Sometimes you work hard to get a win. Sometimes the puck just bounces your way. And sometimes your goalie has himself a tremendous game.
And when these three things happen to align at once, you add some broth, you toss in a potato, and baby, you’ve got a stew going.
Yes, the Canucks rolled into the house that Torts built set up a Murphy bed in, and walked out the winners, taking a 3-0 victory over the team that beat them in game three of the season.
This game continued a couple of trends for Vancouver, most notably that Kevin Lankinen has declared his intentions to marry the starting position between the pipes, and the team overall is continuing to leave brat summer hockey behind them.
Was it a perfect game? Not even close. The Flyers hit multiple posts and there were enough odd-man rushes against Vancouver that you’d be worried if Rick Tocchet “just wanted to have a quick chat with you after you finish getting changed”. Sure, he’d say it was nothing big, he just needed to over a few things, but deep down, deep down you’d know he was going to have a video clip of you floating out of coverage and giving up a 2 on 1. You’d struggle between being worried about your spot in the lineup but also about letting coach down, because he trusted you, and you disappointed him. It would bring up memories of yourself as a child, when you forgot to do the dishes and your single mother would come home and let out a little sigh as she began finishing up the one chore she asked you to do that day. You’d been too busy playing Tenchu you see, and the level was really hard, but it’s hard to remember why that mattered so much when your mother looks at you with a combination of sadness and love, while you wonder which one will win.
But aside from that, it was honestly a very good game for the Canucks, as they continue to find their groove. The bottom pairing for the Canucks, a large area of concern surrounding this team, had its best game of the season. Daniel Sprong was the Corsi King on the night leading both teams, so it looks like he won’t be benched for floating out of coverage. Elias Pettersson didn’t score yet, but he had a primary assist, had a couple of really good shots on net, and overall had a bit more of that swagger and confidence to his game, aka the swaggidence as my subreddit about interesting rocks and word combinations has taken to calling it.
Another good sign for this team was that JT Miller didn’t have to do a damn thing on offence to help with this win, nor did Quinn Hughes have to play 58 minutes of the game in order to secure the win.
Overall, that’s a very good result for Vancouver, no matter how you break it down.
Which I guess means we should break it down.
Best Degeneration X intro
The problem with Philly is 96% of them can’t read, so they’re unaware if a sign is malicious or not. Add in numbers on that sign, and there was no way they were letting that bad boy in.
Best this can’t be happening
On a night in which I was promised Jake DeBrusk, Brock Boeser and JT Miller coming together as a line for an entire game, scoring all of the goals, and earning a unique and fun nickname, we instead had JT Miller going to the locker room about, what, five seconds into the contest?
I’m only a Twitter doctor, but it looked like it was a wrist? Or a shoulder? Or an elbow? Maybe a finger? Lupus? Was it Lupus? An upper body injury of some sort.
The good news is that JT Miller returned to the game a few shifts later!
The bad news is he didn’t have much of an impact? I don’t know if that was him playing safe due to whatever injury it was, or merely a case of “that’s just how hockey goes, sometimes”, but I include this gif here for posterity, so you can tell you friends “Wait I remember a gif of Miller looking hurt” if he enters a three week stretch of having minimal impact on the games.
Best setting the tone
One of the biggest positives of the game for Vancouver? They set the tone of the game early, jumping out to a 6-0 edge in shots, and eventually ending the first period with a 15-7 shot advantage.
And while there weren’t a tremendous amount of high danger chances in this game (6 for Vancouver, 4 for Philadelphia), the Canucks made sure to use their best weapon early on, the dreaded wraparound:
Kiefer Sherwood was coming off a ten hit game against the Panthers, and while he only had eight against the Flyers, he made up for that by leading his team in shots with five on the night.
So far this season, Kiefer has been everything as advertised. There was a reason that Vancouver did not enjoy playing him in the first round and that’s because he works hard all game, has no problem throwing hits all night (and whispering mean things in your ear), and while he might never win a scoring title, a 25-30 point season from a guy that makes the other team tell him to calm down, we all have to work in the morning, is a very good return on a 2 year, $3 million contract.
