The Vancouver Canucks deserved to lose Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Thatcher Demko did not.
It was a monstrous performance by the Canucks’ netminder, who made 40 saves on 42 shots, including a whopping 22 saves in the second period alone. It wasn’t just the quantity of the saves, but the quality. Several of Demko’s stops were of the stunning variety, while one in the third period was a bonafide Save-of-the-Year candidate.
“Our goalie kept us in it, he was unbelievable tonight,” said Quinn Hughes, adding later, “He’s a special goaltender.”
The trouble is that everyone else blew more chunks than Demko did in his mask during the season opener.
“I can’t even pick one guy who played well other than Demko, who was unreal,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “He was great tonight and the rest of the guys weren’t.”
It was a candid and blunt assessment from the Canucks coach, who lamented the lack of communication on the ice, the poor puck support, and how no one seemed to want to “take the game in their hands.” But, most of all, he lamented the team’s lack of compete.
“We’ve just got some guys, they, you know,” said Tocchet, then let out an exasperated sound — “They better pick it up. I saw a lot of — I don’t like to use the word ‘soft’ but I didn’t see guys competing. At all. And that’s alarming.”
It was an echo of some of the comments Tocchet made on Monday about the team’s 4-3 win over the Oilers, saying that, despite the win, they were out-battled. Getting the win on Saturday made it easier to overlook some of those issues but they could not be ignored on Tuesday, as they were exacerbated by some poor puck management and questionable decisions.
“It was just one of those nights for everybody,” said Tocchet. “Sometimes, if you have four or five guys who aren’t good, you can get through it, but we had a lot of guys that weren’t good tonight.”
Things could have gone very differently on Tuesday and the Canucks could have pushed aside those concerns for another day. One of the Flyers’ two goals was scored on a penalty shot that arguably should have only been a two-minute minor. Meanwhile, the Canucks had a goal called back on a dubious goaltender interference penalty.
Flip those two decisions by the officials and this would have been a 1-1 game.
But that wouldn’t have changed the fact that the Canucks deserved to lose this game. Well, every Canuck except Demko.
“It’s a good lesson for us,” said Tocchet. “It’s a good lesson: who are we to think we’re anybody?”
It’s okay, Canucks, I’m not anybody either. Just a guy who watched this game.
- Things started going awry right from the first shift, just like Saturday in Edmonton, as the Flyers hemmed the Canucks into the defensive zone immediately after the opening puck drop. This time, at least, the Canucks didn’t concede the opening goal on that first shift. They waited until the third shift.
- The Canucks were chasing around the defensive zone when the puck came out to Egor “Gimme the Moolah” Zamula at the point. A scrambling Conor Garland tried to slide into the shooting lane but Zamula patiently let him slide across before scoring. His wristshot seemed to tick off the leg of Noah Juulsen, who was also screening Demko.
- It wasn’t a great night all around for Juulsen, who frequently went out of position to pinch up the boards or chase a hit, leaving open Flyers behind him. He needs to play physical to be effective, but, like Spider-Man accidentally punching himself while fighting Johnathon Ohnn, he needs to pick his spots better.
- Juulsen was even partly at fault on the second goal, as it was his slash on a Sean Couturier breakaway that led to a penalty shot. You could argue that it shouldn’t have been a penalty shot, as Couturier still got a great chance on Demko, but it’s way too late to make that argument. The game was many hours ago.
- Couturier made a slick move on his penalty shot, skating in backwards, which made for a massive change in his shooting angle when he pivoted to his forehand. It also helped that he put the puck off the post and in — there wasn’t much Demko could do on such a perfectly executed move.
- Not to pick on Juulsen, but he botched even the most positive thing he did all night. When Phil Di Giuseppe was hit in the numbers by Marc Staal, Juulsen flew in to defend his teammate. That’s admirable, but all he really accomplished was to take a roughing minor that balanced out Staal’s boarding minor at a time when the Canucks, down 2-0 and getting badly out-shot, needed a power play.
- “If you’re going to go in, just square up with the guy,” said Tocchet. “I mean, I know his intent. But that’s just the whole game: we weren’t smart everywhere.”
- As the game progressed, Juulsen played less and less, finishing the game with just 9:15 in ice time, with only Jack Studnicka playing fewer minutes for the Canucks. With the Canucks just trading for a right-shot defenceman, it’s entirely possible that Juulsen won’t be in the lineup much longer.
- As much as Juulsen struggled, Tyler Myers was arguably worse, perhaps because he played nearly twice as many minutes, so had twice as many opportunities to mess up. And he embraced those opportunities, messing up in a multitude of ways: losing board battles, turning pucks over, taking penalties, getting caught out of position, and more.
- What made the Myers gaffes all the more noticeable is how poorly timed they were. The Canucks came out strong in the third period, aiming for a comeback but then Myers took a tripping penalty and immediately ended that momentum. Midway through the third, the Lotto Line of Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller was reunited and had a good shift and Myers ended it by taking a low-percentage slap shot from a bad angle that hit Pettersson and sent him limping to the bench. He was like a mischievous gremlin, constantly causing trouble at the worst possible time.
- The struggles of Juulsen and Myers were many and multifaceted, which overshadowed the subtler struggles of Filip Hronek, who sent several passes straight onto the sticks of Flyers forwards and was frequently left scrambling in the defensive zone, particularly against the 2-on-1 that led to Demko’s best save. Of course, mistakes are more likely to happen when you’re playing over 25 minutes because your two fellow right-shot defencemen can’t be trusted.
- Let’s be clear: pretty much everybody sucked, not just Juulsen, Myers, and Hronek. Those three just stood out to me as the struggliest of the bunch.
- The second period was the worst for the Canucks, as they were out-shot 22-to-3, with only Demko’s heroics keeping them in the game. I haven’t seen a period that traumatic since I last saw Carrie.
- One of the few Canucks that looked engaged in this game was J.T. Miller. He was skating hard and creating chances in the offensive zone, with shot attempts 13-to-3 for the Canucks when he was on the ice at 5-on-5, but his linemates, like the Swedish national team, had no finish. At one point in the second period, Miller set up a great chance for Di Giuseppe but the puck just clanked off the winger’s stick.
- His line looked momentarily like they got the Canucks on the board in the third period. Conor Garland, replacing Di Giuseppe, crashed the crease chasing a Carson Soucy rebound and put both himself and the puck over the goal line. Unfortunately, a coach’s challenge resulted in the goal being overturned.
- Here’s the official word from the NHL’s Situation Room: “Video review determined that Vancouver’s Conor Garland interfered with Carter Hart by pushing his pad, which caused the puck to enter the net.”
- The Canucks never seemed to come even close to scoring after that chance. They had 23 shot attempts in the third period but just two registered as high-danger chances by Natural Stat Trick. It’s like they were trying to pump themselves up by reading Muhammad Ali’s most famous quote and only read the first half: they floated like a butterfly but forgot to sting like a bee.
- The real story of the game was arguably not who was the most noticeably bad but who was the most unnoticeable. The Flyers did an admirable job shutting down Elias Pettersson, tilting the ice significantly their way when he was on the ice. Shots on goal were 16-to-5 for the Flyers when Pettersson was on the ice at 5-on-5 and he finished the game with just one shot on goal.
- But at least Pettersson did a funny cross-eyed thing before the game. That was neat.
