Ok, so here’s the bad news. The Vancouver Canucks? They deserved to win against the New York Rangers in every conceivable way. If you replayed this game 100 times, the Canucks walk away the winners 99 percent of the time instead of losing 5-3 like they did Saturday morning.
The good news? If this is how both teams play in a must-win game, then even if either of them makes the playoffs, it won’t be a long visit. It’s hard to get too riled up over a loss if a five-game post-season appearance feels like your ultimate destiny.
At times I was positive I was watching a beer league team dealing with the dreaded hangover and early start time combo when viewing the New York Rangers defensive structure. At one point, three forwards just went for a change in the middle of the play, giving up a 5-on-2. The Canucks, of course, ended that chance with a shot from the corner, as is tradition.
Which brings us to the Canucks offensive output, which on a normal night this season, three goals would feel downright amazing. It would feel like it was the 80s reborn, and all you could see was 5’3″ skinny goalies for miles around you. A land where a shot on net had a good chance of the goalie stacking the pads for no reason, slowly falling to his left, letting in a goal from the blueline.
And on another night, you’d applaud that Canucks out-shooting the Rangers 39 to 12 in such a vital game. 16 high-danger chances in Vancouver’s favour compared to New York’s three. In many ways, it was one of the best games of the season from Vancouver, one in which you couldn’t question their effort or desire to win. These types of games have been so few and far between this year that it’s hard not to tear up a little bit watching the Canucks play in the opposing end of the ice for so long.
However, within the context of this season, I find myself really struggling to hand out high fives and kudos for this one.
Look, I get it. The Canucks deserved to win this game, they truly did. And I see some people shrugging it off and going, “it happens,” accepting the fact that sometimes things don’t go your way, which is true. Hockey is going to hockey at the end of the day.
But this team has found so many ways to lose winnable games this season, that this just becomes another bag of garbage to throw on the trash heap that is this season for me. It’s that old saying that games in October mean just as much as ones in April, and that remains true here. I just cannot separate the context of this game from how this season has gone.
So, while it’s great that this team found a way to step up and put the pressure on another team, ultimately, they still lost.
And again, this team lost Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander after two periods. They had to gut out the third period without their top centre and missing one of their best players as of late in Nearly Nils. They managed to fight back and tie the game up twice during a chaotic third period, the kind of content I assume Tyler Myers falls asleep to at night, finding comfort in its familiarity.
But in the end, it’s still a team that couldn’t score enough goals when it mattered. It’s still a team that fell asleep defensively in key moments. About the only difference in this game was Kevin Lankinen struggled to find consistency in net, but even then you feel some compassion for a goalie trying to stay awake in his net after only facing a handful of shots. Still, in a must-win game, he absolutely needs to stop one of those third period goals to give his team a chance to win.
Ultimately, how the Canucks lost doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. They are now relegated to scoreboard-watching to see just how badly this defeat will impact their playoff run. They will also have to see what the health status of Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander is as they try and figure out their path to the post-season.
If you’re the Canucks, you honestly latch onto this performance and try and re-create it every single game now. If you are going to go on a heater to end the season, it will be due to playing like this. I don’t think many teams will offer up the wet paper bag defensive strategy the Rangers dearly love, but damn it, if this team can still bring that level of effort every night, it at least gives them a chance. As much as I have zero desire to hand out credit for this game, if you’re the players, you can do your best to build off of this performance.
All I know is JT Miller is up 1-0 in the series now, and damn it, that doesn’t feel right.
Now prepare yourself for a ton of video clips of the Canucks playing very good hockey but still somehow not scoring nearly enough goals.
Best UFC Fight Night
The first real interaction between JT Miller and Elias Pettersson didn’t involve tossed iPads or broken office doors. Instead, it was a very pedestrian exchange in which JT Miller blocked an EP40 shot and then possibly tossed him to the ice, but it also very much looked like Elias just tumbled to the ground due to a bad case of the vapours:
With Elias Pettersson only playing 7:50 of hockey before exiting the game because of an injury, we didn’t get nearly enough time to overanalyze and heap our own Wrestlemania storyline pitches onto the duo as we’d have liked.
Instead, we would later get a little slash to the ankles, and that was about it. Not even a single chair shot was used in this game, which I personally felt let down by. You can’t grab the mic and cut a promo mid-ice for us JT? We deserved that, at least.
