Like repeatedly dunking your face into a bowl of ice, sometimes you just have to believe in the process despite what the world thinks of you. And with the news that Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander had exited the road trip and returned to Vancouver due to injury, it was easy to settle back and embrace the incoming loss.
After all, this team is now running on fumes due to injuries all throughout the lineup, making the task of trying to chase down a red-hot St. Louis Blues team, let alone fend off Utah and Calgary, seem like an impossibility.
But if the narrative heading into the final stretch of the season was about a team praying it might get a solid first-round loss under its belt, it isn’t too far off from a team going out on its shield trying to just make the playoffs in the first place. Aside from draft position, there isn’t a lot to separate the “Well, we sure made the Jets sweat for a few games, eh?” from “Well, hey, missing the playoffs by four points with this lineup isn’t so bad” in terms of results on a season.
And if we’re being honest, watching a patchwork team of AHL players, third liners, Brock Boeser, and Quinn Hughes tends to end up playing an offensive style eerily reminiscent of a Canucks team that has its full roster in place. It’s still going to end up with a maddening amount of dump-and-chase hockey. It’s still going to need top goaltending. And it’s still going to require an offence being fueled by Quinn Hughes around 75% of the time. Well, maybe 95% of the time now.
About the only major X factor in all of this was the surprise return of Thatcher Demko to the lineup after it was announced that Kevin Lankinen was down with a sickness, oh, ah-ah-ah-ah.
Now, Demko’s status on the team this year has felt like a side character on Shameless, where you find yourself pleasantly surprised when Jimmy shows up for a scene or two. But the team in need of a hero; there are only two players on the current team registered with the church as having completed a miracle, and Bubble Demko is one of them.
Jeff Cowan is the other one due to an odd paperwork loophole that was never fixed, but I digress.
The point is, Bubble Demko is basically Schrödinger’s cat at this point, in which he both exists and doesn’t exist when he’s away from the team. We don’t know if he’s dead or alive until we pop him in the lineup, which is where the Canucks find themselves right now.
Because with Bubble Demko and Quinn Hughes, honestly, anything is probably possible in this world. The chances of winning a Cup? Still extremely slim. But at least with those two, you can have a solid pre-show where you talk about how it’s possible they might make the playoffs and win a series or two.
The problem, of course, is it’s been years since Bubble Demko has been around. We all know the history, and this season alone has taught us about the Demko career journey, but his body just hasn’t been up to the task for several seasons now. Asking Thatcher to jump into this lineup of all things and asking him to pull off a miracle, well, that feels an awful lot like asking Michael Jordan to lead the Washington Wizards to glory. The beauty of sports, of course, is that no matter how slim of a chance there is of something occurring, the fun of it is just going along for the ride.
We all know the Canucks have a very small chance of making the playoffs.
Well, all know the Canucks have a very small chance of doing anything in the post-season, should they even make it.
We also know that watching Quinn Hughes play 30+ minutes a night and getting run into the ground is something we should probably worry about.
We also know that thrusting Demko back into a situation in which he will be asked to make Jesus-level saves is asking a lot from a goalie who probably hasn’t been 100% for a couple of years now.
But damn it, sometimes you just have to dunk your head in that ice bowl, man, and let life lead you where it may. Sometimes it’s the moments along the way that end up being core sports memories, even if it never ends with a Cup victory. None of us knew at the time that a loose bra tossed on the ice would become Canucks lore, but that’s where we ended up. The beauty in sports is honestly the journey itself.
And on Monday night, with a last-second 4-3 comeback win over the New Jersey Devils, we have a new entry to the core memory codex:
Jonathan Lekkerimäki, your time is now.
Best sadness presented in nice graphics
The joy of these games is if they lose them, you can’t get too mad about how the team plays.
Oh, you don’t think the Canucks should dump-and-chase when Nils Aman is being leaned on to be a high-end part of the offence? Please, tell me more.
This lineup is basically geared up for Quinn Hughes to single-handedly try and win games by himself. And honestly, I do have some interest in seeing how some of the younger players perform in this situation. You’re lying if you say you didn’t whisper to yourself at least once, “hey maybe that O’Connor line will have some juice in this game.”
What kind of juice you ask? Clearly pear juice.
