The Vancouver Canucks had plenty of puck possession against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. The trouble was, it was almost entirely on the perimeter.
The Canucks were circling the offensive zone like a vulture around a dying animal, only the animal never actually died before the end of regulation, so the Canucks never got to eat. By the end of the game, the Canucks had just 22 shots on goal and a bare handful of actual scoring chances.
They had plenty of shot attempts, mind you, with a whopping 70 shot attempts to just 45 for the Capitals, but too few of those attempts hit the net and even fewer were from dangerous areas of the ice.
“We're not attacking the interior,” said a visibly frustrated Rick Tocchet. “And we missed so many shots. A lot of shots. We missed a lot of shots.”
The Canucks did, in fact, miss a lot of shots. The game sheet at the end of the night credited them with 21 missed shots to just 10 for the Capitals. It felt like more, perhaps because they had another 27 shots blocked. Some of those missed shots ended promising offensive zone possessions, with the puck sailing over the net, ricocheting around the boards, and leaving the zone.
“You’ve got to get in front of the goalie’s eyes and we’ve got to get some shots through this high,” said Tocchet, holding his hands about a foot apart. “Like, bombs, this high. Not over the net, it makes no sense. We’ve got to correct that.”
Beyond the missed shots, the Canucks struggled to connect on their passes, repeatedly throwing the puck into skates for turnovers. It became more pronounced as the game progressed and the Canucks started looking for hero plays that just weren’t there. Often, it was a result of the Canucks failing to move their feet to create passing lanes.
“If you have ten yards to skate with it, if you don’t skate with it, that option closes,” said Tocchet. “When you move your feet, you’re going to make people defend — that’s when the lanes are open…What happens when you don’t move your feet, you start passing through sticks or feet and it hits skates. I thought a lot of guys tonight, for whatever reason, weren’t moving their feet.”
When passes did connect, players too often stood around waiting for something to come of that pass instead of working give-and-goes to get into dangerous areas.
“Guys passing the puck and we just kind of cruise,” said Tocchet, “instead of passing and snapping yourself in a direct line to wherever it’s going to be — to the open area or even if you go to the net, they’re going to check you and somebody else might be open. We’re just kind of cruising. I’m not sure why.”
It’s been a couple of frustrating losses coming off some impressive wins against tough teams like the Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, and Winnipeg Jets. In both games, the Canucks faced some adversity, got away from what makes them successful, then struggled to re-find their game before the end of regulation.
“I just feel like when teams push at us, we kind of stop executing and it snowballs,” said J.T. Miller. “It’s kind of hard to point out where it starts. I mean, we’re not panicking by any means, but it’s something we need to work on as a group.”
I also tried not to panic — and also not to execute anyone — after I watched this game.
- Tocchet called this a “low event game” and, unlike Dr. Harris, I concur. The first period, in particular, was quiet — too quiet — with just six shots apiece despite the Canucks carrying the pace of play. If the Canucks had won the game, they might have been praised for a calm, business-like approach. With the loss, it instead felt like the Canucks failed to take control of the game early against a weaker opponent.
- It didn’t seem like that’s how the game would go early on. Just like with a keyboard, all it took was one shift to capitalize. At the end of a long shift in the Capitals’ zone, Quinn Hughes nearly lost the puck but turned it to his advantage, attacking down the left side of the ice after T.J. Oshie reached for the steal. On his low shot, Brock Boeser made like everyone at tomorrow’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and got a little tipsy, deflecting the puck five-hole on Charlie Lindgren to make it 1-0.
- The assist gave Hughes his 77th point of the season, breaking his own franchise record for the most points by a Canucks defenceman for the third season in a row. At this point, it just seems like a given that he'll keep breaking that record every season for the rest of his career, putting up 189 points at the age of 38 in his final season for the Canucks.
- It wasn’t just the missed shots that were so frustrating but the non-shots. At one point, Charlie Lindgren came charging out of his net to prevent a Conor Garland breakaway and the puck came to Elias Lindholm with the goaltender entirely out of his net and a clear shooting lane. Instead of immediately going for the open net, Lindholm inexplicably tried to pass through a Capital to Vasily Podkolzin. Worse, his pass wasn’t even accurate and just went straight to Lindgren, who was twenty feet out of his net.
- This may sound controversial, but that play was dumb and bad and I hated it.
- Hughes had his own moment of refusing to shoot, this time on the power play. Some strong puck movement had Hughes wide open at the top of the zone and able to walk into the high slot but, instead of firing away, he chose to pass it to Pettersson, who had a significantly worse angle on the net.