Best record hit
Kiefer Sherwood officially took the title of hittiest hitter who ever hit when he landed this body check on former friend and current New York aficionado Carson Soucy:
That wasn’t the most vicious hit we’ve seen from Kiefer. That felt more like accidentally bumping into someone when you both make a move towards the same self-checkout counter at Safeway. I could almost hear both men mumble, “sorry, sorry,” before a Canadian stand-off occurred, with both men urging the other one to check out their groceries first.
But the important thing is they don’t ask how hard the hits were; they just count up the totals so someone can hit their parlay.
Kiefer, in fact, ended the first period with eight hits, which had me wondering if he’d be taking a run at the current single-game record held by Brady Tkachuk at 16 hits. Alas, Kiefer would end the night with twelve hits only, once again leaving him tied with Luke Schenn for the most thrown in a game by a Vancouver Canuck.
Best bounce back game
Against the St. Louis Blues, it felt like Quinn Hughes was a little bit tired. A little bit beat up. He just didn’t have that guava juice in his game we’re used to. (I figure I should flavour the juices since Rick Tocchet enjoys the term so much. We need variety.)
And as I said after that game, a tired, beat up Quinn Hughes is still your best player on the team, of that there is no question. But there is something to be said about a Quinn Hughes who has that pineapple juice in their game, as that is when his feet are absolutely flying, and he’s generating scoring chances out of nothing at all, aka running the Stupid Sexy Flanders offence.
For instance, Quinn gets the puck on this play and, instead of skating out to the blue line, immediately cuts back quicker than someone finding a parking spot on Robson Street, and skates his way right into a good scoring chance:
You then had Quinn Hughes literally circling in the water so efficiently you could almost hear Conor Garland’s love of sharks from the bench before driving to the net to try and get a shot on Igor Shesterkin:
Quinn Hughes ended the night with an incredible nine shots, only three fewer than the Rangers had total. When he was on the ice in all situations, he generated 24 scoring chances. You know how many the Rangers got against Hughes? 2.
That is downright disgusting. That’s Frank Gallagher levels of filth.
Yet somehow, this Canucks team managed to lose this game.
Hockey will indeed hockey some nights.
Best precursor
The lone scoring chance of the entire first period for the New York Rangers was when Matt Rempe and Brennan Othmann both combined their powers to shoot a puck wide:
That was literally the only time you had to think to yourself, “wonder if New York scores here” in the opening frame. That’s much the Canucks dominated large portions of this game. Matt Rempe going for a rebound was their high point.
Once again, downright disgusting.
Best breaking hearts and bones everywhere
Before we get to Quinn Hughes sending Matt Rempe to the shadow realm, I want to give a shoutout to what I thought was the best game of Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s NHL career so far. He didn’t score any goals, but just his presence with the puck and the choices he was making on the ice really gave a glimpse of the potential top six forward he can become in the NHL if he puts it all together.
A good example of this was just the small things he would do, like on this rush where on the breakout, he made a small step to the right to give him time and space to hold onto the puck, which allowed him to gain the zone with possession instead of having to dump it on:
The end result was he was able to make a really good pass to Dakota Joshua, who got a shot off from the slot, and in the seconds after that shot, led to Quinn Hughes putting Matt Rempe to bed:
This goal happens in part because of how Lekkerimäki gains the zone. Putting the Rangers on their heels allows the Canucks to win the puck back off the Dakota shot, leading to Quinn Hughes dancing around Rempe and breaking his ankles, which leads to Joshua banging home the rebound.
Let’s take another look at that ankle break, though, shall we?
I’m not sure what went through Rempe’s mind when he was Quinn Hughes with the puck at the blueline, but I assume it was some variation of “Hodor”. Some of the best skaters in the NHL will see Quinn Hughes with the puck, and they will back off and give him space to make sure he can’t dance right on by them.
But perhaps feeling inspired after spending a night at a White Lotus retreat, Matt steps up and attempts to close the distance with Hughes, only to find himself in another area code within seconds. It feels like that scene in Terminator 2 where the T-1000 is covered in liquid nitrogen, and he’s still trying to walk, but his legs just shatter as he keeps trying to take steps.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the confidence from Rempe. But I also like the ankle break even better.
Best post goal reaction
It hurts knowing this lady got the last laugh in this one.
