Sunday morning, this time of the year, is usually reserved for screaming at your TV about football and accusing the league of hating your favourite team. But the Vancouver Canucks early start time against the Detroit Red Wings changed things up a bit, as this time, you got to scream at your TV about hockey and the league hating your team.
And for the first period at least, it felt like a lot of early morning start times for Vancouver; there was a lack of pace, a lack of cohesion and a lack of urgency as the Canucks found themselves unable to generate much of anything in the way of offence.
Fortunately for Vancouver, they own a human Game Genie in the form of Quinn Hughes, which means they have a chance to win every single night, purely based around one strategy: Let Quinn Hughes skate with the puck until the end of time.
And skate he did as his three assists not only pushed him into the Canucks record books, but it pushed the Canucks past the finish line in a 4-3 overtime win over Detroit. Any time his team started to fall behind or look listless on the ice, Quinn Hughes would find a way to generate offence, time and time again. Any time they were in trouble on the ice, they just got the puck back to Quinn because he knew he’d take care of them. He was Papa from Stranger Things minus the betrayal and nefarious agenda.
I have talked about it before, but everyone who has played beer league hockey knows that kind of player. The kid who played junior hockey and is just farting around in beer league, clearly playing in a tier far below their skill level. They look like they’re just out there for a skate until they realize their team needs to win, so they actually start trying for real, and they absolutely dominate the game. You try to check them, and they give you that bemused look as if to say, “Wtf are you thinking?” before they jet off down the ice to set up a goal.
You suddenly realize you’re nowhere near that level of skill, not even in the same universe as their level, and you’re wondering what’s the politest way to file a complaint to the league about how unfair this is.
And that’s what Quinn Hughes is doing but at the highest level. Sometimes, you watch him play and wonder if maybe he should be playing against higher competition than the NHL.
And look, I get it. Sometimes, it’s easy to get excited about a player going on a heater, and maybe you put them on a pedestal a little bit too high. Do I regret my “Kuzmenko is a lock for the Rocket Richard” take? Of course I do.
But there is a difference between having fun and making outrageous claims on Twitter to celebrate a hot streak versus watching Quinn Hughes play at the highest level of hockey one can ascend to consistently for multiple seasons. It is not a hot take to say Quinn Hughes should be in the Hart trophy conversation if he continues to play like this, it is merely stating a basic fact of life.
And perhaps no one was more excited about Quinn’s game on Sunday morning than Jake DeBrusk, who has discovered that his net front game, coupled with Quinn Hughes’ ability to get the puck on net, can lead to an experience that can only be described as listening to Endless Love in the dark with your friends.
The end result? Jake DeBrusk ended the game with his third goal of the night afternoon (and fourth point of the game), giving Kevin Lankinen the record for the best start on the road of any goalie in history (10 straight dubs), and putting Quinn Hughes front and center in the backyard of the home town that didn’t draft him.
I don’t claim to understand how the Hockey Gods work, but I have to think Quinn Hughes falling to Vancouver has to be a peace offering of sorts for the Cam Neely trade. Though, shout out to the Montreal Canadiens for passing on Quinn Hughes as well because they already had Victor Mete at home.
All of which seems pretty good for a team missing JT Miller, Filip Hronek and Thatcher Demko. Feels like that’s pretty ok?
If the Canucks can keep pace with the top 10 of the league until they stabilize their back end and ride out the injuries to some of their top guys, I don’t think you can ask for much more from this team.
Let’s get to the gifs.
Best road warrior
I had a big struggle today deciding if Kevin was Hawk or Animal, before remembering that Animal once wore a goalie mask to cover up an eye injury, which happened due to the Powers of Pain injuring him during a weightlifting contest to see who was stronger, and you know what, you just had to be there.
I will probably need Arturs Silovs or Demko to step up and shave their hair into a Mohawk before I hand out the other name.
At this rate, I think we need to prepare ourselves for Kevin securing the bag next year with a multi-year, expensive contract with another team based on his stellar play this year.