Best names are hard
To be fair, it took me a month to figure out if Joshua or Dakota was his first name. I’d write it down, but there was a small part of me that made me run to HockeyDB just to make sure I got it right.
That being said, this game, shockingly, did not showcase a lot of offence in the first period. In fact, the best chance early on was Nils Aman almost getting a handle on a pass in the offensive zone:
I will say that Linus Karlsson has looked…not intriguing, but interesting the last few games? Like, there is clearly an Aaron Volpatti line in the NHL in which a guy will carve out a career for himself by being a dude who handles injury duties for a team. It’s, in fact, an incredible career if you manage to get to the NHL and hang around for four to six years, as not many people on this planet can say they’ve done that. These are the guys who are mocked as fourth-liners or AAAA players but are also the guys who could go to any beer league in the country and make you sh!t your pants trying to defend them. Contextually, you are right to mock them, but realistically, dear God, they have more hockey talent in their pinky finger than any of us on the outside looking in.
Which brings me back to Linus Karlsson. I don’t know where his career arc will take him, and at 25 years old, the odds of him sticking with a team above the Aaron Volpatti line are most likely very slim.
But I will say that I am seeing the parts of his game that have led to his point-per-game production in the AHL, and even something like that pass attempt to Nils Aman in the clip above is where you find yourself going, “ok, this kid has some offensive instincts to his game.”
He’s just shown a lot more during his last call-up than has during any of his other tours of duty with the Canucks, and when he’s in the lineup, I no longer need a moment to collect my thoughts while I stare out the window into the rain.
Best come back here with my show 
It was pretty clear heading into this game that Quinn Hughes was going to essentially skate for half the game trying to set up any goals he possibly could, and even with that knowledge; there was only so much New Jersey could do to contain him. I’d like to think defending Quinn Hughes involves thinking, “what would a sick, deranged freak attempt to do offensively here?” and then, even with that mindset, still not being able to stop him the majority of the time.
Which optically, that’s probably the only reason to watch Canucks games these days. No offence to Drew O’Connor lining up a shot from the wing, but people pay their money to watch Vancouver because Quinn Hughes will literally skate around half your team and almost set up a goal:
Again, New Jersey knows what Quinn Hughes is going to do; they are just powerless to stop it. At best, they run a QB spy and track him as he races around the ice while the rest of the team sets up man-on-man coverage to take out the other Canucks from doing anything with the puck should Quinn get it to them.
Best opening shot
Perhaps surprisingly, it was Vancouver who got on the board first when first line centre, Pius Suter, does what all top line centres do, and that’s score goals:
Plays off the faceoff took centre stage in this game, and the first goal was no different. Good win from Pius Suter, and then Marcus Pettersson brought the puck down low while Suter back into some soft coverage, and boom goes the dynamite.
With his 21st goal of the season, Pius Suter is setting himself up for a nice payday in the off-season. A defensively responsible centre who has, at bare minimum, guaranteed around a 15-goal season per year, at 28 years old, Suter is right in line to be the next highly overpaid free agent that a team signs that the fanbase eventually turns on as the discussion about “how much are the little things worth, anyways” becomes the main talking point when his scoring dries up.
So, with that being said, enjoy this currently perfectly reasonably priced number one centre Pius Suter at 1.6 million a year while you can.
Best Captain Insano
Quinn Hughes, meanwhile, got back to trying to generate incredible goals off end-to-end rushes, with this latest attempt almost ending in a Conor Garland tap-in:
I feel like Quinn Hughes keeps on evolving like some sort of demented Pokemon. We knew he had the edge work, we knew he had the NHL vision, but now he’s like, “why not be the fastest player in the NHL, why not” added to his resume.
I can only imagine the joys of trying to game plan for Quinn Hughes juking you out on the ice now, having “oh but he can also simply skate right by you at 100mph” added to that experience. Watch the clip again, and you’ll see Garland can sneak in for that scoring chance because literally every New Jersey Devil player is watching Quinn Hughes with trace amounts of piss running down their legs.
This is the power of Quinn Hughes.
That and his existential crisis resting face.
Best laying down the hammer
Kiefer Sherwood finished his story against New Jersey, defeating Roman Reigns landing his 400th career hit on the season, becoming the first NHL player to ever get to that number since the league has started recording body checks. My heart of hearts says Gino Odjick once landed 1,000 hits in a season, and damn it, I won’t be told otherwise.