Best “structure”
I cannot underscore how poorly the Rangers played for most of this game. Their entire defensive philosophy seemed to be “Sure hope Igor stops that one” or “Sure hope that guy shoots wide,” which often led to the Canucks just pinning them in their own zone for stretches at a time.
And much like bad Vancouver hockey, the Rangers breakout was atrocious, something the Canucks exposed constantly.
Here, the Rangers try and move the puck up the ice only to be thwarted by Suter twice. First, when they try and pass it out of the zone, and second when they bobbled the puck near their blue line:
Again, if I were in a giving mood, I would say good job Vancouver, you really made the Rangers pay for their poor play. But I refuse to hand out silver stars for this game, damn it.
Best grinding them out
Once again, the Rangers tried to break out of the zone with the puck, and once again, the Canucks stuffed them.
On this play, Nils Höglander steals the puck at the Rangers blueline and almost recreates another between-the-legs dangle that he scored on the Rangers last year:
We don’t have a name for the Boeser/Pettersson/Höglander line yet, but they are close to getting a temporary nickname any day now.
Were it not for the injuries.
Never forget the injuries.
The second you start to feel happy, the second you enjoy hockey in Vancouver; never forget that means the darkness is right around the corner.
Best checking in
That was Morse code for “I miss you.”
Best checking in again
That was Morse code for “you’re like a brother to me.”
Best shark week came early
The second period started much like the first, in which Quinn Hughes attempted to score 73 goals in a single game. He had that mango juice in his game on the night, I’m telling you. Not only does he generate the zone entry and get the shot on net, he then circles back into the play and ends up making a slick pass before once again circling back into the play and getting off a one-timer as well:
For all the issues this team has had this year, watching Quinn Hughes almost singlehandedly win games by himself has been some of the most awe-inspiring moments I have seen from a Vancouver Canucks player ever.
Best once broken, twice shamed
After seeing how fun it was breaking another man’s bones and seeing their soul leave their body, Conor Garland decided to get into the action by dangling around Rempe:
With Rempe in the box for tripping, Igor Shesterkin then decided to tackle Kiefer Sherwood for….reasons? I’m not quite sure:
Kelly Hrudey would tell you that those are the actions of a man who wants management to know he does NOT enjoy losing, so who are we to complain? I see a goalie jumping at a player for….skating near him? Having sideburns? Not quite sure, really, but the end result was the Rangers took another penalty.
But worry not, fellow friends, this is the NHL. This is a league where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter, a true Whose Line is it Anyways system if ever there was one. How else do you explain Jake DeBrusk getting a penalty for roughing on this play just seconds later:
I literally have no idea how you call only one penalty on that play, and the penalty is on Jake for roughing. He doesn’t stab at the puck. He doesn’t push back on anyone. He just stares at his stick while Igor covers it up and then gets mobbed, put in a headlock, and eventually thrown in hockey jail.
It is truly one of the worst calls of the season, and I would absolutely love to hear an NHL official defend this call or take accountability for getting it so egregiously wrong, but this is a league fueled on game management and lack of transparency, so I know that shall never happen.
I just hope the official has a smidgen of shame when they go home tonight about making this call. Just a smidgen. That’s all I ask.
Jake literally holds onto his stick the entire scrum and doesn’t throw a single punch.
I love you NHL, but you are not serious people.
Best playing with fire
I’m pretty sure everyone realized what kind of night this was going to be when the Canucks led in shots 21-3 and only had one goal to show for it. This isn’t our first rodeo, let me tell you that.
Still, at least we got to watch Quinn Hughes generate offence at will, almost watching Shesterkin sliding backwards into his own net with the puck trying to stop the Canucks captain:
In a vacuum, this was one of the most entertaining games of the season due to the play of Quinn Hughes alone.
In the context of this season, it was another moment where Dad never showed up for your little league game.
Best sure why not
The Rangers would then tie the game up by shooting the puck on net for the fourth time of the night:
That is such a 2024/25 Vancouver Canucks goal it’s not even funny. Getting absolutely trucked on the ice, only to turn around and throw a thoughts and prayers shot on net from the blueline, and somehow Adam Fox gets a piece of the Braeden Schneider point shot for the goal.