- “I had a look down the middle there that I'm gonna have to look at in the next couple of days with video,” said Hughes, “but I felt like I wasn't sure I could beat the goalie clean there with no screen and I thought that Petey could possibly one-time it. I put it a little outside of his feet. Also, in saying that, we had some good looks. I'm not going to stay up tonight thinking about that one shot or this or that. I think there were a couple of other plays in the game that were more dramatic than the power play. I thought the power play snapped it around pretty good, actually.”
- It wouldn’t be a Canucks game these days without yet another officiating controversy. This time it was a painfully bad icing call. Phil Di Giuseppe very clearly had the inside lane to the puck to beat out the icing call but linesman Ryan Gibbons blew it down anyway, seeming to base his ruling on Alexander Alexeyev beating Di Giuseppe to the faceoff dots.
- Personally, I think that NHL officials should be required to know the rules of the NHL — controversial, I know. Here’s directly from Rule 81.1 - Icing: "For clarification, the determining factor is which player would first touch the puck, not which player would first reach the end zone faceoff dots."
- Instead of realizing he blew the icing call and calling for a faceoff at centre ice — which is an option for the officials — Gibbons spent the entire trip down the ice defending his bad call to Di Giuseppe at length, to which Di Giuseppe didn’t seem to respond at all. It was only later that Gibbons realized he messed up, perhaps after watching a replay during the intermission.
- “He came and apologized at the start of the third,” said Tocchet about the blown icing call. “That happens.”
- It was too little, too late, however, as the Capitals scored on the ensuing faceoff. The Canucks won the faceoff, but Ian Cole couldn’t clear the puck up the boards. That caused a scramble, with Cole trying to defend two players in front. Instead of boxing out his initial check, Tom Wilson, Cole got caught in between the two players, allowing Wilson to finish off Ivan Miroshnichenko’s pass.
- It was a similar story on the Capitals’ second goal. After another icing call — a correct one this time — the Canucks won the faceoff but this time Filip Hronek couldn’t get the puck out. His turnover was far more egregious, as he hoisted the puck directly to Oshie. On the ensuing defensive breakdown, Pius Suter failed to box out Alex Ovechkin and instead left him alone at the side of the net, allowing him to get one goal closer to Wayne Gretzky.
- “Execution. We win the draw and it’s in our net,” said Tocchet. “Bottom line: execute. We’ve got some players that have got to play under pressure and have got to execute. I don’t think that was a hard play.”
- That’s the thing: as much as the officials blew that icing call — and arguably a later interference call on Di Giuseppe to rub salt in the wound — that shouldn’t have fazed the Canucks. On that call and the later icing call, they won the subsequent faceoff and got control of the puck. At that point, they should have been able to execute their breakout and the bad call would have been a footnote instead of the story of the game. Sure, it would have been a Terry Pratchett-esque footnote well worth reading, but still just a footnote.
- This was a frustrating game from J.T. Miller, who missed the net on four of his seven shot attempts and repeatedly turned over the puck. At the same time, it’s understandable, as he seemed to be looking for that heroic, game-saving play — a shot into the top corner instead of a low shot for a rebound; a perfect pass through traffic to create a scoring chance instead of the safe, simple play to maintain possession. There’s an irony in Miller’s fervent desire to be a difference-maker ultimately preventing him from doing so in this game.
- While Miller tried to do too much, it felt like Elias Pettersson didn’t try to do enough. Tocchet shook up his linemates as the game progressed, trying to get something out of his franchise forward but nothing seemed to click. To be clear, it’s not that Pettersson had a bad game; it’s just that he didn’t have a good game and that’s not good enough for a player of his caliber.
- One of the most infuriating moments of the game came in the final minute, as the Canucks pulled Casey DeSmith for the extra attacker. Pettersson hit Martin Fehervary with a shot and the injured defenceman went directly to the bench. Alex Ovechkin was caught below the goal line after a failed attempt to clear, giving the Canucks a moment with just three Capitals defending in front of the net. And Hughes stood there at the point with the puck, doing nothing. At a time when there needed to be the most urgency, there was none.
- “In the six-on-five, one guy blocks a shot of Petey’s and he literally was hurt and going to the bench. And we held the puck,” said Tocchet. “I couldn’t believe we couldn’t attack. We had six against their three and we stayed around the outside. That’s the mentality you’re looking at, right? Why? You’ve got to have some energy. They have a guy going off the ice, so they have, really, three guys on the ice to our six and we didn’t get anything off.”
- Look, the Canucks are still first in the Western Conference. As Miller said, there’s no need to panic. It’s just concerning that the Canucks are having these types of issues at this point of the season. These are things they have to iron out before the playoffs because the games are not going to get any easier.