Officially, though, Sherwood now owns the title of Hitz King, and while this wasn’t the 400th hit, it was certainly his biggest one on the night:
In a season in which not a whole lot has gone right, Sherwood’s play has been one of the consistent bright spots on the season. Whether it was his early offensive success early on or just his general hard-to-play-against asshole brand of hockey, Kiefer has been one of the few reasons to watch games this year for Vancouver. He’s one of those guys that, yeah, you want to see what he does in a playoff situation because you feel he’s either going to get a timely clutch goal or go full Raffi Torres and send someone to the shadow realm.
Some guys you just don’t have that desire for. Like, I honestly have zero excitement about watching Teddy Blueger in the post-season. And I don’t mean that in a “ha ha, he sucks” way at all; I just mean it in an “I don’t think he’s going to deliver a big moment” kind of way. I just don’t think he has it in him to raise my blood pressure by doing something big.
Sherwood, though? This dude is getting an overtime goal or stabbing someone with their own skate, for sure.
Best force of habit
Thatcher Demko had a relatively easy first period and didn’t really have to make a hard save until the second period when he stoned Nico Hischier in the slot:
My one concern about Demko is when teams get him moving and scrambling. Ever since the injury, his recovery saves haven’t been at the level they used to be, which is understandable.
But in position Demko? Ready to face the shot Demko? That’s the stuff dreams are made of.
Best blood feud
I wasn’t aware people were still steamed at the Jacob Markstrom exit from Vancouver, but I am here for it. If I still dry heave at the Adrian Aucoin for Dan Cloutier trade, who am I to judge others for their feuds?
Markstrom had himself a solid night, matching up nicely against Demko. Both goalies also had some help from their defenders, as Jonathan Kovacevic bailed out Markstrom from the dreaded Nils Aman grease crease goal halfway through the second:
You’ll notice this play was again started by a Quinn Hughes end-to-end rush, but this time, it was a hand-off to Jake DeBrusk, who then made the great pass in front to Nils.
This was not a game of volumes of offensive chances; it was more of a game of two teams shoving the puck into the crease and whacking away at rebounds. It was about a McDonald’s of a game as you can get from two teams desperate for a win.
Best are you sure about that?
With a close game on hand, Teddy Blueger got called for tripping Tomas Tatar:
My friends, I am but a simple country lawyer. I don’t own a fancy suit, and gosh, I don’t think I could even spell the name brand of the car of the prosecutors, much less recognize one on the street.
But that is not a trip. In no way can that be classified as a trip. Blueger’s stick hits the puck, then slightly taps a skate-lace, and then Tatar does what all Tatar’s like to do, and he goes full sauce on the play. Just straight up embraces a fishy lifestyle and goes down easier than Grandma trying to make rent.
Picking vegetables out of the garden to sell at the farmers market. That’s what grandma is doing.
The point is, this was a terrible call, so of course, it would lead to the Devils scoring on the ensuing power play:
The Canucks penalty kill has been so efficient as of late that we won’t even bother criticizing them on this one. If JT Miller were around, it would have at least been fun to showcase him pointing and yelling at teammates, but without him, the Canucks have just been downright clinical in their kills.
In this case, it just ends up being a bit of a flubbed shot from Timo Meier that ends with the puck coming right back to his stick, allowing him to sneak it by a confused and slightly saddened Thatcher Demko. You can tell Demko wasn’t expecting that shot because it’s not often goalies attempt to cross their legs when making a save unless you’re Dominik Hasek or Roman Cechmanek. Although I do have a sneaking suspicion Chris Levesque might have attempted that if given the chance. Alas, we’ll never know.
Thanks a lot, Johan.
Best if wishes were fishes
With the game tied, both teams traded chances to end the second period.
First, you had Paul Cotter, impressively dancing around Quinn Hughes of all people, dragging the puck into the crease and leading to a dangerous shot for Brenden Dillon:
Filip Hronek’s leg saved the day on the shot, but kudos to Demko for utilizing the Bugs Bunny dressed up as a lady wearing a bonnet, holding up a handkerchief, and yelling “yoo hoo, over here” technique on the save attempt just in case.