Best signs of burnout
This game had around seven minutes of practice and warmup drills (at one point I thought a player would pick up the puck and toss it into the crowd for a chocolate bar) before the Wings’ first power play of the game gave us an actual legitimate scoring chance, except it was Vancouver, not Detroit, who had the good look on net:
Kiefer Sherwood has been playing in the top six at times and attempting to set the record for NHL hits in a season at around 23,000, and I am starting to wonder if he can keep up that pace.
He’s made himself a fan favourite with a hockey playstyle best described as Jack Sparrow before pirate life became “a bit much,” but this was the first game where it felt like the mind was willing, but the body wasn’t for Kiefer. He has made a reputation for ending his body checks with authority, but against Detroit, you could see him lunging out his hands for a hit, but his feet just weren’t there.
Which isn’t a high-level critique, mind you. I’m not out here wondering how dare he not crush people on my behalf with 10 hits a game. I merely put this in here because I genuinely wonder how high of a pace he can set playing the way he has this year. And on a long road trip like this, it only makes sense that he would lose a bit of the pep in his step. You have to save some of that juice for a post-season run, is all I am saying.
Detroit would actually end up with four shots on the powerplay, most notably on a shot from the faceoff circle from Lucas Raymond:
Mason is probably blown away that a puck can go on net from there, but Lucas was able to not only hit the net but he also almost squeezed it by Kevin. Unfortunately for Lucas, another gentleman looking to secure a bag was there to clean up the crease, as Erik Brännström swept in to clear the puck out of harms way.
And if you’re thinking “is this the point where you post that Hockey Stats card I kind of only half understand to try and prove someone had a good game?” you’re God damn right it is:
Now, some of you might be confused as to how Vincent Desharnais can be so incredibly bad on this graph yet Erik somehow had a good game, and that comes down to one simple thing: Puck movement.
Quite simply, Erik can skate with the puck. He knows how to pass the puck. And he can shoot the puck. He can make zone exits with the puck. He can make zone entries with the puck — all things which helped him provide value to his team. When you add in his ability to help his team out such as in the clip above, you have yourself a tidy piece of business from the slick Swede.
You can’t teach size and all that, but if you can’t read the ice or handle the puck at a high level in the NHL, you’re going to have days like Vincent had against Detroit, where it just feels like he’s fighting to stay above water on most shifts.
Erik’s size might be a detriment in the eyes of some people, but he adds a valued skill set to a team that doesn’t have much in the way of puck movement behind Quinn Hughes.
Detroit would then try and catch Kevin moving side to side, but as we have seen this year, Lankinen seems really dialled in when you try and open him up with lateral movement:
The Canucks have gotten some truly incredible value from players like Lankinen, Brännström, Teddy KGB, and Pius Suter this year.
Best everyone should have a Kevin at home
Dylan, Dylan, Dylan almost got Detroit on the board after Noah Juulsen attempted a pass that would be best described as “cheerfully optimistic,” which ended up leading to a mid-danger shot off the turnover that didn’t pose much of a threat because Kevin was already in position, as is tradition:
His outlet path was taken away, so I understand the intent behind it, but that just shows the difference in games between Erik and Noah. But to be fair to Noah, he blocked around four hundred shots in this game and attempts double homicide with every hit he throws, even if he chases it out of position. So it’s all a big game of give and take with any defenseman not named Quinn Hughes.
Regardless, Kevin is like the probiotics of this Canucks team, stepping up and saving them from making a mess in their own end too many times to count.
And even when Detroit attempted to throw a bag of mysterious white powder into the eyes of Kevin, he still tracked the puck and managed to get a pad on the point shots:
Essentially Kevin gave the Canucks time to find their legs during an early morning game, which makes life a lot easier when you know your goalie is going to bail you out of a couple of jams.
Best something had to give
Unfortunately for Vancouver, Kevin couldn’t make every single save, as eventually Detroit’s persistence paid off on a rebound I am sure Lankinen would want back:
If a team sits back enough, and you continue to throw the puck on net, good things happen as Detroit showed here.
Props to Brännström for attempting the pad save, though; you just know Alex Edler is smiling with pride somewhere right now.
