The most impressive part of the Vancouver Canucks’ season is how they’ve gone from a team that relied on the bounces to one that doesn’t.
The Canucks dominated the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night. Sure, the Sabres were playing on the second half of back-to-backs but they're also a desperate team pushing for a playoff position. Even playing on back-to-backs doesn't explain just how thoroughly the Canucks tilted the ice in all situations, doubling up the Sabres in shots on goal, 34-to-17.
It wasn’t just the shots on goal but where those shots were coming from. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Canucks didn’t just have the edge in high-danger chances — they had the whole seat: the Canucks had 26 high-danger chances to just 7 for the Sabres in all situations.
At 5-on-5, the difference was startling, as the Canucks funneled the puck to the middle of the ice for chance after chance, while the Sabres were kept almost entirely to the outside.
“I thought we protected the guts,” said head coach Rick Tocchet, later adding, “There was a long time — I can’t remember how long in the game — that there was only eight shots [for Buffalo]. I don’t always look at the shot clock, I look at the quality of the chances, and I don’t think we gave up a lot.”
For the record, the Sabres were stuck at eight shots on goal from the 7:00 mark of the second period to the 15:45 mark: 8 minutes and 45 seconds without a shot on goal. Considering there were also two TV timeouts in that timespan, it must have felt like an eternity without a Sabres shot on goal.
Even with all of the Canucks’ chances and shots, they scored on a couple of hard work plays: jamming away at a loose puck and going to the net for a rebound. It was the Sabres who got the best bounce of the game: a Rasmus Dahlin point shot that deflected in off Nikita Zadorov’s knee.
But that was the thing: the Canucks didn’t need the bounces. They won this game by thoroughly outplaying the Sabres in every facet of the game. They out-possessed, out-shot, out-hit, out-blocked, and out-faceoffed the Sabres. They earned every inch of that win.
The Canucks paid their dues when I watched this game.
- The Canucks’ penalty kill was a key part of the game, managing perfection against four Sabres power plays. It was particularly key because Carson Soucy put them on the penalty kill just a minute into the game. It was a trial by fire and it seemed to burn away all the dross, leaving a pure golden penalty kill.
- “Special teams were good in general,” said J.T. Miller. “I thought we did a good job of pressuring them and I don't think they had any good looks, which was nice. I thought our trigger points were great. We've been good on holding the line on the entry and making it tough on teams and we created a lot of turnovers that way.”
- Elias Lindholm led the Canucks with 4:23 in shorthanded ice time and went a perfect 7-for-7 on defensive zone faceoffs, which certainly helped the penalty kill. As much as Lindholm has struggled to find his offensive game, he seemed to have chemistry with Ilya Mikheyev and Sam Lafferty, creating some great scoring chances, such as on this crafty stick lift and set up for Lafferty to force a great shoulder save by Levi.
- For whatever reason, Elias Pettersson was really moving his feet in this game, flying around the ice on his new-look line with Conor Garland and Nils Höglander. After being held pointless in his last two games, Pettersson was in on all three Canucks goals against the Sabres, scoring two of them himself and assisting on another.
- “Petey was really engaged, he had a really good game,” said Tocchet.
- It was his new linemate, Garland, that opened the scoring. Pettersson’s cross-ice pass to Quinn Hughes was deflected but Hughes calmly took the carom off the boards and threw the puck on net, where Devon Levi tried to trap it up against the post. Like Dr. Evil, Levi didn’t trap the puck securely enough and Garland was able to poke it over his skate blade and over the line.
- The Sabres challenged the goal for goaltender interference, which makes a lot of sense, because Garland definitely interfered with Levi, blatantly pushing his skate off the post. By that time, however, the puck was already in the net, so it didn’t matter. The NHL’s situation room even specified that “no goaltender interference infractions occurred prior to Conor Garland’s goal.” [emphasis mine]
- “He’s so good at protecting the puck, cutbacks, creating space for himself,” said Pettersson of Garland. “So, when he has them, you pretty much want to leave him on an island and try to get open for a one-time pass.”
- Quinn Hughes proved he really can do it all when he eliminated a first-period Sabres rush by crushing Victor Olofsson with a perfectly executed open-ice hit. The hit was so good that Hughes himself couldn’t help but grin on the Canucks bench, smiling even wider as the crowd roared for the replay.
- “It’s just funny, you don’t see that much from me. It was a good feeling,” said Hughes with a smile, then added about the crowd reaction, “It was almost like I scored a goal or something, so that was funny.”
