
Much like Dakota, we don’t know how much time is needed for Demko to find his groove, or even what his groove is in his new post injury world. All I know is the results from Thatcher so far have been underwhelming, at least by his standards.
I understand that at some point, you just have to ride out the growing pains to see if Demko can figure his game out, but just in terms of pure, cold-blooded game-time decisions, I constantly feel like Kevin Lankinen is the guy I would go with on most nights.
Long term plan, if Demko is your guy, it makes sense to run with Thatcher and ramp up his production. But we’re talking about a goalie who struggled with injuries and being overplayed before his knee went plop, so it just feels like a fine line between giving Demko more and more starts and also kind of sticking with Kevin, the guy who has played tremendous hockey for you already.
Best teaser trailer
Once again, file this under “Quinn Hughes would have….!”
So without further ado, here is Tyler Myers unleashing a clap bomb into a pair of shinpads, and it turning into a 3-on-1 counter-attack:
I just feel like Alex Edler would be so proud of that shot into the legs.
I also enjoyed the fact that when Myers is angry about something, he’ll always find someone to hit, so it was not very surprising to see him run over Oliver Bjorkstrand for making him bleed his own blood. Metaphorically.
It’s also, yeah, another fun example of how Quinn Hughes can seemingly jog along the blue line all night long, whereas the rest of the defence is sweating bullets deciding between getting their shot blocked or ringing the puck around the boards.
Best revenge is dish best served softly
What, you think Conor Garland has no shot power? Well, eat this:
Nah, that still had no power. But it was still a very fun goal.
Garland uses the threat of his muffins more for flair than anything. At one point in the game, he faked slapping the puck three times in a row, and everyone just kind of watched to see how it would play out.
That being said, Garland loves to use deception in his game. It’s why you fake a shot when you have no power behind it because maybe against Edmonton in the playoffs, you fake the slapshot, then cut to your right and slide in a wrist shot past surprised and slightly gassy Jeff Skinner.
Maybe against another team, you fake a shot four times, so the next time you do take a shot, they aren’t ready for it.
Maybe against Seattle, you don’t even fake a shot; you just unload the slapper, and it catches Philipp Grubauer off guard.
With Garland it’s not the threat of the power behind his shot, it’s always about trying to make you make the first move so he can use his quickness to beat you.
He even uses deception in his goal celebrations. Just when you think he’s going to complete his Superhero fist pump, he adds in a small delay before finishing the move:
Look at that, he holds that fist behind him, loading up his hand, before unleashing the full power of his goal celebration. That’s King sh*t right there.
Best doing his dekes
As I said earlier, Dakota Joshua was utilizing his stick work efficiently in this game, but more importantly, he was using his dangles to get the puck on net:
Avoiding a check and then cutting toward the middle to get a dangerous shot off is even more important for a team that struggles to get 20 shots in a night. If Joshua can get back into his groove, that goes a long way toward balancing out the bottom of the lineup. His blend of size and skill is the kind of thing that drives GMs absolutely wild on a first date.
Best impression
The goal of the night was undoubtedly Brock Boeser’s second goal, as it involved four players moving the puck in an efficient offensive manner we just aren’t accustomed to around here.
It basically breaks down into JT Miller saucing it over to Danton Heinen, who finds Carson Soucy, who then delays, delays, delays until he finds a wide-open Brock Boeser for the goal:
We just don’t often see goals like this in Vancouver too often anymore. Maybe it involved too much east/west passing for Rick Tocchet’s liking, but each pass of the puck was made to find a guy with time and space. Is it mind-blowing that Carson Soucy, of all people, used that level of patience before feathering in the perfect pass? Of course, it is.
But that’s the beauty of time and space. Time and space allows people to make better decisions. It’s why when someone screams at you to close the deal and invest in the Hawk Tuah bitcoin, you’d have been better served if you had time and space to come to a different conclusion.
It’s the major difference between ranks of players in the NHL, to be honest. How well do you make decisions under duress?
The best players in the sport can make decisions in half a second.
The elite players like Quinn Hughes made their decisions before you finished reading that sentence.
The lower-end players take a second or two, and by that time, they’re already dead.