New Jersey started getting its cycle game on after their first goal, which led to extended shifts in which the Canucks found themselves chasing the play, resulting in time and space opening up for shots like this one from Timo Meier in the slot:
But the Canucks have Quinn Hughes, which means you’re never truly out of a game.
With around a minute left, Quinn Hughes once again dangled all over the offensive zone before throwing a puck on net in the hopes of it being tipped in:
And a shift later, Tyler Myers decided, hey, what better time than now to hit the post:
As I said earlier, it wasn’t about shot volume; it was more about the threat of scoring a greasy goal in this game. After two periods, the shots were 12-11 in New Jersey’s favour, but Canucks held the edge in high-danger chances at 11 to the Devils 7.
The heat map after the game on Natural Stat Trick shows a similar story throughout the entire game, as the majority of chances from both teams came from right in front of the goalies:
This is what the heat map will look like for Vancouver when Quinn Hughes is in Josh Allen hero ball mode with this makeshift roster. Do whatever it takes to get the puck into the crease and find a way to get it past the goalie.
Best ending with a bang
The period ended with a Kovacevic late hit on Sherwood (who didn’t have the puck), leading to Kiefer smiling and laughing at the Devils player, which led to Dillon landing a blindside hit on Sherwood, which led to Kiefer ignoring Brenden and continuing to laugh at Kovacevic:
No penalty was called, but more importantly, at no point did Tomas Tatar fall to the ice. The safety of Tomas must always be the main prerogative of NHL officials.
Best hard truth
I remain convinced that only 35% of the league actually watches Quinn Hughes play hockey. This broadcast, while doing a fantastic job of showing every amazing thing Quinn Hughes did on the night, had the energy of someone pretending they read the book for book club, only to be noticeably blown away when the group got together to talk about it.
“OK, hold on, SEVERUS SNAPE WAS THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE…was what I said to myself when I read that particular passage. Ha. Ha ha.”
I swear, anytime I talk to someone who thinks Quinn Hughes shouldn’t be in the Hart discussion, they either quickly admit they’ve never seen him play, or they point out some random isolated stat that paints Hughes in a poor light, or they’re from Colorado. Usually, they are all three.
Still, it was quaint watching people who had seemingly heard of Quinn Hughes and certainly knew he existed as a human being but had never really seen many of his highlights getting a first-hand view of the Quinn Hughes show.
Best 20 minutes to save the world
With the latest “most important third period of the season” on tap, it was once again Quinn Hughes trying to dance all over the ice to create a goal. This time, he ends the play with a pass in front to Suter for a Pew Pew attempt:
This is why the heat map looked the way it did. Quinn Hughes basically skates around the ice until the Devils start vomiting when their cardio collapses before he sends the puck into the nearest crease.
Quinn can also set up plays with his passing, of course, which he did with a nice outlet bomb to the elusive Lekkerimäki:
I think we all agree that Lekkerimäki needs to add muscle as he continues his NHL journey, but the amount of skill he’s already shown and his ability to evade hits bodes very well for a player with an already impressive offensive skill set. He just has that ability to extend plays with the puck, which results in more shots on net like the one shown above and fewer plays where the puck just gets dumped into the corner, and the team has to fight to get it back.
Which, when you add his NHL-caliber shot, well, that’s when you start getting excited. You know I love me some Conor Garland, but when he escapes trouble and skates in to take a shot on net, nobody gets worried about his muffin delivery system.
Lekkerimäki, on the other hand? I don’t use this lightly, but when a kid reminds you a bit of Markus Naslund’s shot selections, that’s nothing but a good sign.
Best big save Thatcher
The Devils pushed back themselves, of course, which led to Demko having to make a major save off of Dawson Mercer on the side of the net:
Like I said, recovery saves are what I am interested in seeing from Demko and how he handles them, and on this play, he was dialled in and came up with a huge stop.
Best shooting your shot
Brock has been the Canucks best forward the last several games, so it should not be surprising that he almost scored on a shot that ended up hitting the post in the third period:
Brock wanted that goal so bad he was out there breaking his stick on the follow up attempts, which I can’t help but applaud.