- “Well, it was a message around the league, don’t go over there with Quinn Hughes,” quipped Tocchet with a grin. “But it’s true! You never know! You never know who might hit. Yeah, it was a hell of a hit. On the bench, he was actually smiling, he liked it that much.”
- It was another dominant game by Hughes all around. He finished the game with two assists but more than that, he was the primary reason the ice was tilted for the Canucks. Shot attempts were 27-to-6 for the Canucks at 5-on-5 when Hughes was on the ice; shots on goal were 12-to-2. He’s basically a human cheat code.
- J.T. Miller caused some consternation when he left the game after blocking a shot with his foot. He was clearly in some pain and was labouring as he came to the bench a couple of times but was dismissive of the injury after the game, which hopefully means he’ll be fine.
- “I did think for a second, ‘Oh, here we go,’” said Tocchet. “But the trainer came back and said, ‘He’s coming back.’ That was big. It’s never fun when one of your best players gets a shot — you’re thinking the worst.”
- Miller came back and quickly assisted on the 2-0 goal on the power play. It was a simple play: a shot and a rebound. Miller fired the puck low and hard on the pads — a far cry from his multiple missed shots high from the previous game — and Pettersson was in the perfect position to pick up the rebound and backhand it over the stretching Levi’s glove. Levi might have been able to reach it, but it seemed like he shrunk in the wash.
- Beyond the goal, the Canucks’ power play looked as good as it has all season, with Miller on the left half-wall, Hughes at the Point, Pettersson at the right wall, Boeser in front of the net, and Pius Suter in the bumper. There was something hauntingly familiar about this look…must’ve seen it in a dream or something.
- “We’ve tinkered around with a lot of different sets,” said Hughes. “Millsy’s really dangerous on that side and, obviously, Petey on the other side has some pretty good weapons. Brock, I think he must have 30 goals from that area right there, and Pius made some big plays. I thought our unit was strong today.”
- Some fans might question why the Canucks have ever strayed from what’s worked in the past on the power play but Tocchet had an explanation: “It’s a system thing, right, when you play certain PKs. Buffalo plays a different PK, they don’t play a diamond. Millsy’s more effective against traditional PKs when it’s more of an “I.” When it’s more of a diamond, it’s a little harder to play on your forehand.”
- Even with that in mind, Tocchet had to admit that the power play “looked damn good, I’ll tell you what.” Seems like it might be a look worth trying against even a diamond penalty kill, because you never know. It might work out.
- “I thought Millsy was really good, he set up about five guys for empty-netters,” said Tocchet. “We could have had about four goals on that power play, so good for them. That’s what we needed. You could tell they were in attack mode.”
- “Brock missed two on the power play today that he doesn’t ever miss,” said Miller. “I mean, if those go in, they start taking chances, that’s when the game could open up, right? That’s three or four-nothing going into the third, not what it was, and that’s a big difference in the game.”
- Instead, it was just 2-0, which left the door open for a comeback. Rasmus Dahlin got the Sabres on the board with a brilliant individual effort on a 4-on-4, deking around Lindholm and Filip Hronek for a gorgeous goal. You might fault Lindholm and Hronek for getting walked harder than Tomi Lahren beefing with Cardi B but that was also just a fantastic play by an elite player.
- Fortunately, the Canucks got an insurance marker into the empty net. Miller picked up a failed wraparound attempt and sent Pettersson the other way. As Dahlin dove out in desperation to break up the play, Pettersson calmly deked around his splayed-out form and finished off the 3-1 goal.
- That was an essential goal, as the Sabres got a bounce in the final minute to get back within one. A puck jumped out from a battle at the side of the net and Dahlin stepped into the rolling puck, sending it ricocheting off Zadorov’s knee and into the net. But that, as they say, is as close as they would come.
- It may not show on the stat sheet, as his 15 saves on just 17 shots gave him an .882 save percentage, but DeSmith played a great game. It took a gorgeous goal and a lucky bounce to beat him. Honestly, the Canucks will take that every single night.
- “This is some of the best hockey that I feel like I've played in my career,” said DeSmith. “I feel really confident right now out there. It's it's a really fast league it's a tough league to be a goalie in, for sure, but I feel good about where I'm at and enjoying this time in the net.”
- Their ice time was limited with all of the special teams play, but the Canucks’ fourth line of Vasily Podkolzin, Teddy Blueger, and Nils Åman quietly had a strong performance. They repeatedly hemmed the Sabres in on the forecheck, preventing the Sabres from shifting the momentum. In fact, the Sabres didn’t get a single shot on goal when any of those three were on the ice at 5-on-5.
