The Vancouver Canucks are not very good at defending leads.
Or, rather, they only really have one player who is good at defending leads: Thatcher Demko. The rest of the team seems to struggle with the concept and, on Thursday night in San Jose, Demko wasn't at his best either.
I wrote about how the Canucks perform in different situations on Wednesday, pointing out that they are among the worst teams in the NHL when leading. I didn’t anticipate getting an illustration of this so quickly.
The Canucks dominated the first period against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, looking for all the world like they were the vastly superior team. They out-shot the Sharks 15-to-4 in the first, hemming the Sharks in with unrelenting pressure on the forecheck and in the neutral zone.
They took a 2-0 lead into the second period and appeared to be in complete control of the game. Then everything fell apart.
“We went from playing maybe our best first period of the year to all of a sudden collapsing, knowing that [the Sharks] were going to come out really hard in the second period,” said Bruce Boudreau. “It was just our lack of energy and composure in the second period that got to me.”
The Sharks were all over the Canucks for the rest of the game, out-shooting them 24-to-10 in the second and third periods.
The Canucks looked like two different teams. In the first period, they were confident and aggressive. They looked like a team with a real identity, a hard-forechecking team that gave the Sharks no room to maneuver on breakouts and through the neutral zone, then counterattacked quickly off turnovers.
In the second and third periods, the Canucks looked sloppy, with shaky defensive coverage that gave the Sharks far too much time and space with the puck. That’s not to mention the Canucks’ special teams, which were especially atrocious.
“We knew they were gonna come out and challenge and we just didn’t match it,” said Conor Garland. “They played a big part in that, pushing the pace, and we just didn’t handle it.”
It’s no wonder fans seem split at times about how good the Canucks are. The Canucks themselves seem split.
If you only watched the first period, you might think the Canucks are clearly superior to the Sharks and belong a tier above them, in the mix for the playoffs. They could be close to Stanley Cup contention with a few minor moves.
If you only watched the second and third periods, you might think the Canucks belong in the NHL’s basement, in the running for the first-overall pick. It's time to blow up the team and completely rebuild.
If you watched the entire game, you might feel like you’re being drawn and quartered, pulled apart in two different directions. Bisected in twain, I watched this game.
- The weirdest thing about this game is that the Canucks actually won. They seemed intent on throwing away every lead they took and yet somehow they managed to grind out a win. It’s a good thing the Sharks are not particularly good.
- It wasn’t all bad, by any means. Several Canucks had strong games, like the returning Quinn Hughes, whose ability to exit the zone was sorely missed in the three games he was gone. He picked up right where he left off, putting up a goal and an assist.
- I thought Elias Pettersson played well, looking a lot more like the Pettersson we saw in his rookie year. He was definitely feeling it in the first period, making several nice moves to create chances, like this nifty bit of stickhandling to set up Tyler Myers.
- There was also a small thing Pettersson did that was really encouraging. It’s something he did frequently early in his career, especially in his rookie season, but hasn’t done much at all this season: he went down on one knee in the neutral zone to take away a passing lane. It may not seem like much, but the fact he wasn’t really doing it anymore had been bothering me, because it’s such a smart and effective way to take away a larger portion of a passing lane.
- The one issue for Pettersson is not getting enough shots, but he was certainly trying against the Sharks. He had a team-high seven shot attempts but not one hit the net, so he had zero shots on goal. His best chance, on a wonderful between-the-legs set up by Conor Garland, saw his stick shatter like Narsil.
- Hopefully, Pettersson can reforge his stick into Anduril, the Flame of the West, and get back to scoring goals, perhaps with a handy ghost army at his back.
- Brock Boeser opened the scoring off a lovely pass by J.T. Miller, who slipped the puck through a Shark’s legs, which is pretty impressive, because sharks don’t even have legs. Must’ve been a street shark. With Tyler Myers inexplicably creating havoc in front of the Sharks’ net, Boeser patiently waited out goaltender James Reimer before lifting the puck into the top corner.