Best gimme the sauce
When the Canucks are on their heels and struggling in their own zone, that’s like the bat signal for the Chaos Giraffe to attempt a slip-and-slide block:
Which, hey, fair play to Jonathan Berggren, that’s a pass with enough sauce to smother a steak; he flips that perfect over Tyler Myers for the attempted back door tap-in.
So to summarize what you’ve read so far, yes, the Canucks didn’t exactly burst out of the gates on this one. It was basically a first period in which Lankinen had to do everything in his power to keep his team in the fight until they finally found a way to tilt the ice the other way.
Best simple plans
And that pushback came in the form of drawing two penalties to end the period. Yes, apparently skating hard to the net is a good hockey strategy, as Conor Garland first showed:
And to which Elias Pettersson proved without a shadow of a doubt:
I cannot understate how little time the Canucks spent in Detroit’s zone in the first period. These two penalties the Canucks drew represented both the best thing they did the entire first 20 minutes and the most effective thing they did. Doubly so when you remind yourself that Detroit has the worst penalty-killing in the entire league.
So yes, you could have slept in for the opening frame and your life would have been better off for it. Unless you get off on Kevin frustrating other teams. Then this period was all about your very unique kink.
Best signs of things to come
Best Jake Wyler time
Normally when a team starts a period off with a power play, it ends up being kind of sh*t. Whatever the reason is, the power play usually ends up looking slow and out of sorts. Too many oranges at half time sort of situation I assume, they aren’t back in high level game play mode yet.
But the extra room of a 5-on-3, and especially against Detroit’s penalty killing strategy which seems to consist of a lot of internal screaming, the Canucks found a way to cash in with the extra man:
Jake DeBrusk continues to haunt the Bruins off-season, as he got his first of three goals on the night. We’ve talked about his subtle game before, and it was on full display again Sunday afternoon, as he just always seems to put himself in the right spot.
Like, standing in front of the net is a simple strategy at its heart. It’s what I bust out in hockey because it’s simple and can be effective. You just sort of stand there and try and annoy everyone as you whack at the puck and/or shins.
But the high-level net-front players, are the ones who can tip the puck, keep their blade on the ice to give their linemates a target for a pass or know when to shift off of coverage to give themselves room for a shot. They also know when to sneak in from just out of frame so they can be open to tap in rebounds.
Which is pretty much what Jake does here. Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk run the Pina Pina Pina Colada game plan, which consists of getting stuck in the rain and double stacking in the crease. If Jake didn’t connect, Brock was waiting right there to have a try at it as well. We saw the Canucks do the same with Andrei Kuzmenko and Boeser a few years ago, where both guys would play very close to the goalie, and it felt like a battle of seeing who would tap the puck in first.
I think the thing that separates Jake from Brock and Kuzmenko is that his tipping game is on another level. Like, he very clearly smashes “25%” on the debit machine without looking twice, which gives him several ways to burn you.
His hand-eye coordination is just very good, and combined with his natural offensive instincts and soft hands, makes him a very deadly player around the crease.
And yes, that was Quinn Hughes taking the all-time lead in assists by a defenceman in a Canucks sweater on that goal.
Best why not two?
Jake then very quickly made it 2-1 Canucks when he, shock of shocks, set up shop in the crease and tapped in another power play tally:
This is where we see that dynamic of Quinn Hughes’ ability to not only keep the puck in the zone like a young Brent Sopel but his ability to dance toward the net until he can open up a shooting lane for himself. His ability to get the puck on net and force the goalie to try and track his movement allows a player like Jake to do his thing unnoticed.
Watch the clip and you can see the second DeBrusk sees Quinn stop the puck at the blue line; he cuts towards the net and looks for a tip shot. He doesn’t just stand still, though, he slowly glides away to the left of the goalie, which allows him to dig the puck out and slide the puck in the net. A lot of players sometimes just stand right in front of the goalie without moving at all, which leads to them just banging at the rebound right back into the goalie’s pads. Because Jake is mobile, it allows him to create an angle on net at the side of the goalie, which, along with his soft hands, lets him quickly pop the puck into the net.
From the outside looking in, it’s a very easy goal for Jake, but when a player repeatedly gets goals like this, you realize he is doing a lot of small things to help put himself in these advantageous positions.