Perhaps the only major issue on the night for the Canucks? Their powerplay continues to be a prime candidate for the before picture for a Viagra commercial. In fact the Flyers best chance came during the Canucks first powerplay of the night in the opening frame:
There are two things to note from this clip.
One, I think that’s only the second time I have ever seen Quinn Hughes get caught flat footed and get beaten to the puck.
Two, the Flyers are an elite team at not scoring goals this season.
Luckily they still remain the top team in the league at having guys you remember hearing in the World Juniors but haven’t heard of since.
Best evolution revolution
Elias Pettersson played once again with the energizer bunnies (Garland and Höglander), and while we will get to EP40 later, and you know I will show you endless clips of Corolla, we need to point out the play of the pig man:
We know Nils can score, and he has a very hard shot, but if he can keep doing plays like this where he can knock down hard passes and turn them into zone entries with possession? That’s what makes his contract a potential steal, if he continues to evolve his game like this.
We talked about the theory behind playing with Garland and Höglander is that they will find Elias and get him the puck in scoring positions, and this is a prime example of Nils getting into the zone and getting EP40 a look at the net in the slot.
Best oopsies
One of the major talking points this season has been the defensive depth the team lost when Ian Cole and Nikita Zadorov went for milk and never came back.
And it’s become an even bigger talking point because the second pairing of Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers, a duo that was remarkably reliable last season, has struggled early on this year. Case in point, Soucy gets the puck on this penalty kill and has two options, clear the puck, or give the puck right back to the Flyers, and folks, his choice will surprise you:
Carson Soucy’s entire persona is about being reliable. Puck is in your own end? Soucy will take care of it. A rebound is loose near your crease? Soucy will take care of it. You need to move furniture last second and need a guy with a truck? Soucy will take care of it.
But this year, there’s been a few too many plays where Soucy’s decision making on the ice has been questionable at best. Add in Tyler Myers being a chaotic giraffe, and it has been a bit of a roller coaster on the back end.
Which is where the Canucks defensive depth comes into play, because last year if this duo was struggling, you could hand some of their minutes off to Zadorov and Cole, and you would feel reasonably confident they could handle it.
This year, the confidence just isn’t there yet with the bottom pairing. Luckily for Vancouver, the pairing of Erik Braanstrom and Vincent Desharnais was downright tickety-boo on the night, as they easily handled 14-16 minutes of ice time on the night, showing smart puck decisions, and especially in Brannstrom’s case, moving the puck efficiently with smart passes.
Now, the Flyers probably gave the Canucks their easiest night of the season in terms of a lack of forechecking pressure, so we need to see more from this duo before we anoint them the saviours of the bottom pairing. But from a “hey that’s kind of intriguing, I’d sure like to see more” PornHub-esque interest level, Braanstrom’s puck-moving game was one of the highlights of the night.
Best we can rebuild him
Hey remember the pig man? And how that contract could look like a steal if he continues to play like this?
Ok a tap in isn’t exactly an elite level of scoring prowess, BUT he was in the right position, which counts for more than we probably give it credit for. As Patrik Stefan taught us, we shouldn’t take anything for granted.
But overall, this line continues to play well together. On this goal alone you got to see Corolla Garland owning the boards as he often does, ending his possession with a no look pass into the slot right to Elias Pettersson.
The cynical amongst you will scoff at EP40 getting the puck in the slot and not shooting, but the Henrik Sedin Rule applies that if you pass out of a high danger scoring chance and turn it into a primary assist on a goal, we cannot complain about your lack of shooting for at least two games.
And that’s the beauty of EP40 playing with the energizer bunnies. Höglander has very solid finishing ability. Garland has a high level playmaking ability.  Both have good puck possession and board battling games. This is miles above playing with a half broken Ilya Mikheyev and an Andrei Kuzmenko who’s lost his smile. If these two can’t get Elias Pettersson a boost of confidence, then this team is in trouble.