Best bounce of bad intentions
Timo Meier would then make it 2-1 for New Jersey after the puck bounced off the end boards right to his stick at the side of the net:
This is the kind of play where you wonder about Demko’s ability to go full Bubble. Don’t get me wrong, he had a very good game for Vancouver and, in fact, made one of the saves of the season in overtime.
But his recovery time and mobility in making five alarm saves side-to-side; that’s where I think we all wonder where his head is at and where his knee is at. This play was obviously an extreme bounce, and not a lot of goalies would make that save (shout out to Roberto Luongo’s analysis of the Burrows overtime goal in Game 2 in 2011), but you see him just turn and watch that puck get shot into the empty net, and it does make you curious about where his game will end up.
Again, he would end up making an incredible side-to-side save in overtime, but just his overall consistency in hitting that top-level elite goaltender we know he can be that’s where I think everyone is watching and seeing how this all plays out.
Best hard truth
Hey, don’t forget about Derek Forbort’s primary assist:
Folks, welcome to the start of the Jonathan Lekkerimäki show.
This clip doesn’t fully show it, but this play started with a dump-in. Lekkerimäki gets on his palomino and wins the race for the puck, which is where the gif starts, and it ends with his line cycling the puck and getting a scoring chance for Nils Aman, and then ending with Derek Forbort finding Lekkerimäki skating into the slot to get the shot off.
Once again Lekkerimäki’s offensive instincts shine on this play, as does his lethal shot. It’s that combination of the two that really makes you realize this kid has a good chance of being a fixture in the top six on this team in the near future.
He also did the thing Rick Tocchet loves best, and that was, say it with me now, moving his feet. Him moving his feet is what allows him to get into the slot with speed, and not only that, it allows him to skate right by two Devils who are stagnant on the ice.
Jonathan now has 2 of his 3 goals on Amazon Prime games, so Prime Time has now been legally assigned as his nickname. I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them in an unapologetic and in your face way.
Best pointing finger at screen
The Devils would quickly take the lead back, continuing that New York trend of third period chaos, as Erik Haula avoids Teddy Blueger to tap in a rebound off of a point shot:
Once again, a play off the faceoff ends up becoming a major story in this game, as the Canucks failure to win the draw, and their inability to defend properly right after, directly leads to the New Jersey goal.
Now I know people will say that, “hey, when you have Teddy Blueger as your second line centre, this is what’s going to happen.” He’s playing above his pay grade, and this should be expected. It’s like hiring me to guard your house; you just have to assume there’s a solid chance I am going to be playing Toon Blast on my phone, and I’ll miss someone walking out with your prized Andrea del Verrocchio painting, ruining your entire dinner conversation where you ask the question “Here’s one for you, do you guys know who trained Leonardo Da Vinci how to paint?” before leading them to your cigar room to show off your latest purchase.
But on this play, it’s Erik Haula, and the assignment was “cover him for a few seconds,” and that, my friends, is very much within Blueger’s pay grade. That is, in fact, the exact thing Teddy KGB will be asked to do, which is try and win draws, and, barring that, cover your check from getting to the front of the net all alone. Something he absolutely fails to do on this goal.
Blueger actually ended up being last on the team in faceoff wins, hitting only a 38.5 win percentage.
The most efficient in the dots? Aatu Räty, who went 9/11 on the draws. Shout out to Nils Aman going 4/0 as well.
Now, do I love that rebound from Demko? Certainly not. But he’s coming into this game rusty, whereas Blueger should be locked in and making sure he doesn’t blow his coverage this poorly in the third period of a tied game.
Best dialing long distance
Down a goal, leave it to Quinn Hughes to dial up a shot from the blue line that Jakob Markstrom makes a tremendous blocker save on:
It was at this point that I was getting ready for the eulogy on the season, but guess what?
Quinn Hughes is gonna Quinn Hughes.
Best coming up clutch
Much like the New York Rangers game, the Canucks found a last-second miracle to salvage a point out of what looked like a certain loss.
This time, it was Quinn Hughes sending in a shot from the point that Suter, DeBrusk and Garland all took their turns touching:
First off, once again, Quinn Hughes shows his incredible ability to not only skate with the puck but find an open shooting lane with it. We saw it after his second year with this team, where he found another level to not just try and shoot the puck on the net but change angles so he could find ways to make sure his shots didn’t get blocked.