I don’t even know if we can chastise anyone on the Canucks for this one. This was the fourth shot of the night. The Canucks had locked down the Rangers. Kiefer Sherwood and Pius Suter’s coverage got a bit loose there in allowing the shot and not tying up a stick, but that’s still a perfect storm coming together of a dude getting a point shot off and some other dude flying by to get the tip. There was like a .5-second window for that goal to work, and this time it did.
Hockey gonna hockey.
Best pit in the bottom of your stomach
As we all wrestled with the impending loss, we still got to watch a Canucks team doing everything they could to score more goals.
First we have another shoutout to Lekkerimäki, who stole the puck off of a pass to K’Andre Miller and almost generated a breakaway out of it:
Will Borgen eventually out-muscles/elbows Jonathan in the face to win the puck back, but you can see the hockey IQ at play. If Lekkerimaki hits the gym hard in the off-season, it feels like the world could be his oyster the next couple of seasons.
Don’t go full Brent Sopel, mind you. Don’t pack on 30 pounds and then head into camp being unable to skate above 5mph and being slightly afraid of loose crackers.
Just add some muscle and core strength, you know?
Aside from that, you also had Elias Pettersson in one of his last shifts, generating a two-on-one with Brock Boeser that resulted in an “almost goal.” It’s just like a goal, except it deflates your will to live:
But, better the Canucks than the Rangers generating these chances. It truly was a very solid game from Vancouver.
You then had Lekkerimäki once again, this time showing his smarts by maintaining possession of the puck and getting a zone entry, rather than just dumping it in:
For a team that has struggled with the dump-and-chase lifestyle, having more players like Lekkerimäki who can find ways to create space to enter the zone with possession is absolutely massive for this team’s future.
The second period actually ended up 25-6 in favour of Vancouver for shots and a healthy 9-1 high-danger chances edge to the Canucks as well. I believe their deserve to win o’meter was like 384% in their favour, which is nice for those of you who can’t get enough of moral victories.
Best sign you’re watching a Canucks hockey season
Insert the “everything is fine” graphic of your choice here.
Best I see how it is
The Rangers would quickly go up in the third period, sparking an outrageous game of back and forth between two clubs intent upon stumbling drunk into the playoffs.
The Rangers second goal was off of a nice pass from JT Miller out front to Jonny Brodzinski:
I have no idea why Derek Forbort slowly floated toward JT Miller and gave up the GOTI, nor do I know why Dakota Joshua released Brodzinski and floated toward the corner. Both of those feel like bad plays, even without hindsight. At no point can I figure out what Dakota could think to himself that would lead him to the conclusion of, “Yes, I should skate away from the middle of the ice now.”
Even if I give the biggest benefit of the doubt that is currently legally allowed under Canadian law by saying Joshua released Brodzinski because he thought Forbort would slide over into coverage, it still doesn’t explain Dakota leaving the GOTI and just skating towards the general area of Alexis Lafrenière. This is Warzone levels of me wondering why Jay would try and land on his loadout four times in a row, dying each time. Surely, there is a better play that can be attempted here. Dakota ends up skating towards a spot on the ice that doesn’t benefit anyone, except maybe another Rangers fan trying to get in close before giving double fingers.
For those keeping track at home, I do not blame Kevin Lankinen on either of these goals. Would a save have been nice? You can say that about any goal. But at least it wasn’t some egregious mistake on his part on this one. You can’t leave a guy all alone in front like that and not expect bad things to happen.
Best getting momentum
K’Andre Miller, seemingly having enough of watching Quinn Hughes try to be Bobby Orr, attempted his own end-to-end rush that resulted in Artemi Panarin getting a lethal look on net in the slot:
This was by far the most dangerous the Rangers looked on the night, but I also must draw your attention to the shot counter at this time. It’s 2-1 Rangers. They have nine shots. They ended the game 5-3 with 12 shots.
Fun fun fun.
Best leave it to Quinn
I’m at the point where I wonder if the Canucks players themselves rely TOO much on Quinn Hughes to do everything, but whatever, it was fun to watch so I won’t ponder it too much right now.
All I know is Quinn Hughes had broken Rempe so many times by this point that he got his own graphics package showing his showdowns with Rempe’s ankles:
When Sportsnet starts putting in custom brackets and name tags during a highlight, you know you’ve been cooked.
