The 2024-25 Vancouver Canucks have already improved over last season’s Canucks in one respect.
The Canucks didn’t score a single goal in the shootout last season, going 0-for-7 on shootout attempts. On Friday night against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Canucks improved infinitely in that category, going 1-for-5 in the shootout.
They didn’t win, mind you, but they did score.
It’s the second-straight post-regulation loss for the Canucks to start the season, meaning they’re on pace for the strangest possible version of a .500 record: 0-0-82 and 82 points.
That’s not the start that fans envisioned for this season but some Canucks fans were entirely unable to envision the game, as the Sportsnet Plus app — the one they paid close to $300 to use — decided that they were no longer in Canada and thus unable to view the game.
The complaints poured in across Twitter, with some missing the entire game, while others had their service cut out during a tie game in the third period.
At least the Canucks performed better than Sportsnet Plus.
I know these complaints are legitimate because I experienced the exact same problem. The only difference is that I was in the press box at the time, so I can still say I watched this game.
- Seriously, Sportsnet, get your act together. People pay a lot of money for Sportsnet Plus to watch Canucks games — it’s unacceptable to have the service stop working for an entire game What’s worse is that there appeared to be no one working to fix the problem or to inform viewers about what had gone wrong. It wasn’t just bad service; it was bad customer service.
- Kevin Lankinen played his first game as a Canuck and had a very strong game, making 29 saves on 31 shots, including a couple of real dandies. Given how Arturs Silovs performed in the opener, there’s a strong chance that the Canucks could come back next game with Lankinen again. He deserves it.
- The game got off to a terrible start for the Canucks, as Tyler Myers collapsed to the ice after appearing to hyperextend his right knee in a collision with Joel Farabee. Myers was in distress on the ice and had to be helped to the room while putting no weight on his right leg.
- Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet had no update on Myers after the game, saying only, “I don’t know. Hopefully, we dodged a bullet, but I’m not sure.”
- With Myers out of commission less than two minutes into the game, the rest of the defence corps had to step up and play some major minutes. Quinn Hughes led the way with a whopping 31:29 in ice time, a new career high. It’s the ninth time in his career that Hughes has played over 30 minutes in a game. That’s too much time on his feet, as opposed to Styx, who have too much time on their hands.
- “Playing with five D throughout the whole game, especially a game like that with a lot of grinding and battling, they did a tremendous job,” said Lankinen. “I’m really proud of the D corps.”
- Despite being run ragged, Hughes still utterly dominated puck possession. Shot attempts were 23-to-10 for the Canucks when Hughes was on the ice at 5-on-5 and 36-to-15 when he was on the ice in all situations. Like Darth Vader, he’s more machine now than man.
- We saw an interesting new wrinkle in the Canucks’ power play in this game: both J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson on the same side of the ice, with Miller on the half-wall and Pettersson below the goal line. It’s a look they used a few times throughout the game and nearly resulted in a goal when Pettersson set up a Miller shot that rebounded right to Jake DeBrusk in the slot, but goaltender Sam Ersson got a piece of the puck to deflect it away.
- While it didn’t result in a goal in this game, it’s an intriguing new look. Having Pettersson on the strong side with Miller takes away the threat of Pettersson’s one-timer but it also gets Pettersson more touches and more involved in playmaking on the power play. Like the Dallas Knights football player in Any Given Sunday, I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if the Canucks go back to this well in the future.
- “I liked [the power play] early, we had a ton of chances. I didn’t like the third,” said Tocchet. “We got away from a couple of things. There were a couple of looks there we had — Yogi [Svejkovsky] had a great gameplan for it and we had two looks that if they guys were there, it would have been bang-bang, in the net.”
- The Conor Garland and Nils Höglander chemistry — Garlander? — is brewing up nicely. Garland set up Höglander for the opening goal after picking off a breakout pass in the offensive zone. Garland found Höglander immediately and the umlauted one fired a fantastic shot. Honestly, it was the best shot of Höglander’s career, number one with a bullet off the post and in.
- The chemistry is also slowly coming along for Danton Heinen with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. At the very least, you can see the vision, as Heinen won puck after puck for his linemates. The best example came on a first-period forecheck, where he outbattled Cam York and Sean Couturier on the forecheck to kick the puck free to Boeser and was nearly rewarded for his efforts with a goal, only for his rebound attempt to slide just wide.