Secondly, the entire line did their job in this goal, as Jake DeBrusk, in particular, won a very vital board battle to keep the puck from being cleared out of the zone earlier in the shift.
Thirdly, Conor Garland ended up getting credited with the goal as DeBrusk shot it in off his skate, and somehow Suter got credited with an assist in that chaos, so Hughes didn’t get a point out of this goal, but he was the main reason this goal even had a chance of occurring in the first place.
Fourthly, Jake DeBrusk has the best blue paint game on the team. Brock is also very good at it, and Garland has his mini-stick moments, but for my money, nobody gets as many tips on net reliably as Jake DeBrusk does. His skill set lines up really well with Quinn Hughes’ ability to find a way to get the puck on net.
Best the perils of overtime
The Canucks have not fared well in overtime this season, leaving countless points on the board in losses this year.
But when you have Quinn Hughes motivated to win games all by himself, sometimes you just sit back and let him lead you to glory:
OK he didn’t score, but man alive is this kid fun to watch. Dude straight up went Top Gun mode and felt the need for speed with the snap of his fingers. This is Pavel Bure levels of “I feel like having a breakaway today” skill on display here.
Quinn Hughes would then find Brock Boeser with another homing missile of a pass, only to see it ending with Demko having to make the save of his season on Cotter:
Watch from the other angle, and remember all that earlier pissing and moaning I did about Demko’s ability to make recovery saves? Forget it. Throw it out the window:
In a game that was as must-win as it gets, Demko going full-time Cop to make a save like this after not playing for months? Just incredible stuff from Thatcher.
Quinn Hughes would end the night with almost 32 minutes of ice time, and I have this new fear in life in which I watch games where Quinn Hughes isn’t on the ice. You really got the sense, especially in overtime, that the Canucks are all just killing time until Quinn can have a 15-second breather before getting him back out onto the ice.
Best closing touches
We almost didn’t need the shootout in this game when Jake DeBrusk and Jonathan Lekkerimäki combined for a slick little give-and-go that gave the Canucks rookie a fantastic look on net:
It’s important to note Lekkerimäki went glove side here. Very important.
Best finishing touches
We found ourselves in a good old-fashioned shootout, and first, we had Jake DeBrusk scoring the Canucks first goal with a confident shot on net:
Notice how he goes glove side. He skates in with speed and nails its glove side.
Then we had Prime Time with the game on his stick and a season possibly on the line. And holy sh!t, did the kid deliver.
WE HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO GO OVER.
First, is this the face of a kid who just scored the biggest shootout goal of his NHL career? Or of a highly paid assassin who is just doing the job assigned to him, no hard feelings:
That is the face of a robot sent back in time in order to save humanity by making sure the Canucks don’t miss the playoffs, otherwise Skynet wins.
Secondly, the stick twirls, holy sh!t the stick twirls. I am sorry, but if I am a goalie and I see a rookie twirl his stick and then skate right in on me, I am worried about my future. This kid should be nervous, he should be sweating, he should be over-thinking the moment.
Not Prime Time. Instead, he twirls his stick a couple of times and just heads on in for a leisurely skate.
Thirdly, that shot, oh my goodness, that shot. You can literally see Markstrom’s brain just assume it’s going glove side as his hands start the diving save animation. Quickly, Markstrom realizes he is hooped, so he just sort of drops his blocker in the general direction of the puck, but by then, it’s too late. Prime Time has toe-dragged the puck and picked his spot blocker side. Markstrom wanted that pad stack glove save so badly on that shot, only to be made to look a fool on Amazon Prime.
Fourthly, oh, how I’ve missed Jacob Markstrom’s stick-breaking tantrums.
Honestly, this is one of the highlights of the season for me. Put it right up there with Elias Pettersson in his first game sniping one past Mike Smith; it just stands out as a rookie moment where you go, “Oh, so this kid has that kind of DNA in him.”
That is just such an ice-cold move to come in and drag that puck back to give you the angle on net you want and snipe it past the goalie. Filthy, filthy, filthy stuff.
That goal gives the Canucks a bit of a heartbeat. The road is still long. The road is still treacherous.
But it at least gives them a chance.
And like we talked about earlier, it’s moments like these that let you enjoy the journey in a season that doesn’t go your way.
Prime Time has arrived.
Sponsored by bet365