Jake would then almost get the nat hatty a shift later when once again he went to the net and looked for trouble:
Shout out to Brännström for that spinning pass to start the sequence. That’s the kind of puck movement that the other bottom-pairing defenceman can’t do on this team.
And as you can see by the shoves from Detroit, they were already having enough of DeBrusk’s game in their crease.
Best to be fair
Nils Höglander loves himself a penalty in the offensive zone, but I will defend him on this one:
This very much felt like the officials saw Vancouver score two power play goals on the 5-on-3 and maybe had regrets about going too far. Felt like it was a bit of a Revlon call.
Still, you put your stick in the legs of an opponent, you’re playing with fire, which led to Detroit getting their own power play goal on an Alex DeBrincat shot:
The key to beating Lankinen is to heavily screen him, then have the puck tip off of the stick of the guy in the crease before going over to the guy on the far right.
One of my criticisms of the Canucks in this game was their big guys on defence not boxing anyone out. Michael Rasmussen basically got free real estate in front of Lankinen because Desharnais is playing close to the face off dot. And because Desharnais isn’t boxing out Rasmussen, he isn’t able to make a play on the puck that goes through the top of the crease, which basically causes Kevin to have to start so far to the left that he doesn’t have enough time to make it all the way over to the right side of the net.
Best advice for the boys
If you want some examples of why Detroit is bad at killing penalties, it’s because of stuff like this:
Twice, they should have had the puck out, but it ends up resulting in a shot on net against them in the end.
I mean, kudos to Elias for fighting through that puck battle to keep the puck in the zone, but yeah, Detroit doesn’t exactly inspire confidence when killing off penalties.
Best advice for the boys part 2
I just want to say that once again I am asking for more Tyler Myers on the second unit power play. The guy tries two shots on net, one of which he swashbuckles in from the point to keep the play alive, and it ends with Kiefer Sherwood hitting the outside of the post:
Odds are Quinn Hughes will play almost the full two minutes of any power play. But who better than Tyler Myers to jump on with 15 seconds left with the extra man? The guy is either going to dangle around the zone and set up a goal, or miss high and wide and cause a break the other way.
I am willing to roll that dice. Unleash the Chaos Giraffe with all that room out there. I know we aren’t ready for the Tyler Myers on for overtime shifts take yet, but we’ll get there.
We’ll get there.
Just imagine Tyler going ham and scoring a power play goal against a team; it would crush them. You know it and I know it. You don’t come back from that.
Best advice for the boys Part 3
With Cam Talbot leaving the game due to the dreaded “lower body injury,” it meant Vancouver world-beater Ville Husso had to enter the game. And as LottoLine2024 (which sounds suspiciously like their computer password) pointed out, when a goalie comes in, you’ve got to test them. It’s just the rules of the game. If you don’t shoot at least three pucks on the goalie within a minute of them getting into the game, you have failed your fan base. And to the Canucks credit, they did push the pace a bit and test Ville.
First Nils Höglander set up Teddy KGB with the lead pass that he eventually slid over to Kiefer Sherwood for the Canucks first good attempt:
Then the pig man once again set up Teddy KGB for the partial breakaway:
Also please note who turned that play around so quickly with the good outlet pass: Erik Brännström. There is something to be said about a player who has the wherewithal and ability to hold onto the puck without panicking, in order to find an open man.
There is also something to be said about Brännström shutting down an odd-man rush with a perfectly timed diving poke check:
A couple of things about this play:
  • I love how Erik times his dive perfectly. Sometimes a player of a more chaotic origins will dive first. They won’t be reacting to a play; they will just lay out on the ice and dare the other team to beat them. It’s a bit like the bad guy explaining his entire plan to the good guy in a movie. It’s not my favourite thing, but I understand the swagger being attempted. A better deployment of the diving poke check is when you time it just right, where you wait until the player has no other option other than to shoot it from a bad angle or to try and pass it through the middle, so you know if they do beat you with a pass, it took a high-level effort that they had very little time to get off. It is one of those situations where if they do beat you with that perfect pass, you have to give them credit for it. Letting a guy have three seconds to look at your prone body while you stare them in the eyes, demanding they do something about it? It doesn’t quite land the same way for me.