- The Flyers tied up the game before the end of the first period with some nifty passing on the power play. Bobby Brink gained the zone on the right win and fired the puck cross-ice to Farabee, who one-touched it to Tyson Foerster for a backdoor tap-in.
- “Pettersson was caught flat-footed; he’s got to gap up and be on the wedge guy,” said Tocchet. “And then we played the rush wrong. That’s a 3-on-2, our D have got to just play the guts of the ice, let the shot be on the outside. It’s a tic-tac-toe on a couple of detail mistakes.”
- The Flyers could have had another tap-in goal midway through the second period. Joel Farabee had a wide-open net from two feet away and missed the net by that same distance by shooting the puck parallel with the goal line. The miss caused Farabee to undergo a full-on existential crisis, as he questioned every choice in his life that led him to that point. Or lack of point because he did not score.
- Derek Forbort made probably the greatest pass of his career to give the Canucks the lead. A strong forecheck by Kiefer Sherwood and Pius Suter freed up the puck to Teddy Blueger, who fed Forbort at the point, then Forbort fed Blueger in turn, like a couple on a date making everyone else in the restaurant uncomfortable. It was some impressive vision by Forbort to find Blueger darting to the backdoor for the open net.
- “We talked about that exact play,” said Tocchet. “Forsy, he’s a smart guy, a veteran guy. That’s the play we talked about: the backdoor, weak-side play could be open against Philly and it worked out perfectly. Pius Suter was right in front of the net, so the goalie didn’t see it. It’s nice when you have a gameplan and the guys execute it.”
- Before the goal, Forbort was spotted on the bench drinking out of a Tim Horton’s cup, so some thought his pass might have benefited from a little caffeine boost. Instead, Forbort said he was actually getting some help with nausea.
- “I think it was some Pepto Bismol,” said Forbort. “I had a little stomach thing.”
- Daniel Sprong’s defensive game is still a work in progress. At least, you have to hope it’s still in progress, as he got caught puck-watching on the Flyers’ second goal. He drifted all the way into the left faceoff circle when he was supposed to be on the right side of the ice. The puck went exactly where Sprong was supposed to be and Cam York rifled the puck off the post and in.
- “Sprong overplayed the rail guy,” said Tocchet. “If he just stays back — like, in his spot — that’s where the puck went. That’s where he’s got to be. He just overplayed that side, so we’ll correct that again.”
- Here’s the thing: Sprong was only on the ice for that shift because Tocchet hadn’t played him with his usual linemates, Pettersson and DeBrusk, on the previous shift. It was a defensive zone faceoff, so Tocchet sent Garland out in Sprong’s place. It backfired, as Sprong, out with Garland’s usual linemates, Aatu Räty and Nils Höglander, got stuck in the defensive zone anyway.
- Blueger had a monster of a game, as he not only scored a goal but also prevented one. When Lankinen sprawled across to make a brilliant blocker save on Jett Luchanko, it was Blueger who spotted the puck in the crease behind his goaltender and poked the puck away, then dove out to glove the puck off Matvei Michkov’s stick as he tried to score on the wraparound.
- “That was a little bit of desperation mode there,” said Lankinen. “I got the bounce and I got some help from the guys too along the goal line. That’s a team effort.”
- Things just aren’t quite clicking for Elias Pettersson just yet. He and Miller had just one shot each in this game, as both failed to step up in the tight game. When Pettersson stole a puck in the offensive zone and had a chance to be the last-minute hero like Miller in the opener, he couldn’t get his shot off cleanly and it was deflected wide. It’s nothing to be concerned about just yet, but we haven’t seen Pettersson at his best.
- Overtime solved nothing, even if the Canucks dominated puck possession. The shootout also didn’t solve much. The only Canuck to score was DeBrusk, who kept things simple: skate fast and shoot. The other Canucks — Miller, Pettersson, Garland, and Boeser — came in slowly and/or tried a bunch of dekes. Maybe the Canucks can learn something from DeBrusk’s success.
- Then again, the Flyers’ game-winning goal in the shootout came after Morgan Frost slowed to a crawl, so maybe it’s not about speed at all. So, what did we learn? I don’t know. I guess we learned not to do it again.