It’s why some players can absolutely dominate in practice because they have no pressure. They have all the time in the world. But when game time comes and a player is bearing down on them trying to land a hit? All of a sudden, they’re a turnover machine.
And if we’re being really honest with each other, Seattle gave a lot of time and space to Vancouver on the night. I am still in shock over the fact Vancouver lost this game because they truly had things under control. There is a reason Forbort and Desharnais were making nice long passes, and it’s because they had time and space. Nils Höglander looked better than ever Saturday? Time and space will do that to a man.
Best asked and delivered
Best sign the Hockey Gods hate you
My favourite part of this play is once again noted land shark Corolla Garland lying in wait until he can attack out of nowhere, resulting in a perfect pass out front to Nearly Nils:
Again, deception is the name of the game for Garland, as he comes in slowly on the left before quickly darting right and cutting behind the net so he can steal the puck. It’s two keyboard notes away from being a scene straight out of Jaws.
And Nils, boy does he get a prime opportunity to score a goal. Perhaps last year used up all of his 5-on-5 goal-scoring luck because this year, he cannot buy a goal.
Best Jake the snake
The Canucks looked to have put the finishing touches on this game when Jake DeBrusk scored Vancouver’s fourth goal of the night:
It’s directly off a face off and I like how the Canucks try to swing it up the right side of the ice before getting stuffed, so they simply swing it to the left. That might read sarcastic but I am serious, I think it was a good adjustment, and showcases how east/west hockey can be a good thing at times. You don’t always have to try and power it down the middle and pee on everyone in sight to prove your superiority. Sometimes, an indirect method can work just as effectively as dumping and chasing the puck in for the 139th time in a game.
Also, that’s a brilliant, deft little pass from JT Miller to send in Jake DeBrusk all alone, which lets the Blue Paint Assassin do what he does best. He almost makes it look too easy scoring that goal.
If you missed the game, you’re probably really confused how the Canucks lost this game, and believe me, we’re all right there with you.
Best fake it until you make it
Dakota Joshua almost made it 5-1 (and there was no way they would have blown a four-goal lead, right? right??) except for the fact he punched the puck into the net:
I think he was just trying to bat the puck down and then tap it in with his stick, but once that puck ends up going in off of your body, you just try and pretend you got pushed into it.
“Nah man, I didn’t punch the puck in. It was the bees who did it.”
Pretty clear it wasn’t going to be called a goal, but I do think it still speaks to the game Joshua had. He was very noticeable in terms of driving to the net and trying to crash the crease throughout the night.
Best confidence shattering moment
Nils looked engaged in this game, even if the end result of dangling around multiple Kraken players was him…passing to the point:
Just backhand it on net at that point. Hell, if you dangle around three dudes, nobody is going to question if you try and rip a basic shot on net.
Again, though, THE CANUCKS LOST THIS GAME.
Best dreaded luck
The minute someone says, “ah well, spot of bad luck, nothing to worry about,” I immediately worry.
And he’s not wrong; there was very much a healthy amount of bad luck involved with a puck going in off of Noah Juulsen:
I mean, yeah, that just straight-up goes in past Demko.
Would it be nice if Demko tracked that puck and made a save? Sure.
Was it something he probably expected? Probably not.
Would Bubble Demko have expected that? Feels like it, but that’s the magic of Bubble Demko.
All in all, it was a bit of a fluke goal, one you can certainly write off to bad luck.
The problem is it also represented the Canucks sitting back more and more as the game wore on, and this goal made all that nervous energy seemingly shut the entire team down.
Instead of having pushback, they sat back, and man alive; we know how that can end in this town. It’s something Rick Tocchet has spoken to at length about how the players need to learn to handle it when a team pushes down on them, yet here we are once again talking about another collapse.
Best sign of impending doom
Take note of the time, there was under two minutes left when the Canucks gave up the third goal of the night:
There was a healthy debate about who was at fault for this goal: Noah Juulsen or Carson Soucy. And when both sides are screaming at each other, it’s probably a good sign that there is plenty of blame to go around.
For me, I really don’t like the pass Noah Juulsen makes here. Sending any puck into the middle of the ice while scrambling in your own zone, down a man, and defending a late lead is never going to be my favourite thing.