  • Max Sasson keeps his head up and looks at his options before (rightfully) deciding that carrying the puck into the zone and getting a low shot off for a rebound was the right play to make. I’m not quite sure what Desharnais is doing leading the charge on the follow-up, but I applaud his moxie. My point is, we continue to see plays from Max where he takes the time to assess the situation and makes quick, smart decisions with the puck.
Best laser sounds
Pius Suter would then make it 3-2 Vancouver after some good defensive zone work from Dakota Joshua led to an odd-man rush for the Canucks:
Pius Suter is thinking shot the entire time here, as well he should. He has a slick shot and when you give him that much time and space, he is going to absolutely burn you.
Did he whisper “you could have kept this, Detroit” after he scored? No, he didn’t, but that doesn’t stop me from believing it happened.
Best slippery slope
Detroit would then tie the game up in the third on a power play goal, and once again it involved a situation where a big tall man refused to box out Michael Rasmussen:
Look, I get it, Rasmussen is from Vancouver, he understands the value of real estate, but certainly Tyler Myers knows it as well. I just don’t like CG57’s decision-making on this goal. He lets Rasmussen set up shop in the crease once again, and by the time the puck is in the blue paint, Tyler is just flailing at Michael’s hockey stick from too far away. In fact, there are three Canucks on the outside of Michael offering up little to no resistance, allowing him to tap in the puck behind Kevin. Just a very distinct lack of physicality on that goal from Vancouver. At the very least Tyler should be close enough to Rasmussen to whisper very BC-centric colloquial insults to him.
“You look like you shop at Lougheed Town Centre buds.”
Now, after this goal was scored, Rick Tocchet and friends challenged the goal for goalie interference. And you can kind of see Rasmussen make contact with Kevin in the seconds leading up to the goal, but certainly not during the goal itself. It felt like a risky call to make, and it sure ended up being one, as the call on the ice stood, which meant the Canucks had to kill off another power play.
All of which is to say that momentum was clearly on Detroit’s side at this point.
Best Scott Sterling impression
With the Canucks killing off a penalty, it meant one man and one man alone was right for the job: Noah Juulsen:
I know Juulsen struggles at times, and he is very much a bubble defenceman in the NHL, but damn it, no one can accuse the guy of not giving it his all. Buddy had to take a breather after this shift because he got hit with around four pucks and needed some time to collect his thoughts. Absolute warrior mentality shift from Juulsen on this penalty kill.
Best if wishes were fishes
Despite killing the penalty, Detroit kept the motor running, eventually leading to them taking the lead early in the third period:
First off, Marco Kasper makes a very skilled rush up the ice to beat Brock Boeser. Should Boeser have stopped skating to make a lunge at the puck like that? Probably not. But he’s done those plays before and made it work; it’s just that when they don’t work, you look silly. And again, Kasper made him pay by making the nice move around him in the first place.
That quick zone entry eventually leads to the Canucks losing site of 2015 Vlad Tarasenko, who apparently travelled through time to this game to snipe home that goal.
None of the forwards can help cover on the rush, as both Elias and Brock are chasing the play, and couple that with Vinnie Desharnais playing this one very loose (he slowly skates back in his own zone), it gives up enough time and space for Tarasenko to pick his spot.
In years past, this might have been game over. The tired road team with injuries has blown the lead in the third period, but played well enough to give the moral victory speech of “we tried our best?” That was the 2016 Canucks mantra.
This Canucks team, however, has Quinn Hughes.
Best extend Erik
With the Canucks struggling to find their footing, Erik still had time to shut down a 2-on-1 caused by a Tyler Myers turnover:
He just makes it look too easy.
Best grinding it out
I don’t know if Husso urged his teammates to try and destroy Conor Garland, but Jeff Petry did his best to comply:
That’s a straight-up fantastic hit if we’re being honest. Not even a fancy color coordinated neck guard can protect you from that one.