You want Quinn Hughes to go end-to-end and almost score a goal? Here you go:
One of the most dominant games from Quinn Hughes we have seen this season, despite the lack of points.
Best can’t spell victory with Vittori
The Doc himself, Drew O’Connor, would briefly restore joy to Canucks Nation when he banged home his own rebound:
Things I liked about this goal:
  • O’Connor holding his stick so high above his head so he could both indicate he wanted the pass and also to generate supersonic power off of the slapshot
  • Doc’s effort to get his rebound and score
  • Mancini jumping into the play and making this entire goal happen. He circles around the rink like a young Quinn Hughes until he can find an open player in a dangerous spot, which leads to the goal. We still have a long way to go with Mancini and seeing where he ends up in the grand scheme of things, but you can see why the Canucks were intrigued by his skill set.
Thing I didn’t like about this goal:
  • That feeling that the Rangers could immediately score right after
Best the Rangers immediately scored right after
Barely a minute had passed before Vincent Trochek would casually skate through the Canucks defence before finding K’Andre Miller below the goal line. That in itself should not be a problem, but this is Vancouver hockey, so of course somehow Miller ends up scoring:
The second replay showed it better, but essentially, the puck bounced in off of Quinn Hughes’ skate:
Once again I find myself not blaming Kevin on this one. The caveat, as always is that, of course, it would be nice if your goalie could make a save they had no reason to make, and in a game that traded goals like this, it truly felt like Vancouver just needed one big game-saver from Kevin.
That being said, that’s two pucks deflected past him and another one in which Forbort and Joshua took metaphorical poops on the ice with their defensive decisions.
I think when the other goalie is out here making 36 saves and your guy is sporting a solid playoff Dan Cloutier .636 save percentage, it’s going to feel bad no matter what happened.
Best making it rain
Due to the Canucks not trading or signing Brock before the deadline, they now have the absolute worst scenario on their hands: Brock Boeser on a hot streak.
As an astute colleague pointed out to me, that means the Canucks have two bad scenarios on their hand: They either overpay for Boeser in the off-season due to this streak, or they watch him walk for nothing.
Having painted themselves into this corner, all you can do is laugh as Boeser continues to show short-sighted teams around the NHL that he should have been a top target for a dude you bring in who has ice in his veins and has no problem stepping up in big moments:
The faceoff win leads to Boeser circling behind the net to win the puck battle before bringing it out front to tie the game up yet again for Vancouver. Spins off his check perfectly and shields the puck until he can get the shot off, just top notch work from Boeser on this one.
Alas, that was the last happy moment from this game for Vancouver.
Best let’s talk about Kevin
OK, now I am ready to ask Kevin why he couldn’t make the save:
Again, there is some loose coverage here, as Lafreniére is able to get the puck to Brodzinski with a bit too much time and space for my liking. Somehow, Jonny has the ability to turn invisible and sneak into soft coverage. But that’s also the first shot where I find myself going, “Yeah, Kevin needs to find a way to stop that.”
I do think it’s hard to get into your groove as a goalie when you’re facing no shots for the majority of the game like this. We saw Roberto Luongo at his best in 50-shot games but then saw him struggle in a low-volume 15-shot affair. Sometimes, it’s just easier to get locked in when there is constant pressure on you.
That being said, you still have to find a way to make the save at the end of the day.
Also, Carson Soucy got an assist on this goal. Once again this just feels wrong.
Best last gasp
I will give credit to Quinn Hughes and Big Game Brock for doing their best to tie this game up, however.
Like, I am not sure I have seen one player try to go full Michael Jordan like this on the Canucks before:
Quinn was skating at will to generate passes to the slot and to find ways to get the puck in the crease for a greasy goal.
You also had Brock trying out his Binnington Beater, winding up for a piss missile with under two minutes left:
And then you had Quinn once again dancing at the blueline, making moves, and doing anything in his power to get the puck on the net:
Very very good stuff from the two best players left on the ice for Vancouver at this point.
Unfortunately, it didn’t prevent us from having to experience a JT Miller empty net goal.
Best that’s the way the cookie crumbles
Of course JT got this goal. Of course he did:
And that was it.
Again, tremendous game in many ways from Vancouver. But also a game that ends in a loss of two points. Which for a team trying to secure a playoff spot, that’s all that matters.
On to New Jersey we go.
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