Maybe if he’s making that pass to Quinn Hughes, it’s all good. But that’s Quinn Hughes. You could send a fully enflamed car hurtling toward Quinn Hughes, and he would somehow find a way to get it out of your zone cleanly.
But it’s Carson Soucy who is getting the pass, and he’s not exactly fleet of foot nor nimble of hands.
I do agree that Soucy should just smash that puck away at this point, but instead of trying to make a small flip of the puck, it doesn’t work.
I just feel that for a team that was parking the bus to end the game, just stick to your roots. Play greasy smash-mouth hockey and bang that puck off the glass and out. Noah had someone on the sidewall to play that puck to, but instead, he chose the middle of the ice.
And again, Carson should just smash that puck down the ice. The fly by is something Rick Tocchet has talked about before; it’s something he absolutely hates, and right here, we have a clear example of Soucy reacting as if the puck is already on the way out. If you want to play Rick Tocchet hockey you have to be hard on the puck at all times, and you have to assume that the puck will try and betray you at all times. Escort that piece of rubber out of the zone, never do a fly by.
And, of course, yes, that would have been a perfect time for a big save from Thatcher Demko, but instead, it’s another moment where you are left to wonder if Kevin Lankinen would have come up with the stop.
Best total collapse
Less than thirty seconds later, the Kraken tied the game up when basically the entire team watched Schwartz drive the puck on net before tapping in his own rebound:
Remember those fly bys we just talked about? Well, here is a prime example of four, count them FOUR Canucks players watching Schwartz get the puck in the corner, skate towards the net, take a shot on net, and then collect his own rebound. Watch as the four Canucks recoil away from Schwartz after he gets his shot off; it’s like watching a Dawn commercial extolling the virtues of its ability to beat grease. The four players just sort of wave their sticks at the puck and wish it a happy life.
“Oh hello puck, do have a great day. I hope your holidays were fun and full of cheer. Anyways, I’m off to the market to buy some cucumbers with ready money, have a grand old day!”
This leaves Tyler Myers backing up and, sort of, defending the back door tap-in, but in doing so, it just gives a clean lane for Schwartz to skate right on in and score the game-tying goal.
For a coach that loves his GOTI hockey, this was about a clear cut example of how not to protect the guts of the ice.
And yes, it would have been nice if Demko hadn’t given up a rebound or had made a save, and yes, I am saying that an awful lot as of late.
Best flair for the dramatic
You know who knows how to truly put the cherry on top of a collapse like this?
Chaos.
Giraffe.
I mean, that’s just art at this point. And so incredibly on-brand for Tyler Myers.
He starts it off with a huge hit, teases going full Hodgson before pulling up near the net and threading the needle perfectly between his teammates, resulting in a breakaway goal the other way. It’s so chaotic it hurts.
Say it with me now: Yes, it would have been nice if Demko had made the save.
And yes, I, too, am confused why JT Miller and Brock Boeser saw Tyler Myers struggling to stay on his feet as a sign they should both jump up in the play and leave their goalie exposed like that. In a perfect world, one of them jumps up for a pass, leaving at least one guy back to offer up token resistance.
I also wonder how Tyler Myers ended up deciding to put that pass right in the middle of his teammates. If he finds either Brock or JT with that pass, maybe they win the game and we all giggle about the joys of chaos instead of muttering about the dangers of chaos.
All I know is the Canucks found a new way to lose this game, and as much as you can put on Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson being out of the lineup, no team should blow a three-goal lead with under five minutes left.
If Markus Naslund was around, he’d be giving a speech to the fans about how they choked.
It was just a truly comical way to end a game that felt like it was minutes from being showered in praise, only to turn around and wonder who took a giant crap in the corner at the party.
The Canucks were a deeply unserious team on Saturday, that’s as best as I can summarize it.
If this game wasn’t proof positive to Rutherford that the team needs more defensive depth, I don’t know what else will.
Best that loss but in a chart
Best that game but in a sobering J-Pats tweet 
Don’t forget, this is the easier part of their schedule coming up. The Seattle game was supposed to be a layup before they faced off against some softer opponents.
But instead of a win, and giving praise to a team for meeting pressure with pressure, all we’re doing now is wondering would it have been nice if Thatcher Demko had made a save.
Yes, yes it would have.
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