Best all the small things
Pius Suter, Nils Aman, and Daniel Sprong were the latest 4th line unit, and you know what? To quote Larry David, they were pretty good. They tilted the ice into the Flyers zone, and Suter was efficient on the penalty kill, almost turning a play at the blue line into a shorthanded goal:
You know how you know when your bottom six is playing well? Not a single forward gets above 20 minutes of ice time on the night. In fact Elias Pettersson led all forwards with 18:41 of ice time, and a lot of that is because Tocchet was able to get reliable minutes out of his entire lineup.
That and because Kiefer Sherwood’s coquettish smirk makes it so damn hard not to play him because you want to see it rile up the other team.
Best staying the course
KEVIN! Lankinen was the perfect blend of reliable goaltending along with the Flyers hitting posts and missing pucks on the night. When it wasn’t KEVIN! in perfect position to make the save, it was the Flyers whiffing on their backdoor chances:
And for fans of back door action, let me tell you, the Flyers were nothing but a big tease all night. It felt like an endless amount of scoring chances were attempted with a guy parked beside the net for Philadelphia, but they were either stopped by KEVIN!, or just couldn’t get a stick on the puck to tap in the puck.
And if ever you wanted to compare and contrast the ability to track the puck, watching Arturs Silovs struggle with point shots only to watch Lankinen seemingly knowing where the puck was going before the Flyers did, has been quite stark:
Even when the game opened up and the two teams traded chances, KEVIN! was either making the save, or giving the Flyers nothing but the post, which they gladly took:
I think the night ended with around four or five posts for the Flyers? Enough to cure anemia in any case.
Best 11.6 million dollar man
I know there tends to be a snippy response anytime you talk about Elias finding his game, with some people angrily telling you a high paid player shouldn’t need to find his game, and look, I agree with that. But also it’s only been a few games into the season, and while I know he needs to play better, we can still talk about the fact that it looks like he’s starting to play better as of late.
Just because I am pointing out the good things he did in this game doesn’t mean you can’t sit there and still be angry at him. You go on whatever journey you want with this.
As for the game Saturday night, it was just nice to see Elias opt to take a shot on an odd-man rush instead of trying to force the pass over to his linemate:
And it’s been so long, but remember when we all laughed and giggled about the Petter-zone? How he would unleash Bret Hull-esque one timers from the right side of the ice, putting the fear of Þrúðgelmir into anyone who dared try and stop him?
Well this isn’t quite there yet, but hey, at least he was willing to take shots in this game:
Again, I know patting Elias on the head for getting a couple of shots in a game has a level of infantilization to it that will upset many a person, but we’re just kind of stuck in a holding pattern with EP40 where all we can do is view him as a weather pattern and try our best to figure out which way the wind is going to be blowing tomorrow.
Best chaotic pains lead to scoring gains
Tyler Myers doesn’t go full Chaos Giraffe on offensive nearly as much as he used to (god bless those random end to end rushes out of nowhere in a game with the team down 7-0), but he still has a bit of that Wanda magic in him when he needs it:
Yes, that was Tyler Myers setting up shop in front of the net making a no look pass over to Brock Boeser for the tap in like it’s something he does every day.
Which once again has me asking why have we never seen Tyler Myers net front on the second unit power play? I cannot think of a better scenario for him to thrive in then the chaos of net front on a powerplay.
Another thing I want to point out on this goal is Jake DeBrusk using a little bit of that Todd Bertuzzi magic when entering the zone. We’ve seen it several games now, where the Jake Train leaves the station, and he just keeps picking up speed, and you don’t know if he’s going to crash into the net, or dangle around you and find the open man.
And that kind of zone entry, it creates breakdowns in defensive coverage. We’ve seen a player like Tyler Motte do these kinds of rushes, but he doesn’t have the puck handling to be anything other than a perimeter player in most cases.