Best Quinn doing Quinn things
With around 10 minutes left in the game, you could just sort of see Quinn start using all the fuel had left in the tank to start pushing the puck back into Detroit’s zone. And it would often be in the form of an offensive shift where he would skate all over the ice until he could find a shooting lane:
Not only does it help that Hughes has the cardio of Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod in terms of letting him drag the puck all over the ice for an entire shift, but it is also incredibly exhausting for other teams to try and keep pace with him. His ability to skate seemingly forever lets him wear down the other team, and try and break down their defensive zone coverage. This leads to him getting shooting lanes or finding open ice for a teammate.
It’s one of those things where if you just watch Quinn Hughes exclusively, he makes it look so easy, so you take it for granted.
But then you watch 95% of the other players in the NHL and you’re lucky if they have one shift like this in a game, much less the dozen or so shifts Quinn seems to have where he does things like this.
The guy literally plays like he’s Steph Curry on ice, I don’t think I have seen someone with the edgework and the ability to break ankles on the regular like this:
Again, when Tyler Myers does a play like that ONCE, we almost hold a parade for him.
Hell, Jalen Chatfield struggled with a cut back like this during warmup, much less a game.
For Quinn Hughes, this is just another Sunday.
I also want to take a moment to show what a proper battle in front looks like, as it was going on during this play:
Dakota Joshua is trying to set up shop, and Dylan Larkin is doing everything in his power to try and box him out. He’s engaging with him physically and even if he’s losing that battle, he’s making sure that Joshua has to worry about him. Dakota can’t just stand there without anybody touching him, looking for the perfect spot to grab a rebound.
Best Brännström’s agent on line one
The Canucks finally tied the game up with minutes left after Elias Pettersson, who quietly had himself yet another hell of a game, got his second of three primary assists on the night, found Erik Brännström at the point for the one-timer clap bomb:
Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson continue to build chemistry, as Jake’s hard pass down low finds Elias Pettersson beside the net, to which he has the patience and skill to find Erik open for the shot. At one point, four Red Wings are down by the crease, which is all EP40 needs to see in order to know that means his defenceman has a lot of room to skate into.
It was also another situation where hey maybe you’re someone who screams at Elias to shoot the puck more, and it would have been real easy to have just tried to funnel the puck on net as quickly as he could once Jake found him beside the net, but that Hank Sedin patience in EP40 paid off as he instead waited things out until Detroit over-committed, freeing up a whole lot of room on the ice.
And of course full credit to Erik Brännström for having the skill to walk into a puck like that and blast it home
The Canucks also got a power play as the game was coming to a close, and once again they tried to feed the beast in Jake DeBrusk:
A complete turnaround from a team that had every reason in the book lined up to fold up shop after they went down 4-3. Instead, Quinn Hughes led his team into battle and got his team back into the fight to get the game to overtime.
Best stick to the rivers you’re used to
Pius Suter got the Canucks first big chance of overtime, but alas, he went chasing waterfalls:
You’re a shooter, Suter. Shooters shoot.
I know the soft-back hand goalie through the five-hole is giggle-worthy and empowers you because you dominated a goalie both physically and mentally, but this is your Warzone moment. Grab that Kar and set up shop on prison roof and go to town.
Best so you’re telling me there’s a chance
If Carson Soucy can play in overtime, then certainly Tyler Myers deserves a shot; that’s all I’m saying:
Thoughts and prayers to Dylan Larkin in his recovery from that punch.
Best killing them softly with his song
What better way to start your Sunday off than by watching a guy Boston let walk score the hat trick winner:
Once again, Quinn Hughes is a vital part of this play, as his effortless pass up the ice sets everything in motion.
Once again, Elias Pettersson picked up a primary assist by creating space by charging toward a defender and finding his linemate with a pass.
Once again, Jake DeBrusk showed off his many ways he can murder a hockey team, utilizing a skill set not seen since Dexter was in his prime. He has a net-front game, but the guy can pick corners when he wants. There wasn’t a lot of room there for his shot, but his Game 8 homage had quite the loud “twhunk” as the puck went post and in.
End result: The Canucks used that pack mentality to grind out yet another win on the road.
Which I guess shouldn’t be surprising, considering how well they’ve played while travelling this year.
I guess the big question is how will this team play on home ice after the road trip?
One more in Minnesota and then we’ll find out.
Sponsored by bet365