- Hughes made it 2-0 on a bizarre, bouncing shot. He gained the Sharks’ zone before losing the puck, but bolted back to the point and immediately got it back, then threw it towards the net. The puck toppled end-over-end and went through Matthew Highmore’s legs before hitting the ice and launching up over Reimer’s glove. Pucks are weird, man.
- It was a rough night for Tyler Myers, who was on the ice for all four Sharks goals. The first could most directly be pinned on Myers since the puck went into the net off his stick. The Sharks got a 3-on-2 off a sloppy Canucks change and Myers got caught in no man’s land between two Sharks. His only play was to stretch out his stick along the ice to try to break up a pass for a tap-in but instead tapped it in himself.
- The Canucks’ fourth line responded with another goal from Juho Lammikko. Or, rather, Juho Lammikko’s pants. Kyle Burroughs followed up a broken play in transition and unleashed a hard wrist shot that deflected off Lammikko as he cut in front of Reimer. After the game, Lammikko awarded the Canucks championship belt to his pants, who were the real hero.
- Burroughs had a pretty impactful game despite playing a little over 12 minutes. In that time he had an assist, should have been credited with another, blocked three shots, and had four hits, none bigger than when he laid out Jeffrey Viel in the neutral zone with a hard, clean check that nonetheless drew a crowd of unwell-wishers.
- Thatcher Demko has been very, very good this season but he got caught cheating a couple of times — not like Cole Hersch’s girlfriend at Monopoly, but off his posts. Timo Meier caught him cheating on the power play, ripping a hard shot under his blocker at the near post to make it 3-2.
- Meier tied the game 3-3 early in the third period on another power play, as the Sharks picked apart the Canucks’ penalty kill with some pinpoint passing. Tomas Hertl got the puck in the slot and Demko dropped into his butterfly, anticipating the shot. Instead of shooting, Hertl swung a pass by Bo Horvat to a wide open Meier who had an even more wide open net.
- The Sharks’ power play was 2-for-2 at that point, though it finished 2-for-3. The only thing worse than the Canucks’ penalty kill was their power play, which went 0-for-4 and didn’t even get a shot on goal during their last three power plays.
- The Canucks regained the lead thanks to a Garland goal. Travis Hamonic sent the puck to Burroughs, who had some room on the left side and walked in before firing a fantastic pass to Garland at the backdoor. His deflection went into the crease, hitting Pettersson who was battling in front and Garland jumped on the loose puck to backhand it upstairs.
- “I actually had an open net when Burr passed it, it was an unbelievable pass, right on my tape,” said Garland. “I just pushed it a little too far to the left. I was fortunate it came back to me, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep well if I missed that one.”
- The end of regulation was bonkers, as the Sharks seemingly waited way too long to pull Reimer for the extra attacker. When they finally did, there was barely any time left and it seemed like it was too late. Instead, Alexander Barbanov scored with literally less than a second left to send the game to overtime.
- It was some really poor defensive coverage by the Canucks all around, but Myers definitely stands out for inexplicably stepping up on Meier despite having no chance of reaching him, allowing Barbanov to get in behind him. Then Oliver Ekman-Larsson gave Barbanov to much space and Tyler Motte lost position on his man heading to the net, so Demko cheated off his post again, anticipating the pass, and Barbanov flung the puck short side.
- Overtime went far better for the Canucks. On a delayed penalty call, the Canucks got the extra attacker out and played 4-on-3. Pettersson made a stellar play, taking a hit along the wall to swing the puck cross-ice to Miller, who walked in and ripped a wrist shot past a Garland screen to salvage the win.
- “We know what the math is and how well we need to play towards the end of the year,” said Garland. “We didn’t have our A-game against Toronto but found a way to win. Didn’t have our A-game here — still found a way to win. It’s not a recipe for success…but it’s nice for a wake-up call. We’ve got to start playing a little better here but we’re winning, so it’s hard to be too upset.”