When Jake comes barreling in like that, it backs the defence up, and they have to make some decisions. Against lesser players you can kind of step up and you know you’ll probably break up the rush with relative ease. But with Jake, he can skate by you if you’re not careful, and he can also puck handle around or through you if you don’t handle him correctly. It’s why you’ll often see two guys join forces to try and stop his rush, which just opens up ice for linemates, and causes defensive units to start chasing the play because they’ve been drawn out of position.
All of which is to say Jake crashing into the zone like this was a major factor in the lead up to this goal, and is one of the biggest reasons I am intrigued to see how this year plays out for him here in Vancouver. His skill set seems like it should compliment Boeser and Miller quite well.
Best CTU efficiency
Before a minute had even passed off the game clock, Kiefer Sherwood smirked his way to giving the Canucks a 3-0 lead:
This is the equivalent of Steph Curry hopping back a step so he can drain the three. Kiefer takes a stride back, gives himself some room to shoot, and before Samuel Ersson even has time to react, it’s 3-0 good guys.
Was Torts happy about this goal? I don’t believe so? Something tells me no? Normally a happy guy but I think he won’t enjoy this one.
Either way, the Canucks spotted themselves a 3-0 lead on the road, and you know what that means? Set up shop and ride out the rest of the game.
Best playing with fire
This is the part of the program where KEVIN! showcases why this is his crease and why you need to get your greasy palms off of it.
First up we have Owen Tippett sliding into soft coverage and staring right into the eyes of KEVIN! before being denied a goal:
Next we have Spicy losing the puck along the boards, which leads to Morgan Frost receiving a slick no look pass from Travis Konecny, but sir, this is Tyler Myers night, only one man is allowed to get an assist on a pass like this:
There is no five-hole to open when KEVIN! is out here putting his paddle on the ice and almost looking bemused in stopping that shot.
“Oh, that’s what you’re attempting? That was the shot? How droll.”
And as I stated earlier, even if the Flyers beat KEVIN!, they ran into their old friend the Iron Giant:
The Flyers were at the point where they knew it would take a perfect shot to beat Lankinen so they were picking far corners all night long.
Even when the Canucks disgusting, abscess riddle power-play gave up a semi-breakaway, Lankinen made the save look easy:
You know how you know a goalie is feeling it? He has intense on-ice chemistry with Vincent Desharnais:
Lankinen straight up strolls out to poke the puck over to Vincent, WHO WAS WAITING FOR IT.
There was no scramble in the crease. Desharnais didn’t panic and skate right at his goalie. Dude straight up just waited and thought “Nah we good fam, Kevin is gonna get me the puck” and waited to make the zone exit.
Just a tremendous game from Lankinen, and while I still think the team is going to hot-hand the goaltending duties, it’s been hard not to walk away from this early season thinking Kevin has been the better goalie by a country mile so far.
Best sloppy joes
When you’re good you’re lucky and when you’re lucky you’re good:
Sean Couturier was later shown on the bench just staring down at his skates in the universal sign of “what did I do to deserve this?”
Best one last thing
Just in case you needed one more gif to prove to yourself that Lankinen is that guy, pal, here it is:
When a goalie makes things look easy, that’s the sign they’re locked in. There was no panic in their game, no overreacting to shots, and no loose rebounds in front of them. They just look calm and cool as if the Skytrain just pulled up at Commercial during rush hour but there are plenty of seats available to sit in.
And that was the ball game, really. The too long, did not read version would be Canucks worked hard to build a 3-0 lead, and then grinded down the clock for the win, with Lankinen making any saves that were required. And while there were stretches where the Flyers created a few too many odd-man rushes for my liking, the Canucks also had a 10 minute stretch in the third period where they ate up the clock with smart efficient hockey. It was about as good of a road win as you can get in hockey, and one that if you’re a big cliche guy/gal, a win you can build off of.
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